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All six of Mike Huben's 2010 introductions are available at the collection price of $250. All previous Huben introductions are available individually except for Snowy Stella and Ice Trumpets, which are only available in a collection. The Previous Introduction Collection price is $350 for all 11 introductions. The entire collection of Huben intros is available for $500.
You can email the hybridizer Mike Huben at mhuben@world.std.com or visit his blog site for more info about his breeding program.
From Darkness Comes Light
Cream blooms on inky purple scapes. 25 buds, 4 branches. Exceptional plant habits.
$100sf
Ace Up My Sleeve
Near white self. Northern Continuous Rebloom. Increases slowly but an exceptional breeder of continuous rebloomers.
$50sf
Boston Marathon
Pink with rose eye. Northern Continuous Rebloom. A pretty pink rebloomer with great green throat. Blooms until frost.
$50sf
Let Me Be Clear
Icy Pink with faint band. Northern Continuous rebloom. The clearest pink rebloomer to date. Rapid increaser. Excellent rebloomer. Blooms until frost.
$50sf
A Small Multitude
Gold Self. Tall and Small. Minute, species-like spatulate flowers on tall, well-branched scapes. Extraordinary breeder.
$50sf
Umpty Kajillion
Melon with cream polychrome. 40 buds and 6 branches. Exceptionally floriferous, terrific scapes.
$50sf
Vanilla Stella
Pronounced "vanELLA stella". Mike's most exciting near-white rebloomer. It's not the whitest, though it's far from cream. It has a nice green throat, a voluptuous bagel form, ruffles, and three sets of scapes per year in Mike's garden! This past year, Vanilla Stella bloomed continuously until frost in November at Harmon Hill Farm in New Hampshire.
Bob Sobek and Mike Huben are using Vanilla Stella heavily in their breeding: each has hundreds of seedlings coming from it. It's a very rapid increaser that throws near white seedlings with great green throats. Presumably, it passes its rebloom when crossed appropriately. We'll know for sure next year. It's a great as a pod or pollen parent. $100df
Begin With A Bang
What's that red Amaryllis doing in the daylily bed? In mid-June? Begin With A Bang is the first good red in Mike's garden, and begins the growing season with some of the earliest dormant foliage to emerge. Beautiful gray-green bullets of foliage that scoffs at late spring frosts. The foliage is erect, disease resistant, and stays beautiful until autumn frost. Mike always wanted to introduce this one, but it increased very slowly in his garden. When he finally put some into a good location at Harmon Hill Farm, it increased very nicely. Begin With A Bang has got some terrific qualities: it's a true EE, beginning a week before Stella De Oro. Its size and color are much better than any other red at its season. Don't you hate those brick colored reds? Begin With A Bang is a light red over a very pale yellow base. Both parents contributed to the color clarity. Where did the red come from? Well, Ruffled Ivory has a faint red overlay that Mike didn't notice until this kid alerted him. It's diamond dusted, sun fast and has a yellow-green throat. It always opens well in cool weather, and looks great in a clump. 12 buds per scape, yet it blooms well into midseason. If you'd like to breed for modern-looking EE reds, this is where Mike suggest you begin. He attributes many of the good qualities to its species parent, H. lilioasphodelus: the earliness, great foliage, good opening, and frost hardiness. Or if you're one of us who can't wait to get those first daylilies of the season, this one is for you. $75df
Vanilla Gorilla
This daylily is named for Snowflake, the albino gorilla, who recently died. This UFO measures about 8 inches, and has been drawing a great deal of attention at Harmon Hill Farm over the past four years. 5 to 6 way branching, 20 to 24 buds. Pod and pollen fertile. This was a fun cross for Mike, partly to test the pod fertility of the enormous Jerry's Whirligig, and partly to see what happens in the way of large offspring. Like Jerry's Whirligig, VANILLA GORILLA has wide petals in a cascade form: it reminds Mike of knuckle walking with the massive arms of a gorilla. Now, you could say some daylilies knuckle walk because the scapes fall, but VANILLA GORILLA's scapes stay upright. Mike is so focused on his reblooming goals, that he initially ignored this one, and it was rescued by Carl. Available only through Harmon Hill Farm. $60df
Snowy Stella
At any northern nursery, Stella De Oro sells like hotcakes because customers are told it reblooms. The question most often heard is Do you have it in other colors? At last, Stella De Oros rebloom is available in a near-white. Snowy Stella is definitely a near-white, and definitely a very strong northern rebloomer. It increases very well, has an excellent stature, 16 buds on erect scapes, blooms are well presented, has a nice clump form, and pretty much all the fans rebloom. Scapes are somewhat staggered too: that prevents gaps in the bloom. Compared to Stella De Oro, the flowers are similar in size and form. The scapes have twice as many buds, and the continual rebloom is far more certain and abundant. The plants are slightly shorter, and bloom starts a week or two later. It has a few minor faults: it's not the whitest white (it is tinged with apricot, though it beats most recent tetraploids), the throat bleaches from green to yellow in the sun, the pistil is sometimes curly or small (as in White Lemonade), and it's only an OK pod parent: doesn't produce that many seed. Many people have tried and failed to produce northern rebloomers in other colors. Snowy Stella took 10 years, 4 generations, thousands of seedlings, the rebloom genetics of Apps, Millikan, and Sobek, and the near-white genetics of Millikan, Hansen, and Gates. The ancestry is:
Snowy Stella: (Winter Wonderland * Early And Often) * (Sunshine On Clouds * Early And Often)
Sunshine On Clouds: (Happy Returns * Deicer) * (Three Seasons * Monica Marie).
