LARRY GRACE TALK AND SLIDESHOW
The Cobb County Daylily Society hosted a talk and slideshow by hybridizer Larry Grace at their general meeting on November 18, 2006. It was really a treat to hear Larry talk about his "new" program and see a great many slides of his new "kids." Unfortunately, he did tell us that his first new intros will not be available until 2008 at the earliest. However, he was very generous in sharing his thoughts on the current direction of his program as well as what cultivars he is using in his new program.
When Larry restarted his program in 2004, he decided to begin with established parents and a number of tet conversions, as well as the use of selected seedlings from other hybridizers. He is also emphasizing taller scapes and more vibrant colors, and lots of eyed and edged things, a departure from his old program that was predominantly luscious pastels. He is also into oranges this time around. His first crop consisted of only 300 seedlings in 2004 but he has germinated about 5000 seeds per year since that time.
The use of Tet Connie Burton seems to be a cornerstone of Larry's new program; either that or it is producing the best offspring for him or both of the above. He is using it in ways I really would not have thought to. He has taken it into reds with wonderful results. It also appears to be crossing very well into Jeff Salter's eyed and edged lines and Jack Carpenter's converions. He also said it crosses very well with the Tet Ruffled Masterpiece lines.
Jellymaker (Shooter) is his favorite eyed and edged lily and he showed pictures of many of his kids from it but quite honestly, I found others much more impressive in his new eyed and edged things. Tet Peppermint Delight (Carpenter) is giving him some wonderful new things in eyes and edges, as well. Salter's Courting Trouble seedlings really stood out. He also has a wonderful looking seedling from Cherry Burst (Trimmer).
Larry also had very nice seedlings from Heartbeat of Heaven (Emmerich), Tet Grace Pierce, Moment in the Sun (he is crossing this into bright colors such as reds, oranges and I seem to remember some purples as well with lovely results), See His Glory, Bella Sera, Gary Colby and Evelyn Kloeris. The latter lily is one of the prettiest lilies I have ever seen (I saw it at Tim Bell's and Don Eller's this past season) but I backed away from purchasing it because of its very short scape for such a large bloom (20"). Short scapes on many of Carpenter's cultivars seem to be a dominant genetic trait. However, I asked Larry what kind of scapes he was getting on the Evelyn Kloeris kids. He told me that he is getting taller scapes as long as he crosses it with taller scaped cultivars. Apparently scape height is not dominant on this one. However, if you do cross it with a short scape, you will get short-scaped offspring. He also had a number of offspring from Tet Russell Henry Taft but I can't say they did anything for me. He is not working with doubles, UFs, minis or spiders at this time.
I wish that Larry had emphasized plant habit as one of his concerns but really the only thing he said relating to plant habit that was that he was trying to get tall scapes and he considers 2 lateral branches plus the terminal Y to be well-branched but I didn't get the idea that branching and bud count was a focal point in his program. This might be a concern for some.
As far as breeding for rust resistance, it would be hard for him (this is also true of the hybridizers in the State of Florida as well) to do this because the agricultural inspectors in Alabama will shut a nursery down if they see a speck of rust. So growers there must spray religiously and as a result rust is not seen.
It was really nice to finally hear from the horse's mouth, so to speak, what the Grace's are up to these days. He will be back for sure and I feel his followers with be pleased with his new direction.
