A gardener's quest for the perfect flower

Dave Niswonger's garden is littered with paper. The rows of retreating daylilies and irises shimmer with tiny paper tags where Niswonger has recorded which two plants have been combined to make that particular stalk.

Niswonger has been gardening since he was 6 years old. He has been hybridizing flowers for more than 50 years. He has created more than 250 varieties of irises. He started crossbreeding daylilies in 1985. He has listed about 50 different daylily varieties in the 22 years he's been practicing.

He tries each year to get the perfect shade of red petal combined with a golden edge in a robust round flower head. Niswonger said his "Rocket Blast" variety came close, but he still wasn't satisfied with it. He submitted the Rocket Blast to the American Hemerocallis Society 61st Annual Convention, along with about 20 other varieties.

The other plant breeders, however, thought he had done a decent job. His Rocket Blast daylily won the American Daylily Society's Presidents Cup, the grand prize, at the convention in Bloomington, Minn.

In September, Niswonger will plant his latest combination seeds. That is the best month to break into the daylily trade.

Growing and crossbreeding daylilies and flowers in general can cultivate many pluses: Niswonger used gardening as a stress-reliever when he was an administrator at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Now, he said, it is a great form of exercise.

He has made friends in Moscow, Poland and across the United States through the different daylily and iris organizations he belongs to. It's an interest. It's a hobby. It's exciting to see what you can come up with in the newest bloom.

Question: How did you get started?

Answer: As a kid I gardened. We always had a big garden, and then when I had my own house I started a garden again. Along with a vegetable garden, I started growing flowers.

I had a biology degree and was always interested in genes. As soon as I had my own home, I started pursuing that.

Q: How can other people get started?

A: Find out the latest variety in colors and choose the ones you like. Make sure to know what already exists, because you don't want to start breeding what others are already breeding. Otherwise it would take you years to catch up with other hybridizers.

Plant the seeds in September and next year they'll bloom. Daylilies in Missouri bloom June through mid-July. They are perennials, so once the season is over, you can leave the seed in the ground and they will bloom again next year.

Lay the bed with mulch or straw to help hold moisture. Unlike irises or other plants that you have to dig up for the winter, freezing rarely bothers daylilies.

Q: Which variety should they pick?

A: Look for a plant with a rich foliage, where the blooms are high above the foliage. They should have plenty of buds because daylilies only last one day. The more branches the plant has, the better the bloom. You can choose the shape and type of flower, too. Daylilies come in triangular shapes, round, doubles, "loop-de-loop" edges, spider daylilies and many other different characteristics.

Q: Where should daylilies be planted?

A: Wherever you have a flower bed. It's better to have a full day's sun, but they can survive on a half a day. But remember: The more sun, the better.

Q: What about fertilizers?

A: Dig the hole and toss a handful of peat moss, sterilized manure or alfalfa pellets bought from the local feed store into the hole when you plant the seed. Pour some water with a liquid fertilizer [like Miracle Grow] mixed in to facilitate growth. Also, use a slow release fertilizer.

Daylilies like a good balanced fertilizer with a lot of nitrogen. They are very tolerant of acid and alkaline levels in the soil, so You don't have to worry about pH.

Q: How are flowers hybridized?

A: Once the flowers bloom in June, take the anthers with pollen from the "pollen parent" and rub it on the pistol of the "pod parent." Write the pod parent and then pollen parent on a tag and attach it to the flower. The seed will form in the stem of the flower. Plant that and see what you get next year.

charris@semissouiran.com

335-6611 extension 246