David Kirchhoff's red daylily introductions, Part 2

Betty Ford plaque in the garden at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Michigan(Photo by Renee Johnson)

                    Betty Ford (David Kirchhoff 2002) Photo by Carol A. Sims

                          Betty Ford display in 2011. Photo by Steve Dalzell

I had no idea how many red daylily introductions David Kirchhoff had hybridized until doing this segment.  I was even more impressed by the fact that David has his introduction, Betty Ford planted at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in the garden there. What a wonderful honor. My interest in David's reds began when I started to notice all these lovely red daylilies planted at my neighbor, Curt Hanson's Crintonic Gardens back in the early 2000's. David was good friends with Curt and shared a lot of his red introductions with Curt.  Curt would plant them all along the main walking area, and I was always drawn to look at them.  I believe the one I loved the most back then was Power Lipstick.  Lovely red flowers perched on top of tall scapes.  I wanted to know where all these red daylilies started from, so I found an article in the AHS Winter 2005 journal, written by Mary Baker that summarizes David's journey with reds.  Here is Mary's article, posted with permission:

                                               
               Mort Morss and David Kirchhoff (Photo by Brenda G. Macy)

                                           (Written by Mary Baker)
FIRST DAYLILY INTRODUCTIONS AND FIRST SIGNIFICANT TETRAPLOID PARENTS

Edward Kirchhoff (David's father) and David headed for the 1973 AHS National Convention in Shreveport, Louisiana, where they noticed daylilies hybridized by A.J. "Gus" Wiese. They greatly admired one of them, a red diploid, so much that they registered and introduced it for Gus as H. 'Cathay Caper' (Wiese-Kirchhoff 1973)
     David worked with his own red diploid lines and converted some of them to tetraploids, but these no longer exist in David's program. David treated and converted H. 'Cathay Caper' and incorporated it into his tetraploid lines.

     Former Region 12 RVP Connie Fleischel, who passed away just before David moved back to Sanford from San Francisco, had a seedling that went back to the Sutton lines, which became a parent of another unregistered seedling with the garden name, "Cochineal." David crossed the "Cochineal" seedling with H. 'Cathay Caper' and induced it's child. David pollinated Virginia Peck's 'Scarlock' (1974) with the induced child and was rewarded with ten seedlings ranging in height from 26 inches to 54 inches with great well branched scapes. From these 10 seedlings, David selected and named 'Amadeus', which he registered in 1981. A lovely 5 1/2-inch scarlet self with yellow to green throat. 'Amadeus' became one of David's first significant tetraploid parents. Amadeus produced two other significant tetraploid parents: the outstanding 'Study in Scarlet' and 'Vintage Bordeaux'. David registered the extremely sunfast blood-red, brilliant green-throated 'Study in Scarlet' in 1985. 'Study in Scarlet' has a 5 inch flower on 28 inch scapes and is from ('Midnight Magic' x 'Amadeus'). David registered the dark and alluring 'Vintage Bordeaux in 1986. 'Vintage Bordeaux' was quickly noted as the most sunfast of it's type in it's day. 'Vintage Bordeaux' is a 5 3/4-inch black cherry with yellow edge and chartreuse throat on 27 inch scapes. It is out of ('Amadeus' x Seedling).

                       Amadeus (Kirchhoff 1981) Photo by Micheal F. Anders

                  OUTSTANDING TETRAPLOID REDS (Written by Mary Baker)

H. 'Amadeus' and it's progeny 'Study in Scarlet', 'Vintage Bordeaux', 'Ring of Change', and it's child, 'Bittersweet Holiday' became the cornerstones of David's legendary red tetraploid hybridizing program. Although reds are difficult, David's combine clear and clean color with impeccable form. Many (if not most) are sunfast. Some lines incorporate a large be-still-my-heart triangular bright green throat, while others have round emerald throats.

Bill Waldrop and David Kirchhoff (Photo by Brenda G. Macy)

     David used and evolved his own breeding lines for his red program but also incorporated significant non red cultivars from other hybridizers, such as Jeff Salter's H. 'Lady Arabella' (1992), 'Chestnut Mountain'(1989), and 'Ed Brown' (1994) and Curt Hanson's 'Life on Mars', (1999) and 'Joan Derifield' (2000).

