Karol Emmerich seedling 18319
Karol Emmerich seedling 18014
A couple years back in January 2017 I did a short interview with Karol Emmerich about her daylily program. A lot has changed in a couple years. Karol won the Stout Silver Medal for her daylily, Entwined in the Vine in October 2018, and she won the Betrand Farr Award this year. The thing that I enjoy the most about my friendship with Karol is how approachable she is on a variety of subjects dealing with daylilies and hybridizing them. Here is my interview with Karol:
Karol: I started playing at it in 1995, and then decided to do it seriously (meaning 5500-8000 seedlings a year) with good parents, etc. Made my first crosses in 1998 and saw many of them in 1999 (e.g. Born to Reign) Heartbeat of Heaven followed in 2000.
2. Talk about your yearly schedule of hybridizing?Karol: I make my crosses in the greenhouse in May (no bee pods, cool weather so pretty much anything will set unless pod sterile, no rain to spoil things). They mature in July and I chill them for 1-3 weeks. They are planted in the greenhouse August 1st. Many bloom the next April/May/June since I heat greenhouse all winter. Then they are all sent outside for testing in June except for the 100 most interesting ones. Those go outside a year later. Minimum temperature in the greenhouse for the month of December (my chill month to help out the more dormant ones) is about 37 (I can't make it any colder than that or I risk structural damage) and maximum is 55-60. I used to take the maximum lower but with our very cold weather too much venting makes me nervous in case one of the 4 vents gets stuck open for some reason. I used to take it to 60 degrees minimum January 1st, and I would start to get good bloom the end of March, but it has been so very cold lately. This past year in January I did a 45 degree minimum (because it was 30 below!) which really delayed bloom to the 1st and 2nd week in May. Couldn't justify the expense. I thought the season would be a wipe out at first, but got great bloom eventually. The only downside was that the seedlings didn't really get going until late May and June, which is too late for me to use most of them since the pods won't ripen until late August and September, which is too late to plant. I have found that if I delay planting to the end of August instead of August 1st, I get virtually no bloom on those seedlings as opposed to 35 to 70% on the ones planted August 1st. The % depends on how much sun (free heat) I get during January through May. The green flagged area below are the seedlings on October 3rd, 2019.
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| Greenhouse, October 3rd, 2019 |
3. How many years between the initial cross and the final registration?
Karol: You can tell by looking at the seedling number which is the year that crop of seeds first started blooming in the greenhouse. (They don't all bloom, but I still number by crop year). How soon a plant makes it to introduction varies, depending on what I think the demand will be and how fast it increases. An example: All Things to All Men is seedling number 47607, which means I made the cross in May 2006 and some of the seedlings started to bloom in 2007. I introduced it for shipping Spring 2013, so that would be 7 years. Details on it: I kept it inside a year for breeding and sent it outside June 2008. Tested it outside the winter of 2008/2009, 2009/2010, 2010/2011. It passed it's tests. Brought it inside Fall of 2011 and lined it out again Fall 2012. Introduced and started shipping it in 2013. So 7 years. It can definitely be longer than 7 years. For example, the seed for Dreamer of Dreams (seedling 57107) was made the same year as All Things to All Men but it is very dormant, and not happy being increased in the greenhouse so I didn't have enough to introduce until 2017, which was 11 years.
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| Spring Fling 2012 with Steve Horan |
Karol: Have a goal and focus what you do - for example, I have focused on purples. I wanted good color, good branching, good opening, fancy edges and hardiness, so I started with plants that I thought would give me that. It is also very helpful to find out if a plant is a good parent before you buy it, and study the parentage.
5. I'm curious to know if you use other people's intros within your breeding lines?
Karol: Not any more except a plant here and there that I think can help me. Like Flying Purple People Eater that I used to increase the size of my fancy flowers. I can breed 7" flowers pretty easily, but I wanted them 8 and 9". Am getting more each year, although it takes a generation or 2 or 3 to go from an unruffled UFy thing to a large triangular ruffled daylily. When I started I bought tons of flowers from many, many different hybridizers, so I had a big genetic pool to play with and that served me well. Some friends do send me pollen or seeds, usually with one of my things as part of the cross. Because of the greenhouse and not wanting to take the chance of getting rust , I have had to quarantine every plant offsite for a year, which is more trouble than it's worth. I do have one friend who literally sends me plants in February frozen in a pot.
