Daylily BReeder Blog: Barbie's Dream Flower

Barbie's Dream Flower

(Sdlg # NPSE9)

2020 - Reeder - Diploid -
Navajo Princess x Substantial Evidence -
26" scape - 5" flower - 3 branches - 15 buds - early-midseason - rebloom - semi-evergreen

Flat open flower of deep, bright intense pink above wide green to chartreuse throat.

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Pretty in pink and many little girl's dream (and a lot of little boy's dream too), who wouldn't want to grow Barbie's Dream Flower? The brightest pink I have produced or grown in diploids, and with stellar parents, Barbie's Dream Flower is a stunning flower in the garden and a fine parent in the hybridizing garden. With nice foliage and moderate increase, this dream of a flower has been more hardy in my garden than its famous mother and has the gorgeous flower form of its famous father, but color intensity and clarity its father can only dream of.

From the 2011 breeding season, this dreamy confection first flowered in 2013. On the first day I saw it, my mouth simply dropped open. It was a major breeder in my diploid breeding work from that point on and has produced many beautiful seedlings in my breeding program. Barbie's Dream Flower shows moderate rust resistance, consistently within the range of B+/B. The thrips resistance is moderately high. It has breeding value for both traits, and I have produced some excellent A+ rust resistant seedlings from it, as well as seedlings with higher thrips resistance. Several seedlings are pictured at the bottom of this page.

Fertile both ways, the breeding value of Barbie's Dream Flower for flower traits is excellent. As you will see in the pictures at the end of the page, it passes its clear color very well and produces a range of tones from near white to all shades of pink and lavender, and it also tends to pass on the big green throat. The semi-evergreen foliage has shown moderate frost tolerance in late spring freezes here in my garden and the plant has never lost a fan here, even in my coldest polar vortex winter cold spells. I have currently only tested it for hardiness into zone 5, where it has survived. With its semi-evergreen foliage and its sometimes tender mother, I am not sure how far north it will flourish, but it has done very well in zones 6, 7, 8 and 9. It may do fine in zones colder than zone 5, but I have no data to go on at this time.

Flower as sunset, holding up well after an extremely hot summer day

The flower shows thick substance, nice texture and holds up well in both sun and rain. By the end of the day the flower will have lightened at the edges of the petals and will have taken on a decidedly bluish-pink tone, with the midribs showing the bluish tone quite strongly at the base as they rise out of the green throat.

Another sunset image, strongly showing the bluish tones and the strong sun resistance of the flower

The striking beauty of the tone and intensity of the color can't be overstated. It is simply astonishing in the garden and can make amazing strides in improving color in a breeding program. Showing rebloom in my garden, it has been a good breeder for rebloom in addition to the other good traits.