There are such wonderful, adorable minis pictured above -- I just love the little guys! After I checked I discovered I had more than I thought that have blooms 3" or less according to their registration information and that actually bloomed for me last year.
BABY BLUES - 2.93" and BLUE ALERT - 2.87"
BROOKWOOD BLACK KITTEN - 2.75" and BROADWAY DIMPLES - 2.5"
BROADWAY BLOODSPORT - 2.85" and BROADWAY PLAYER - 2.87"
BROADWAY CHERRY BLAST - 2.85" and LITTLE MISSY - 2.75"
ELFIN REFLECTION - 2.87" and HONKY TONK BLUES - 3"
LITTLE BLOOM RIDER - 2.85" and CRYPTIC CYPHER - 3"
TINY FIRECRACKER - 2.25" - First bloom and later poly bloom! And yes, that's the same plant -- it just warmed up here quite a bit before the last one bloomed.
TINY TEASE - 2.25" - This was a gift plant from Floyd Cove that I later gave to Calif Sue.
I have a few more that have not bloomed yet for me, and of course I have several more on order now! Just love them!
Name: Mona Guntown, Ms (Zone 7b) I love nature & everything outdoors
I don't want to pick a favorite. I'll just ask for one of each Please!!!! They are all so cute. I think they would make a good companion to our big ones. I wonder why they aren't as popular as the bigger ones?? They sure are as pretty.
I am happy to see so many nice minis. On one side of my front sidewalk, betwwen the house and the walk is my shade bed. Hellebore, pulmonaria, arums, astilbe, heuchera, gingers, species primrose, spiderwort, painted fern, under azelea and a Rhodidendron, with witch hazels above. Many other shade plants. Since this is on the north side of the house, it is quite shady. Right along the edge of the walk is a 1 foot wide strip of full sun. That is where I have been planting minis. On the other side of the walk are 75 regular daylilies, split in three rows of 25. On the other side of that, mixed perennials. As much as I love the shade bed - it is my favorite bed of perennials - there are few flowers in it in July. The minis really brighten it up. Most of them reliable rebloom. And, the blooms really stand out in the small space of sun against the shade and dark foliage.
I have room for quite a few more, but no idea what cultivars to look for.
Those are all so adorable! I may have to rethink the minis. Part of my issue with them has been the difficulty of deadheading so many little blooms at such a low level--hard on my back! On the other hand they're small and maybe not so much of an issue if not deadheaded every day..... HMMMMM. And they're easier to add to the front of the bed--just dig out a little more grass as I'm edging the beds.....
Penny's Worth on the edge of the shade bed, with coleus, pulmonary, violas, and wood poppy in background
Punk - this clump had not been divided or moved in over 10 years. We dug it last year, kept a few fans and composted the rest. The bed it was in is not longer there.
Joy, oh, believe me, I kept some fans of it! It is a good parent! It was in need of division, and I could not keep it all.
Crossing it to Trahlyta (I hope I spelled that right, I can never remember) and Alpine mist gave me the most unusual colors. One was light milk chocolate with a darker chocolate eye. Unfortunately, when I pulled that one from the seedling bed, it didn't make it. But - someday - I will make that cross again. I wish I still had Alpine Mist. Some of those older Liz Salter ones did really well here. I'll keep working on finding photos of the others I listed. Leprechaun's Lace is old enough, it was before Liz married Jeff - back when she was Elizabeth Hudson.
Little Mystic Moon - I'd say this is the very best performing Salter I have ever grown. I love the little tiny metallic orange/gold edge.
Little Wild Flower - this shows a doubled and a single flower. This is how much doubling this flower usually has here. (when it doubles)
La Petit Saboteur - photo from Curt's catalog (used with permission) This was originally scanned from a slide - so it looks a bit odd, but it does show the flower. If you enlarge, you'll see buds and a second flower in the background.
Leprechaun's Lace - I know I have better photos, but can't locate them right now. I can't wait till I get all my photos organized! If you look closely, you can see a clump of tiny Penny's Worth in the background.
Like I said, up until seeing the Floyd Cove mini's - I steered myself far away from them. But seeing these photos, and the fact that I ordered the 2012 mini collection from FC - I am really excited about them this year...
Oh goodness, another branch of the daylily addiction...... ~Jan
I have a question about using the smalls and minis in hybridizing. Can they be used as pod parents, or are they better used as pollen parents? They are so small that I would think they would be better for pollen, unless of course you're crossing two smalls together. And if anyone does use them as pod parents, are the seeds smaller than with the larger daylilies? And about how many seeds would you get in a small pod?
I am going to be working with tets, and I believe the Broadway series are tets, plus I got an IN THE NAVY tet conversion (I hope) last year. But it seems like most of the really adorable minis and smalls with the little eye patterns are always dips. Bummer!
They seem to be having trouble getting their 2012's up, but if you get in the Salters' website and click on the little red box you can see Elizabeth Salter's 2012's. And I just love that first one. It says "Tetraploids" over them, but if you check out her Futures the same picture is there under "Diploids"...
Lyle, I keep going back to your adorable little lemon yellow toothy mini -- how I would love to hybridize something like that little guy! And did you use a large toothy daylily crossed with a mini to get the teeth? I would love to know the parentage. I found out last year that BASS GIBSON is a good pod parent, and just about everything I tried on it took. But it's a pretty big flower and I'm just wondering if it would take more than one cross to get to that small a flower.
I really love that little daylily, Lyle -- I hope you introduce it one of these days!
