*LAUGING SKIES


*LAUGHING SKIES (Stamile, P) TET 152-A  ({[Moonlit Masquerade x Tetra Rainbow Spangles) x (Star Of India x Tetra Green Widow)] x Inky Fingers} X [Bluebird Sky x (Tetra Green Widow x Tetra Cerulean Star)]) 38” EERe. fr. dd. emo. Ev. 10” x 1 3/8” x 7/8”. 13” wingspan. Spider. Spider ratio 4.7:1.   3-way branching. 21 buds.  Hybridizing is all about combining traits that do not want to be combined in nature.  Most daylilies want to be 4½” trumpets and 46” tall with fairly muddy colors. When we get a big daylily it is invariably on a short poorly branched scape. When we get a little flower it is invariably on these tall branched scapes. Nature wants to ruin proportion and have us return to H. fulva or H. thumbergii, etc.
     The same is true in the colors.  When we get exceptional color in the tets its in a small flower. When we cross the lavenders into the large yellows we get tremendous size but we pay a price.  The colors, even the best of them, show mud. You don’t notice it if the flower is by itself but bring it next to a true lavender or orchid and it becomes painfully clear.   One large lavender from the past I have always admired is Frank Child’s LILTING LAVENDER.  Here is a large clear lavender but it is not a spider.  I wanted a daylily with that clarity with perhaps richer blue tones that was also a true spider.   In LAUGHING SKIES I finally have my huge diamond dusted lavender true spider.  I smile as I watch its huge blooms gently twisting, cascading dancing in the wind and laughing at the sky.  A joyous bloom. Fertile both ways