BachmanBabies

Some of our favorites are our growing collection of Dan Bachman seedlings, who deserve their own page. Dan is a very well-known and highly respected hybridizer from Lebanon, Ohio, who specializes in spiders. He can be found at 1850 S. St. Rt. 123, and emailed at valleydan@earthlink.net.

These are the seedlings he DIDN'T want....his keepers can be seen on his Valley of the Daylilies website.

http://thevalleyofthedaylilies.com

When we purchased this unusual form with it's cool edge, Dan, as he always does, wrote down the parentage for us. The pod parent is Dan's own introduction, CHICKEN ON THE RUN....the father was unknown....or as Dan wrote "UNK". He made it easy for me to come up with a garden name....we call this one "UNCLE CHICKEN".

Look closely and you can see that these blooms are all wearing "protection". I pollenated them when there was a threat of rain and wanted to protect them from the pollen being washed away. As I write this "Uncle Chicken" is growing pods from RED SKELETONS and PRIMAL SCREAM.

When Dan dug this one from the seedling field, he accidently got a sibling that was growing too close. When we realized we had two for the price of one, the sibling became "AUNT CLUCK". [pictured below]

"AUNT CLUCK" is a bi-colored daylily, and we aren't sure which one of these siblings we like better. Both have very interesting, 'fringed' edges, and hold up very well all day. We have a few seedlings from our '05 crop out of ONE of these...but now we aren't so sure WHICH one. This one also has a pod from RED SKELETONS.

This is one of my personal favorites of the Bachman seedlings in our gardens. It's large, and striking, and I love the color. I also like the star pattern in the center, and the white midribs. It's another TETRAPLOID, out of FREAK SHOW and SO MANY STARS. We call it "RASPBERRY MARGERITA". My only complaint .....have not been able to get it to set a pod. But it is pollen fertile and we have quite a few seedlings from it.

This is the last of the 2004 "surprises". The strange color on this one fades in hot sun, but it is always interesting. So is the pattern. It is also ENORMOUS! We call it "OPEN WIDE", but found out that there is a registered cultivar by that name. We are searching for that perfect name for this one, so it will get a name change in the future.

It is very pod fertile, and has given us lovely seedlings from Wild Wookie, the very famous Primal Scream, and my personal favorite, the gorgeous Skeezix. The more I look at this crazy thing, the better I like it. Hey Dan, I think you should introduce this one!

I'm sure Dan had many that looked as good or better than this one, and all hybridizers have to make cuts somewhere. We are certainly glad this one didn't meet Dan's standards. What a sunny spot this makes in our garden! We call it "BANANA POPSICLE". It absolutely will NOT set a pod, but has good pollen. We have the seedlings to prove it....check out the '07 seedling page for the Wisest Of Wizard babies.

New in 2005-another Bachman Original. After watching Dan attacking the huge pokeberries that had invaded the bed this one came from, we decided to call it "POKEBERRY PIE". It actually looks a lot more 'brown' than this picture, but it's growing like it's namesake, and doing it in the shade. Pod fertile, with some effort.

Bright enough for ya'? We were looking for a bright yellow and Dan offered us this. Most of it's blooms are blended with gold and it's a very showy plant. Not only that, it was so big it filled the back of our van. It obviously increases VERY fast. We call it "FRIED BANANAS".

We've had this one for awhile, and it's a favorite. It's out of Freak Show, and we bought it on a Monday...sooooo..."FREAKY MONDAY". Hey, I get names where I find them. This one is extremely fertile and sets pods if you walk past it with pollen on your clothes.

This one has a story. I saw this short, squatty plant with one huge bloom on it....growing in Dan's $5 a clump bed. I called it Dan's "Reject Bed" and told him I would take that little orange 'reject'. I got chastised for my choice of words, but Dan let me take the pitiful thing home. We planted it in what we thought would be a choice spot, but the seedling disagreed. It sat there for a couple of years and neither grew, nor bloomed another bloom. So, since I have a habit of telling my flowers how it is, I told it to quit mIckey-fritzing around and bloom, or it would be compost. We moved it to a newly constructed bed as a last-ditch effort to save it. "MICKEY FRITZ" obviously approved of his new digs, and proudly turned his life around. He is now a HUGE plant, tall and stately, with gorgeous big, showy blooms, and a pod fertility that is next to none. We have so many seedlings growing from Mickey Fritz as I write this [January '09] that I'm sure some of them will have to find other homes. We can't possibly plant them all. I love this plant!

Dan chose this seedling for us a couple of years ago, and called it's color "Butterscotch". Some days it looks more brown to me, and I tease Dan about it, but it's fertile and showy, and we chose to use it as a pod parent in 2008. The plant habit of this one alone makes it worth giving it garden space.

We have high hopes for this seedling in our breeding program. It's one of several Bachman seedlings we acquired in 2008, and the only one of them that I managed to get a decent photo of.

It's parentage is Haystack Calhoun X [Klaatu Barada Nikto x Startle]

We have several 'edgy' cultivars that we plan to use on it once it gets established.

UPDATE! July 2009-Dan came to visit and decided we were right about this cultivar. It's going to go back to Valley Of The Daylilies this fall, and Dan plans to introduce it....hopefully in 2010. We settled on a very appropriate new name, and it will be registered as....

"RETURN TO SENDER."