6. Where are the patterns coming from in some of your flowers? Is it a hidden recessive trait that is finally popping up?
Karol: There are different types of patterns. What is very strange is that I see some pop up when it is cold and never any time else. Lots of my patterns come from Trials of Job, which is out of Gathering of Nations. One of the grandparents of Gathering of Nations is seedling 21303. Seedling 21303 includes Intelligent Design (so maybe that is where it comes from), plus Regal Majesty, Clothed in Glory (Grace), Heartbeat of Heaven (Emmerich) and a bold eye. I have found that these "twinkle" midribs will breed patterns.
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| Springwood Garden in the beginning stages 2000-2001 |
Karol: Number of seedlings varies. From 1998 to about 2015 it was 5500 a year. Then I took it down to 3500 and then to 2600, which is where it has been the past 3 years.
8. How do you set pods on daylilies that are reluctant to set pods?
Karol: I try selfing them on the first and second blooms. If I don't get them that early, it will often not work. This works splendidly, for example, on Entwined in the Vine. Once a pod is set, then you can use other things. Another way is to have cool weather. (65 to 75 degrees works splendidly). That is one reason I like the greenhouse, since in May when it is still cold outside I can keep the temperature pretty much anywhere I want it.
9. Can you speak a bit about goal setting as it applies to your program and your vision for your program 5-10 years from now?
Karol: My goal when I started was to make fancy flowers (primarily purple) that would be hardy in the north and stop people in their tracks. Good opening, good bud count, instant rebloom, fancy edges, purples with chalky eyes. I took the best of the south to get opening and bud count and sun fastness and instant rebloom, and north for good color and hardiness. My goal has not changed...still love the purples with chalky eyes, but am working to make them 8-9" instead of 6-7". I am also trying very hard to do that (chalky eyes, fancy edges, and big size) in cranberry, cherry, pink, and red, although very slow going on pink and red. Maybe in 10 years I will have things ready to introduce, but I will also be 80! LOL!
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| Heartbeat of Heaven (Emmerich) |
10. Heartbeat of Heaven was a solid building block in your program. Are there any in the past few years that have had as big an impact on your program?
Karol: None as revolutionary as Heartbeat of Heaven, which put edges, hardiness, and instant rebloom into northern flowers. More incremental steps have been with All Things to All Men and future intro 18014, pictured here on it's most extravagantly ruffled day in the greenhouse. Will think some more on this. For Better for Worse might, but I have only seen it's kids inside so the jury is out.
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| AHS National Convention 2013 |
11. Over the past 20 years you've watched purple daylilies evolve into different categories. (Purples with frosted eyes, purples with teeth, purples with patterns, and purples with gaudy edges) Do you have a favorite category, or do you just enjoy them all as a whole?
Karol: Number 1 favorite category is purplish ones with icy/chalky eyes and edges, plus green throat and elaborate ivory or white ruffles.
12. What are some traits that you consider to be deal breakers for introducing a specific daylily?
Karol: Loads of things. Blah color, or streaky or unsaturated, especially on sepals. Spotting, tangling, too many bad days. Ones that don't like zone 4. So far bud count under 15, but have seen some outstanding plants that I have voted for as a garden judge with less than that. I'm also hesitant to introduce something that doesn't look like an Emmerich daylily. (e.g. a big saturated red has no re curving or fancy edge, or a red with a gold toothy edge). Also nasty foliage, foliage that goes summer dormant, flowers in the foliage, scapes falling over or leaning too much, thin substance on blooms, lack of sun fastness, slow increase, and gloppy messes. I told you there are a lot of non starters. LOL!
13. What is that one purple intro of yours that will NEVER leave your garden? (You can list several if you like). Or perhaps what are your top 5 favorites intros?Karol: My garden is big enough that none ever have to leave. Sorry, my favorite purples change, but last summer they were Sword of the Spirit, Power Made Perfect, and Pray Without Ceasing. But that could easily change next summer, or even next week if they were still in bloom.
