Karen Snyder will speak at the August meeting of the Nashville Rose Society at 2:00pm in Potter Hall at Cheekwood. Karen will share her experience of becoming a “pollen dabber”, as hybridizing is fondly called, of daylilies.
The modern daylily has developed to heights no one could have foreseen 40 or 50 years ago with pleating, doubling, cresting, bearding, and carving on the petals. The color palette of the modern daylily is equally exciting with color combinations or kaleidoscope patterns that have produced a mania similar to that of tulips in the mid-1600’s. The possibility of creating something striking that other gardeners would crave struck Karen’s creative gene with a vengeance, and thus began her hybridizing career.
Karen’s hybridizing program is not as methodical as the mass producers who line out 15,000 seedlings every spring, but there is a method to her madness! Her daylily “babies” are tucked into special beds where they are observed for three years before registering, if they make it that far. There are over 70,000 registered daylilies now. Karen registered her first two in 2018 and plans to register 12 more next year.
Bring your rose questions and your daylily questions to this informative meeting of the NRS!