Pink Is The New Black

Cultivar Name: Pink Is The New Black

Seedling Number: AEBOARC14

Bloom Diameter: 6"

Scape Height: 38"

Branches: 4

Bud Count: 20

Bloom Season: Early-early

Rebloom: 

Color/Description: Rose petals with white midrib above chartreuse throat with cream-yellow sepals flushed with rose above brown-black scapes and pods.

Ploidy: Tetraploid

Bloom Habit: Diurnal

Foliage: Dormant

Pod Parent: (Ancient Elf x Belle Of Ashwood)

Pollen Parent: Rosy Complexion

Year Bred: 2018

Rust Resistance: Unknown (bred after the completion of my rust resistance testing)

Fertile: Yes, both ways

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Comments: Pink Is The New Black brings dark scapes into the tetraploid level on pastel anthocyanic flowers! The first pink tetraploid with dark scalps to my knowledge, Pink Is The New Black was not something I planned, but was just a chance occurrence that I recognized and retained. The pod parent was a seedling from my first year of breeding that showed A+ rust resistance through all five years of my testing program, but the flower was not different enough from Sun Dragon for me to feel it should be registered, but since I know it had a pink ancestor, I used it a lot with pink cultivars. The cross of that seedling with John and Annette Rice's lovely Rosy Complexion gave me some very pink flowers, and amongst them was this lovely seedling with dark scapes. The flower of Pink Is The New Black is simpler than many of its siblings (one of which will be an intro in the next year or two), but it has strong pink coloring and those lovely dark flushed scapes. It also breeds lovely pink flowers and dark scapes when crossed with other dark scape types, and I have some very nice things coming from it in the future. 

Pink Is The New Black is very fertile both ways and produces a ton of seeds if you pollinate all the flowers. Those seedlings often show the dark scapes and some of those will be even darker in tone when bred to other types with dark scapes. The plant shows good increase and good recovery from division. I am very excited to bring this cultivar to daylily growers and breeders. The scapes are a little shorter than I like, but are plenty tall enough to show up well in the garden, and I have produced considerably taller seedlings from it when crossed to some of my giants. The flower is simple, but a mature clump, with its dark scapes and bright pink coloring, is quite striking in the garden. In the seedlings, I have gotten seedlings with both wider petalled flowers and more narrow petalled flowers, so you can take it to both narrow petalled programs for spiders and unusual forms, and you can also take it into wider petalled programs, bringing the dark scape trait into either type of programs without compromising color by having to go back to yellow to get the dark scaped gene. I can't wait to see where other breeders take Pink Is The New Black in their breeding programs! See images of the flowers and the clump below.

Pink Is The New Black in the seedling bed - flower detail - midday

Pink Is The New Black - clump image showing the nicely branched dark flushed scapes and the bright pink flower - line out garden midday

Pink Is The New Black - scape and flower closeup in seedling bed showing the dark flushed scapes and buds

Pink Is The New Black - flower and dark flushed scapes and buds

Pink Is The New Black - clump, scapes and flowers at the beginning of flower season - line out garden - showing the beautiful coloring of the flower and the nicely branched, dark flushed scapes - midday, cloudy weather

Pink Is The New Black - clump, scapes and flowers - line out garden - showing the beautiful coloring of the flower and the nicely branched, dark flushed scapes - late afternoon, cloudy weather

Pink Is The New Black - flower detail - line out garden - showing the beautiful coloring of the flower in late afternoon sunlight

Pink Is The New Black - clump, scapes and flowers - line out garden - you can really see the nicely branched scapes in this image. You can also see the beautiful curl of the sepals when the flower is viewed from the side