Introduction to Hybridizing

Seedlings started in the basement were kept at or near 70 F both day and night, germination was only fair. Temperatures in the greenhouse during the 1979 season were kept at 60 F at night and 70 F during the day. Under these conditions the seed from crosses of early blooming parents started to come up after two weeks and were fairly well up after three weeks. Germination was very good. The mid-season crosses also came up very well, but seed from crosses of late blooming parents came up very poorly. Two flats were so poor that I placed them in a cool spot for three weeks. This treatment resulted in the modest seedling production.

During the 1980 season I kept the greenhouse at 50 F nights, and 60 F days for four weeks. After four weeks there were a few seedlings coming up. At this time, for one week, I put the temperatures up by 5 F. Then the following week I raised them by another 5 F. Thus, by the seventh week after planting the seed I had the temperature up to 60 F nights and 70 F days. After this treatment, the seed of late blooming parents came up very well. However, seed of early blooming parents came up only fair. On this basis, it looks like one should divide the seed of early blooming parents and late blooming parents, where possible, and give them different treatments.

It is my feeling that one should provide conditions before planting that approach those which the lilies have been growing in under natural conditions for many thousand of years. I am sure that the lily seed, as do most other seeds, have a dormant period provided in its nature, so that the seed does not germinate in the fall. The seedlings would not have enough time to grow to a degree of maturity that would allow them to endure the oncoming winter.

Even in cereal grains it is necessary to have a certain degree of dormancy so that the grain, after becoming ripe, does not germinate in the stand or in swath, should there be a long wet period before grain can be harvested. I know that when germination tests of grains are made in the fall or early winter, the grain must be frozen for a week or two before the seed is planted to get a more true germination test. This freezing is not necessary in late winter or spring because the grain has already gone through natural freezing temperatures over winter.

I do not think that one should try to breed and select lilies with little or no dormancy in the seed. In the fall of 1979 I had two crosses in which there were 1 to 5 germinated seeds in the green pods. I planted these seedlings, but the growth is very slow, even through I had them under lights all winter.

To break dormancy, I left the seed outdoors for a month in a shady place, packaged in plastic to prevent absorption of moisture. This subjected the seeds to a daytime and night time change in temperature. Next, the seeds were placed in the freezer. Then, about 6-8 weeks before planting, I removed the seeds from the freezer and set them in the house. The seed was planted in a good soft, black soil, high in natural fiber, in early January. The soil must be fairly moist before working down into a fine powder and filling into the flats. This is necessary so that very little watering will be needed after planting. If the soil is dry at planting, not only will planting be very difficult, but the seed may start to float when being watered. Also, a large amount of water is needed to moisten the soil and the soil will become compacted. I am not in favour of putting flats in water and letting them absorb water. The soil gets much too wet before the moisture reaches the surface.

I plant my seed about 1/4 inch deep in rows two inches apart. This makes it possible to cut each row apart when planting to the field. Also, each row is marked with a label. After planting the seed and before watering, I put about 1/4 to 3/8" of vermiculite over the soil. This helps to prevent splashing and washing the seed out of the soil. The vermiculite also helps to keep the water from running to the lower spots or sides of the flats. Thus, getting a more uniform penetration of water into the soil. Because the vermiculite covers the soil, the water does not run sideways. This creates downward pressure into the soil. This way one can get more water to go into the soil faster and deeper, thereby needing to water less often. The vermiculite also acts as a mulch by keeping the sun off the soil and cutting down the loss of moisture by evaporation. Before I used vermiclite as a mulch, I found that I was over-watering my seedlings - because the top inch of soil dried very fast - thereby causing root rot. Also, I make sure to add more vermiculite as time goes by when bare spots of soil appear.

In past years I had been using formaldehyde to sterilize the soil before planting seed. But I have found the formaldehydeto be very hard on my lungs. This year I used "No Damp" -oxine benzoate 2.5%- made by Plant Products, Ltd., Bramalea Ontario [www.plantprod.com]. I found this product to be very good. It can be used as a soil drench before planting, after seeding, and after the seedlings are up.

I feed with a 15-30-15 fertilzer in late March and late April. I feel that the higher phosphorus should increase root development and potash should increase the bulb size of the seedling.

