Rainbow Hill Daylilies

Just wondering if anyone here has every gotten daylilies from Rainbow Hill Daylily Farm. I have only ordered once from them. Brad Best is the hybridizer. This was my first time ordering a pricey daylily. I got MICHAEL'S SWORD (a bearded daylily) for $150. The fan I got was very small. Brad said they ran small, and not only that but they were still just out of dormancy in his area in early May, so it would be smaller than usual, as well. I'm assuming he's honest. However it took 2 years for it to bloom. He did give me a good bonus plant, one that he was selling for about $120, called PARADISE OF GOD. That one bloomed after the first season. I'm hoping both show significant increase this year. MS does not show the full bearding yet, but Brad did say it takes 4-5 fans before it does, so I'll be waiting on that. It gets 90% bearding once it gets going, but its progeny are getting 100%.

I purchased it to incorporate that bearding trait into my own hybridizing plan. I never did do any crosses this past summer, but the previous year and the year before I did, and those seeds are waiting to be started, which I will do this year. I will be spreading MS's pollen around liberally this year as well, and will try with POG, too, among many others. I have unregistered seedlings of my late mother's that I want to make crosses with as well.

Anyhow, I'm just wondering if all the fans he sends tend to run very small. I saw an ad he has on mydaylilies.com, which I just joined, and he's selling seedlings, 10 for $37.50, all crosses from newer varieties. Was thinking on maybe getting some and see what I get. I can always sell off the ones I don't care as much for. I always get customers who will buy unnamed daylilies. A lot of people don't care if they're named or not, they just want something that appeals to them.

Karen

MICHAEL'S SWORD

Karen.. I looked at his Daylilies & I woulsn't give him $25.00 for 100 of his daylilies, If you want a great buy on daylilies go to the Daylily Auction. I found very few of his daylilies that were from the year 2000, Most were 1950's 1960's 70's 80's

Well, I was talking more about his own recent intros, and I'm assuming his mature seedling hybrids are from more current hybrids that he has for hybridizing purposes alone, and maybe doesn't have enough to sell at this point. In fact I've been in correspondence with him, and he mentioned that he has depleted all his stock of those older cultivars that you saw in his listings, and has gone down to hobby status at this point and is just working on his hybridizing. Anyhow, the pics that he posted of examples of some of the mature seedlings that he's selling really looked good, and looked like they were hybridized with newer cultivars. Here's a link.

http://www.mydaylilies.com/index.php?option=com_ixxocart&Itemid=28&p=product&id=14&parent=15&vendorid=5

Karen

Oh, forgot to mention I have gotten many great daylilies from the LA and eBay, both. I just ordered about 10 from Blue Ridge Daylilies (Bob Selman). Last year I bought about 12 or so from him, and he sent me nice, great sized plants, as well as about 10 bonus plants. The box was huge! I was blown away by how generous he was.

Karen

Karen, Blueridge daylilies is the only place I have purchased DL's. Bob is great and send huge fans and most often double fans. Last year I ordered quite a few and received 10 bonus plants. Have an order coming end of May. I use his plants in my hybridization program. Last year due to extreme heat, I didn't get the pods I wanted. I was more successful with irises and harvested 79 pods. I have both irises and DL seedlings from 2009 that willl bloom this year. Most of the DL seeds I purchases on LA. The iris seeds are my own.

Lilly







This message was edited Feb 11, 2012 11:14 PM

I got 10 bonus plants from Bob last year, also. He's very generous with the bonuses. I was thrilled. Looking forward to more this year, but don't know where I'm going to put them all. I have all the ones I got last year in pots. I have spaces to plant some, but need to get rid of more daylilies to make room for last years and the ones I'll be getting this year. I have a bunch slated for the boot, just have to get them dug and potted up to sell. I have a bunch listed for sale here in DG, and I'm hoping for many orders soon. I got several orders recently, but when I contacted the buyers I did not hear back from them. Will try one more time, and if I don't hear anything, their orders will be canceled.

Karen

Karen, I didn't see your listing in the classified.

Mike, if you click on Marketplace, then click on Perennial Plants, you'll see my listings. In have about 114 or 113 total listed.

Karen