One of the more exciting things for a daylily hybridizer is having a daylily delivered in spring, seeing it throw up a scape, and if the bloom looks as good as you'd hoped, you get to use the pollen and put it on your favorite daylilies. That was the case with Shirley Farmer's Shabby Chic this year. Not an easy daylily to find since it was just introduced in 2010, I was lucky enough to buy a fan for a pretty hefty price on the lily auction. I had read a lot about the daylily on Mike Holmes blog, so I was excited to purchase it in December of 2010. Now I would say when you get a single fan of something, the chances it will scape in the first year are pretty slim, but in mid July Shabby Chic started blooming for me. Boy was this daylily easy to set pods on. I might also add that it's pollen is very fertile as well. All the photos below and above were taken in my garden this year.
The cross for Shabby Chic is ((Forestlake Ragamuffin SIB X Enchanted April)(Angels Smile X Idas Magic)X Forestlake Ragamuffin). Introduced by Shirley Farmer's daughter Rebecca Stegall in 2010, it's parentage is interesting in the respect that Shabby Chic has Forestlake Ragamuffin's sib in the cross. There are not too many daylilies that possess that parentage and for me it is exciting to get to use such genetics in my hybridizing. To quote Dave Mussar from Mike Holmes blog, Dave says, "Shabby Chic has a double dose of Reckamp breeding in it, with the cross from Enchanted April being (Techny Peach Lace X Wedding Band)."
"Shabby Chic also throws green teeth," as mentioned by John Benz on Mike Holmes blog. Both Mike Holmes and John Benz have a Shirley Farmer seedling called "Shirley's Green Teeth," which is a green toothy seedling out of Shabby Chic.
Shirley Farmer was a retired school teacher that hybridized in Bellbrook, Ohio. She and her daughter Rebecca co owned a nursery called Serendipity Gardens. Shirley was also responsible for starting the Midwest daylily hybridizer's meeting, which I would like to attend in the future, if I can find some time away from my busy work schedule. The next meeting of the Shirley Farmer Midwest Daylily Hybridizers is March 10th, 2012. For more information you can contact Sandy Holmes at ohiodaylily@yahoo.com, or log onto the Region 2 daylily website.
I never had the good fortune of meeting Shirley Farmer, but it is quite an honor to grow one of her favorite daylilies. I should also mention according to it's description that Shabby Chic puts teeth on first generation kids and is a strong dormant producer. A must for anyone hybridizing teeth.