Karol Emmerich and David Kirchhoff (Photo by Brenda G. Macy)

     Many of David's outstanding reds come directly from the H. 'Ring of Change' and/or 'Amadeus' lines. Four of them, 'Hunter's Torch' (1988), 'Leonard Bernstein' (1991), 'Forever Red' (1993), and 'Ruby Fantasy' (2002) are children of 'Vintage Bordeaux'.

David registered three significant and stunning reds in 2002. H.'Betty Ford, 'Hoochie Coochie Man', and 'Seattle Dreaming'. 'Betty Ford', important for it's hardiness, is registered as a  garnet red with a Chinese red watermark halo, and yellow to green throat. 'Betty Ford' is out of [('Leonard Bernstein' x 'Crimson Wind') x ('Torrid Tango' x 'Forever Red')] David's favorite red of this group was 'Hoochie Coochie Man', a round bright red with a faint watermark halo, and a wire gold edge from [( 'Forever Red' x 'Reason for Treason') x ('Reason for Treason' x 'Maria Callas')] While 'Seattle Dreaming' was a selected seedling, David used it extensively in his hybridizing program. Cardinal red 'Seattle Dreaming' beckoned to me at Daylily World from across the garden. It's parentage is {[('Leonard Bernstein x 'Forever Red') x ('Strawberry Jazz' x Seedling)] x (Seedling x 'Perfect Pleasure')}

Mort Morss, William Marchant, and David Kirchhoff (Photo from William Marchant)

Here is a collection of David's reds over the years.  I tried to select some of the best ones, but I know I have left some out.  One of the first pictures is David's Kent's Favorite Two (1988), which David says is probably the great grandparent of many modern day red tetraploids. Here is a collection of David's red tetraploid introductions:

                              Kent's Favorite Two (David Kirchhoff 1988)

         Leonard Bernstein (David Kirchhoff 1991) Photo by Micheal F. Anders

                     Dragon King (David Kirchhoff 1992) Photo by Mary Baker

                             Reason for Treason (David Kirchhoff 1996)

                   Hotter than July (David Kirchhoff 2002) Photo by Mary Baker

              Hoochie Coochie Man (David Kirchhoff 2002) Photo by Mary Baker

               British Redcoat (David Kirchhoff 2003) Photo by Brenda G. Macy

                  Fabulous Frieda (David Kirchhoff 2007) Photo by Jacob Henry

                  Fabulous Frieda (David Kirchhoff 2007) Photo by Mary Baker

               Barbara Mandrell (David Kirchhoff 2011) Photo by Julie Covington

                     Mary Baker (David Kirchhoff 2012) Photo by Mary Baker

                   Red Fortune (David Kirchhoff 2012) Photo by Paul K. Lewis

                    Sister Valerie (David Kirchhoff 2012) Photo by Mary Baker

 David's sister, Valerie Kirchhoff Barnett, for whom the Sister Valerie daylily was named for.

              Great Red Heron (David Kirchhoff 2013) Photo by Theresa Maris

                  Cardinal Kisses (David Kirchhoff 2013) Photo by Paul K. Lewis

                  Mister Harold (David Kirchhoff 2018) Photo by Paul K. Lewis

                     David's Gift (Kirchhoff/Baker 2018) Photo by Mary Baker

Fractured Heart, Seedling R119 (Kirchhoff/Baker 2020 future introduction) 

David Kirchoff presents Barbara Mandrell with her namesake daylily. Photo By Troy B. Marden

Holy cow that's a lot of fabulous red daylilies.  David Kirchhoff has won many awards for his hybridizing, including 2 Lennington All American daylilies, and 2 Stout Medals.  He has always been very active in the AHS.  If you've ever gone to a convention, chances are you have met David Kirchhoff.  I would like to thank David for allowing me to do these segments on his program.  Special thanks has to go to Mary Baker who has been EXTREMELY helpful with gathering of photographs and letting me use parts of her very well written article on David's program.  I would also like to thank Brenda G. Macy, Jacob Henry, Micheal F. Anders, William Marchant, Julie Covington, Troy B. Marden, and Theresa Maris for sharing their photographs as well. To see David and Mort's website, go to: https://daylilyworld.com/  This has been a very wonderful experience putting this together.  So, the excitement doesn't stop here folks. I have a segment coming up on cristate daylilies, then an interview with Kirsten Hatfield.  Stay tuned.