14. Daylily hybridizing is a series of peaks and valleys. What has been some of your most special moments, and some of your most disappointing experiences?
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| Melanie Mason, Karol Emmerich, Nan Ripley, and Sandy Holmes |
Karol: Now the valleys....traumatic events like discovering deer have found the plants in the gravel pit and eaten a lot of the scapes, getting trapped in the greenhouse by ice frozen doors just as the pesticide spray is starting, temperature sensor malfunction in the greenhouse that thinks it is 80 degrees when it is in fact 20 and the vents open and the plants end up looking like white slimy asparagus and the irrigation equipment gets holes in it from being electrified because the pipes all burst when it went below freezing, when the furnace exploded and the computer that runs the irrigation and fertilizer and pesticide died (twice), when you have a terrible winter and 50 percent of the new seedlings die.
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| President of the ADS, Judie Branson and Karol Emmerich. |
15. What was it like winning the Stout Silver Medal in 2018?
Karol: You know, I think every hybridizer dreams of winning the Stout Medal, but I wasn't thinking about that when I made the cross of Destined to See (Grace) and Julie Newmar (Morss). When Entwined in the Vine first bloomed in 2003, I knew I really liked it, but I had no idea if it was special since my focus had been on round flowers and darker colors. Margo Reed and Jim Murphy graciously agreed to test and evaluate it for me, and they assured me it was worthy of introduction. A big thank you to them for their help. I'd also like to thank the garden judges who gave it their careful consideration. Many of them first saw it as a seedling at the 2007 national convention in Minnesota where it attracted a lot of attention. And many thanks to all the garden owners from Minnesota to Florida who've grown it so well and agreed to have their gardens on tour for regional and national events.
Thank you Karol for taking the time to answer all these questions. I appreciate your patience during this process. Now I would first like to feature some of Karol's introductions followed by some sensational seedlings:
Power Made Perfect (Karol Emmerich 2020)
Blood of the Martyrs (Karol Emmerich 2020)
Pray Without Ceasing (Karol Emmerich 2019)
Peace Offering (Karol Emmerich 2019)
Song of the Sea (Karol Emmerich 2018) Photo by Jacob Henry.
Teeth of Iron (Karol Emmerich 2015)
Broken Chains (Karol Emmerich 2015) Photo by Mary Baker. Honorable Mention Award this year.
All Things to All Men (Karol Emmerich 2013) Honorable Mention Award this year.
Alpha and Omega (Karol Emmerich 2013) HM, Photo by Theresa Maris
Soli Deo Gloria (Karol Emmerich 2012) HM
Mount Ararat (Karol Emmerich 2010) HM, Photo by Mary Baker
Desire of Nations (Karol Emmerich 2009) HM, AM, One of my personal favorites.
Entwined in the Vine (Karol Emmerich 2008) Stout Silver Medal Winner.
And now some of Karol's lovely seedlings.....many are from this year:
Collage of seedling 9115. This seedling is currently being tested outside for possible introduction.
Karol Emmerich seedling 9115
Karol Emmerich seedling 8417 (Which is out of seedling 9115)
Karol Emmerich seedling 8417
Karol Emmerich seedling 8417
Karol Emmerich seedling 42917
Karol Emmerich seedling 26417
Karol Emmerich seedling 15517
Karol Emmerich seedling 9619
Karol Emmerich seedling 7219
Karol Emmerich seedling 12719
Karol Emmerich seedling 12319
Karol Emmerich seedling 15017
Karol Emmerich seedling 15717
Karol Emmerich seedling 26718
Karol Emmerich seedling 31214 Love this one!
Now some of Karol's reds and pinks:
Karol Emmerich seedling 12517
Karol Emmerich seedling 24016
Karol Emmerich seedling 29617
Karol Emmerich seedling 35317
Karol Emmerich seedling 21417
Karol Emmerich seedling 15214
Karol Emmerich seedling 14318
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| David Kirchhoff, Karol Emmerich, Dick Emmerich, and Bill Waldrop. |