After the seedlings are up I give them a 15 hour day consisting of a combination of sunlight and flourescent lights up to early April, the 24 hour days from early April to mid-May. This is done with a combination of daylight and cool white flourescent lights. Not having enough lights for all my flats, I have to change the slow growing flats with the fast growing ones. One could see a great improvement in growth after the slow growing flats were placed under the lights for two weeks. I hang lights down nearly touching the leaves to keep the seedlings from growing spindly. This year they were large enough to start to plant out by late May. I had a visitor from Holland on June 1, 1980, and he remarked that he had never seen such nice seedlings.

My reason for not planting lily seeds in the late fall or early winter is that from November to February our days are very short and the sunlight is very weak. Our shortest days are only seven hours and 20 minutes long. Because of this, I would need to use lights all day. By December the leaves on these lilies died off. After I put them under lights they send up new leaves again.

Also, I found that with the cooler temperatures this year, I had very few small late germinating seedlings, whereas last year there were many such seedlings.

It is my feeling that the type of soil or medium is not nearly as important as is watering and temperature control. I also cover the flats with plastic until germination is well underway do as to insure an even moisture supply. Once the seedlings are growing, I water the flats once every four to seven days, and only after the soil becomes fairly dry. When watering I use four to five quarts per 18" by 24" flat with 3.5" soil depth. In six to eight weeks one may find worm damage to seedlings. This can happen even if adult worms were killed, as eggs in the soil may hatch. I used one tablespoon of liquid Diazinon per gallon of water and drench the soil.

The growing of lilies from seed is a challenge and one has to be ever aware of growing conditions if good stands of seedlings are to result from prized crosses.

Lily Seed Production 1981 by Fred Fellner CPLS Newsletter #28:7-8

I started hybridizing lilies outdoors in 1974. This resulted in only a few seed pods and very little seed. In 1975 I changed my approach by starting to bring the lily plants I wanted to pollinate into an unheated greenhouse. I put these plants into 1 gallon tins and then providing only enough heat to prevent freezing until the seed had ripened.

After I bring the lily plants into the greenhouse, there was a fair improvement in the number of seeds. This was due to such factors as: a.) the rain did not wash off the pollen; (b.) because of higher temperature on colder days; and (c.) being able to keep the night time temperatures from dropping to the same as the out-of-doors. About 1978 I got a coal fired furance and kept the minimum temperature up to 60 F with a little more improvement in seed production. During 1979, I raised the night time temperature to 60 F as well as raising the relative humidity inside the greenhouse to 60 - 70 percent compared to 30-40 percent outside on warm sunny days. Once again I noted a little more seeds produced.

Under garden conditions I have never seen stigmatic fluid on asiatic lilies. For me only the Trumpet type lilies produce stigmatic fluid. Under high levels of relatively humidity of the greenhouse I have seen some stigmatic fluid on a few asiatic lilies.

Carol Jean

For my 1981 hybridizing I raised the daytime temperature to near 80 F or 27 C and the night time temperature to 70 F or 22 C. This gave me an increase of 500 to 2000 percent on some lilies. I have been trying to get seed from Earlibird as a pod parent since 1979 under outside and greenhouse conditions, but have never produced any seed. Howver, under the 1981 greenhouse conditions I was able to get more seed than I wanted from an Earlibird X Golden Wonder cross. Also some seeds were obtained using Carol Jean pollen. A very great improvement was also noticed in seed production on lilies like Connecticut Lemon Glow, Carol Jean, Sally JoAnn, and Elenore Edna. Next year I will try other lilies which have given me little or no seed in the past. My 1981 conditions also gave an increase in the size and weight of the seeds. This is not to say that higher temperatures and humidity did away with all my seed production problems. There are still many sedlings which give me very little seed.

