Cultivar Name: Maidens Seeking Dragons
Seedling Number: WSMSD47
Bloom Diameter: 5"
Scape Height: 50"
Branches: 6
Bud Count: 50
Bloom Season: Mid-late
Rebloom:
Color/Description: Orange-coral petals with peach-pink watermark above green to chartreuse throat.
Ploidy: Tetraploid
Bloom Habit: Diurnal
Foliage: Dormant
Pod Parent: Women Seeking Men
Pollen Parent: Sun Dragon
Year Bred: 2018
Rust Resistance: Unknown (bred after my rust resistance testing ended. Pollen parent Sun Dragon is an A+/5 year resistant cultivar)
Fertile: Both ways, very pod fertile
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Comments: Maidens Seeking Dragons is the combination of one of my two favorite Curt Hanson introductions (Women Seeking Men) and what I consider to be the most important of my foundational introductions, Sun Dragon. The combination produced multiple good seedlings, but this one was by far the best, incorporating many of the finest traits of both parents. Fine branching comes from both sides, with bud count exceeding either parent. The flower shows a combination of the tones of both parents, resulting in a bright coral coloring, and there is a watermark coming from the pod parent. The plant is beautiful with nice green coloring and very good growth. The flower season comes from the pod parent. Maidens Seeking Dragons is a perfect intermediate between the parents.
The plant recovers quickly from division and shows excellent increase, making a large clump quickly. While it can handle frequent division for production, it will continue to grow and flower normally if left undivided for many years, as it does not die out in the center and require division every three years as we see in some types of daylilies. I actively cull against this undesirable trait as I prefer daylilies that can be left in place for many years, producing normal flowering, without deteriorating, but which can also handle frequent division for increase. This is a nice trait for both gardens and for permacultural purposes, as it gives growers more options and flexibility.
Maidens Seeking Dragons flowers on tall scapes that are covered in branches and buds, giving a long flower season for the garden, and many buds for permaculture uses. The flower is brightly colored and high visible in the garden, creating a bright spot in the mid-late into late season. While Maidens Seeking Dragons was bred after my rust resistance screening, pollen parent Sun Dragon is an A+/5 year plant that showed very high breeding value for rust resistance and the majority of seedlings showing above average resistance. Women Seeking Men rated B-level in my garden and could also produce resistant seedlings when crossed to more resistant partners. The thrips resistance of Maidens Seeking Dragons is above average, but not as high as pollen parent Sun Dragon. My experience with thrips resistance suggests that it is a recessive or low penetrant dominant, so seedlings tend toward the resistance of the less resistant parent, but such plants do carry the heterozygous recessive alleles of the resistant parent and can produce higher resistance in their seedlings when crossed with other carriers or high thrips resistant plants. While pollen parent Sun Dragon shows very high thrips resistance, Women Seeking Men shows moderate resistance. Maidens Seeking Dragons shows thrips resistance that is somewhat higher than pod parent Women Seeking Men and somewhat lower than pollen parent Sun Dragon, but is still better thrips resistance than I have seen in the majority of daylilies. Maidens Seeking Dragons does carry the high resistance of the pollen parent, and I have produced multiple seedlings from it that show the high thrips resistance of Sun Dragon.
Maidens Seeking Dragons is extremely fertile both ways, producing a big crop of pods that are filled with many seeds that germinate well. The seedlings show a range of colors and tend toward tall scapes, heavy branching and high bud counts. I have used Maidens Seeking Dragons heavily in breeding and consider it an important parent for many of the desirable and hard to find traits.
