Welcome!

Welcome to Diploids Resurgent!

I'm Mike Huben, gardener, botanist, hybridizer, and all-around plant fanatic. (That's Magnolia ashei, a big leaf magnolia behind me.)

I've named my site "Diploids Resurgent" because I'd like to encourage others to appreciate the diploids too, rather than simply follow the tetraploid fashions. There's a world of daylilies out there besides southern-bred eyed and edged tets, and the most diverse are the diploids. Oh, I've got southern-bred tets in my garden: some are fantastic, and I wouldn't put them down. But here in the north (Arlington, MA -- near Boston) we have different needs that the southerners can't or don't breed for.

Every year I breed a thousand seedlings at my 1/5 acre. This small breeding program is carefully envisioned generations in advance, and focused on just a few goals.

(1) Near-white rebloomers with qualities like Stella De Oro. Ever since I first saw the "Re" in a daylily description, I wanted rebloom in my garden. But even SDO balked at reblooming in my garden. It took 4 generations, thousands of seedlings, and 10 years, but I've succeeded. Improvements and diverse, clear colors are also on the way.

(2) Tall-and-small near-whites like Golden Chimes. I want that graceful, airy look to the tall scapes, clean white trumpets (or "butterfly" open flowers), and perhaps black scapes to contrast with the white flowers. I've now got 2nd and third generation seedlings, including a cream with dark scapes, very clear white trumpets, and 50 inch white trumpets.

(3) Tall-and-small sunfast reds like Golden Chimes. My pet name for this project is "Fountain Of Blood". In my first generation, I have a 44 inch blood red with a green throat. It is perhaps the most sunfast red I've yet seen, and I've seen a lot of reds. Even more exciting is that it has long rhizomes like fulva. Perhaps I will breed something as persistant and spreading as fulva, which could be a "Niagra Of Blood".

I also allow myself a fair number of fun crosses to experiment with new ideas.

This year (2006) I won my first Honorable Mention award for Early And Often. It didn't win for its face: it won for performance. Let's hope that's a trend!

This site is an experiment with Blogger, to see how easy it is to make a small catalog with pictures. Let me know if you like it!