Sally Jo Ann

With regard to higher humidity 60-70 percent it is my feeling that it gave an improvement in seed production of between 30 to 40 percent. Not all breeders agree that humidity improves seed setting. Dick Thomas, Naramata, B.C., says he gets his best seed set under high temperatures, and low humidity. Dick was kind enough to make many crosses for me on Connecticut Lemon Glow, Carol Jean, Yellow Blaze plus many other in 1981. The seed from his crosses was larger and heavier than my seeds, even on similar crosses. I notice that most of the seeds from other breeders look "fuller and plumper" than my own seed. One reason for my lighter seed could be due to the fact that I dig up pod parent plants at or near the beginning of bloom to bring them into the greenhouse. At this time I can lose a great many of the contractible roots. Another reason could be that I make pollinations on all the blooms on a plant.

Growing Lily Seedlings in a Soilless Mix by Fred Fellner CPLS Newsletter #44:4

For a number of years in the past I had used a mixture of 1/3 black soil, 1/3 sand and 1/3 peat. However in 1985 I lost nearly a third of my seedlings due to damp off. This happened even through I had treated the soil with "No Damp", right after I had planted the seed.

After the seedlings were nicely up, then they started to damp off. At that time I did not use any more water on the seedlings because the soil was wet enough. The time came however when I had to either watch them all die from damping off or treat them and hope that extra water would not make the situation worse.I used 1.5 times the recommended dosage of 10 ml per liter. The damping off was under control in a few days. It was my feeling that the recommended dosage of 10 ml per liter of water was the bare minimum that one should use.

Another advantage of the soilless mix is that when the flats are loaded they are only one third to one half the weight of a flat with the soil mix!

I successfully grew in 1987 nearly 2.5 times the number of seedlings from 26 flats than I had from 22 flats in 1986. Also the 1987 seedlings were more even in their growth, and germination did seem better than the year before.

The first fertilizer I use on seedlings is 15-30-15, and then I follow it with 20-19-18 fertilizer, Peat Lite, specially made for a soilless mix.

A person also needs to watch for any insect damage; I used Diazinon on any infested rows of seedlings. I noticed with the soilless mix one is less likely to over water the flats, then the soil mix. However one must still provide good drainage, I would often wait too long with the soil mix before I applied the No Damp and Diazinon treatment for fear of over watering. With the soilless mix the surplus water will simply drain off that is if you provided drainage holes.

The seed planted in rows, 2 inches apart and 1/4 to 3/8" deep and then I put a layer of Vermiculite on the top 1/4 to 3/8" deep. This keeps the lily seed from floating away from the rows when watering. It also keeps the Pro Mix from drying out too fast.

The plastic cover which I had placed over the flat, each flat separately is removed once the seedlings are growing. I put on another coat of Vermiculite when the seedlings are about 2 inches tall. This is to protect the medium from the rays of the sun, prevents over heating of the bare medium. The extra vermiculite layer also prevents the fast drying out of the Pro Mix.

A Lily of the Canadian Prairies by Jim Sullivan CPLS Newsletter #62:3-5

Lilium philadelphicum var. andium a true wonder for those people living on the Canadian prairies. It can still be found here in substantial numbers in areas which have been left relatively undisturbed.

I have to say that I am wonderstruck when I walk in a field of these lilies. As a lily enthusiast, I find it almost too good to be true. Therefore, because of my fascination for this lily, I have decided to have a closer look at those plants I have seen as well as those I have grown.

I will begin by describing the bulbs which are 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter and are made up of jointed rather than loosely arranged scales. From each bulb a single stem rises which can be from 6 to 24 inches in overall height on a mature flowering plant.

The leaves of this lily are scattered along the stem except for those located just below the inflorescence which are arranged in a single whorl. The colour is usually dull green.

The flowers are arranged in an umbel and those plants which I have observed have had from 1 to 5 flowers, although up to seven have been reported by others. The blooming period is in early June. I have found flowers in colours ranging from spotted glowing red to a clear unspotted lemon yellow. In the "type", if I may so boldly use this term, the tepals are a soft medium orange-red giving way to a rich yellow throat. This yellow throat area is spotted with many fine or relatively few larger spots or a maroon-brown colour. The tepals are distinctly clawed at the base - a decidedly negative sounding term which I feel is not deserved. The stigma is very dark, almost black, while the pollen is a rusty red colour. Seeds are usually a rusty brown colour.

