Cultivar Name: Korean Dragon King
Seedling Number: HFKWSM22
Bloom Diameter: 6”
Scape Height: 52”
Branches: 5
Bud Count: 23
Bloom Season: MID-LATE
Color/Description: Medium orange with darker red-orange band above chartreuse throat with wide, antler-like branching.
Ploidy: Tet
Bloom Habit: Diurnal
Foliage: Dormant
Pod Parent: H. fulva 'Korean' clone
Pollen Parent: Women Seeking Men
Year Bred: 2018
Rust Resistance: unknown, bred after my screening program ended. Pod parent is A+/5 year and pollen parent is 3 year/B.
Fertile: Both ways
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Comments: Korean Dragon King is really something special. A first generation seedling from H. fulva 'Korean' (Apps accession) crossed to Women Seeking Men, it is a magnificent combination of the two parents. It shows the tallest scapes I have gotten from the many crosses I have made using this species clone pod parent. It also has the most elaborate and impressive branching of any of the seedlings I have produced from fulva 'Korean' (and I have many), showing the power of Curt Hanson's selection for incredible antler-like branching, and especially the high breeding value of his cultivar 'Women Seeking Men'. Of Curt's program, which I have worked with a great deal, Notify Ground Crew and Women Seeking Men have been the two most important of his introductions in my own work.
Korean Dragon King shows great traits from both parents, with extreme vigor and robustness coming from the fulva 'Korean' pod parent. While the flower is the classic orange of the pod parent, it has a flush of pink which becomes more obvious in the evening (second picture below) when the intensity of the orange coloring lightens letting the pink pigment express in a visibly peach tone. The flower also shows petal broadening and flatter form than the species clone pod parent, which came from the pollen parent.
The plant is fertile both ways, and as you can see in the last picture below, it sets pods well, meaning it has a great future for breeding, allowing for creating tall, robust scapes with amazing branching while bringing in the species genetics of the pod parent to open up bottlenecked hybrid tetraploid lineages. In addition to its high breeding potential, it is also a lovely garden display (third image below) making a nice clump that does not spread by runners. The flowers, wider and flatter than the fulva clones, also represents an improved fulva look, allowing it to present with a species-like look, but with larger flowers, having more substance and impact in the garden. Korean Dragon King is also very useful for permacultural uses, both for its own traits, and for breeding new and improved permacultural daylily specimens. While most of my introductions for 2025 show more advanced flowers, I think that Korean Dragon King may be the most important introduction from my program for the 2025 season.