As mentioned earlier, I use the term "type" with some trepidation as there is a great amount of variability in this species and in this particular case, the variety L.p. var andium. For example, a form which has been recognized is immaculatum (Raup, 1934). This form has clear lemon yellow flowers displaying yellow pollen and a very light yellow stigma. The seed is also a light buff-cream colour reminiscent of the seed of Lilium martagon var. album though the former is even lighter in colour and smaller in size. Perhaps because of its rarity, or simply because of its colour, the form immaculatum is truly a beautiful lily. There are also plants with spotted yellow flowers. Those which I have seen are probably more apty described as splotched rather than spotted. This spotting or splotching is a red colour instead of the maroon-brown of the "type".

Intermediate colours have also been found which are what appears to be hybrids between the "type" and the immaculatum form.

While looking at hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these lilies of the prairies this past summer, I came across a population in which some plants displayed their flowers in an outfacing fashion. This unusual conformation led one lily enthusiast, our present NALS president, Dr. Wilbert Ronald, to exclaim, "Aha! Hardy trumpets on the prairies."

Still further investigation of this lily led to somewhat surprising revelation. Plants were found which had very well developed stem roots. I had come to the conclusion after reading and listening to various sources that it lacked, or at best had, poorly developed stem roots. I definitely feel that some selection for these particular characteristics could lead to more vigorous plants.

Well, at this point you can imagine why so many people here on the Prairies, and I dare say elsewhere, would enjoy growing this lily in their gardens. It is well known by those who have tried, however, to be only short lived resident of an ordered garden. I have been fortunate to have had this lily in my garden for 5 or 6 years now. I must admit though, that the bulbs never seem to multiply. The flowers also have only number one to three, but never five as seen in its native habitat. It should be noted that plants bearing a high number of flowers are quite possibly genetically superior to my particular plants.

I have grown a number of plants from seed which I collected as well as seed which has been given to me by other admirers of this lily. Some of these plants or seedlings were a result of planned hybridizing between varius forms and also between widespread populations. I hope to obtain some hybrid vigour with these hybrids.

It has been my experience that roughly 30% of sown seed will germinate immediately (epigeal germination). I have not at this point done a thorough investigation into the viability of these seeds or just what percentage, if any, would ultimately be of delayed hypogeal type germination. This information would indeed be of great value in dealing with seed resulting from crosses amongst rarer forms.

Seeds are sown in a mixture of coarse peat moss, vermiculite and perlite in proportions resulting in a well draining growth medium. Germination should occur in about 4 to 8 weeks. The cotyledon will be followed by what are relatively small true leaves, that is, when compared to the first leaces of Asiatic hybrid seedlings. I try to disturb the roots as little as possible by initially sowing seed in individual cells of a plant pack. When the seedlings display their first true leaf, I repot them to a 4 inch pot - four per pot. Fertilizing is kept to a minimum using very dilute 20-20-20.

Seedlings from October sowings are placed out in the garden the following spring after what is hopefully the last frost. They will usually display 4 or 5 true leaves at this point. Exact placement in the garden is still a matter of experimentation. A few seedlings have been planted in bare ground, while other have been placed amongst a ground cover of wild strawberries. The rather loose growth habit of the wild strawberry gives a certain amount of shading and yet does not crowd out or overgrow the lily seedlings. I should say that those plants which I have had for several years are growing in a ground cover of Silene alpestris. This latter combination makes a pleasing planting, but S. aplestris unfortunately has a somewhat aggressive growth habit.

The soil in my garden is alkaline in nature, but soil that is neutral (pH7) should grow these lilies. Even soil which is somewhat acidic should not deter anyone from trying this lily. Drainage of all soil types, however, is very important.

Rainfall here in Saskatchewan is usually very scant (10-20") so plantings usually do receive some additional water before the blooming period. How much moisture can they tolerate? I honestly do not know. I have seen plants growing in very dry conditions and also in areas which would be described as very wet. Plants which were observed in those very wet areas appeared to be larger with more flowers per stem. The soil in these areas was notably sandy, and of a much drier nature by early fall.

Raup, H.M. 1934. Phytogeographical studies in the Peace and Upper Liard River Regions, Canada, with a catalogue of the vascular plants. Contrib. Arnold Arboretum Harvard Univ. No. VI, 230pp.

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