Early And Often: Sunny Honey * (Three Seasons * Tuscawilla Tranquility). The secret to the breeding of Snowy Stella is the poor conditions for rebloom in the breeding beds. Dry, poor soil; shade and root competition from trees; crowding and low heat in a coastal zone 6. If Snowy Stella will rebloom under those conditions, it will rebloom anywhere. Its grandparent, Early And Often, has demonstrated this principle. Available in Collection only df
Ice Trumpets
The fashion for large, ruffled, round, eyed, edged, tetraploid daylilies has brought about neglect of other forms. In years past, many daylilies were celebrated for their simple, delicate, wildflower-like forms. Names like Corky and Golden Chimes are not much remembered, and their forms never made the transition from yellow to other colors. Ice Trumpets is an important step in Mike's quest for Golden Chimes in near-white. In just two generations from the species yezoensis, he has a very white, very green throat, narrow petalled trumpet form. As a matter of fact, it looks a lot like a small Easter Lily (though it is nowhere near as white as the real thing.) It has 21 buds and 4 branches for Mike. Nearby in the Sobek garden and at Harmon Hill Farm it does MUCH better, and puts on a show that drew Mike from across the garden. This one is distinctive in the combination of form and color. The height doesn't reach Mike's ultimate goals (it's a mere 30 inches) but it's still a literal standout. Mike has bred with it very heavily: it has almost everything he wants except more height. No trace of rebloom here or in Utah, though the F1 parent does rebloom. Ice Trumpets is a great color clarifier in Mike's breeding, and some of its children are among the whitest daylilies he's ever seen. Others have excellent height, budcount, branching, and trumpet form. Incidentally, Ice Trumpets demonstrates the principle that even starting with a species, in two generations you can be back to near-white with green throats. Too much daylily breeding is aimed at immediate results in the first generation, and too little plans on success reclaiming recessive characteristics in the second generation. Available in Collection only df
Sunshine On Clouds
Mike had no intention of introducing this seedling: it wasn't white, it only rebloomed a bit, it didn't increase as fast as his other rebloomers, it was a reluctant pod parent. But Bob Sobek proclaimed it the outstanding clump in Mike's garden for the brilliance, unique shade, and floriferousness. It is a brilliant light yellow, in the cream range but with none of the dullness of most creams. Mike attributes that to the extreme diamond dusting. The upfacing blooms have a yellowgreen throat. Crossed with EARLY AND OFTEN, it is the parent of his first nearwhite rebloomer, and the grandparent of his latest crop of nearwhite rebloomers. It has 18 buds on three branches. In Mike's garden, Sunshine On Clouds reblooms lightly, but in other people's gardens, it is a much stronger rebloomer. $40 df
Kanai Sensei
Kanai Sensei is named for Mike's Aikido and Iaido teacher for 20 years. It always opens to a perfect little bagel with a peculiarly difficult to describe color. It has a tiny green throat, and somewhere between 6 and 16 buds depending on how well it is grown. It's sun fast, and has excellent low foliage. What makes it special though (besides the excellent rebloom) is the phenomenal increase. It's the fastest increaser in Mike's garden, yet doesn't seem to get too crowded. Its small stature, rapid increase, good foliage, rebloom, and nice clumping habit make it well suited for edging. As a parent for rebloomers, it throws all those characteristics very nicely. $20df
Twist Again
The longest-blooming daylily in Mike's garden. Four years running it has bloomed for 11 weeks on three sets of scapes. The color is a very cool yellow-green that fades in the sun to a remarkable cream and green giving the impression of a cream flower with a green bullseye. There is no other northern rebloomer on the market with this color. It has an excellent budcount of 20 (unusually high for a rebloomer.) The heavily ruffled petals twist differently in every flower, providing lots of motion in this unusual form. This one sells in August and September when people see the rebloom. $20df
Delicate Lace
What an unusual form! Quite orchid-like: any narrower and it would be spatulate. The foliage is truly dwarf, with a flower large enough to surprise: it's almost a rock garden plant. Blooms start out cream, but rapidly fade in the sun to a highly diamond-dusted pearly polychrome. It usually blooms two sets of scapes for Mike, but more in other people's gardens. 8 buds. It throws excellent reblooming kids of all shapes and sizes, and carries melon. $20df
Flowers Of Sulphur
Why another yellow rebloomer? Well, it's a pure sulphur-yellow self, all the way into the throat, much bigger than most others, strongly diamond dusted, opens well, and has a delightful short stature. Only 9 buds (2 more than STELLA DE ORO), but routinely blooms at least two sets of scapes. Breeds rebloomers, and carries melon. $10df
Early And Often
Honorable Mention award 2006 At last: a northern rebloomer that isn't yellow or gold. The heart of Mike's breeding program, producing a great diversity of seedlings, many of them rebloomers. Very rapid increase. Tested in WV for two seasons and found highly rust resistant. Early And Often was Mike's first introduction, and has lived up to its promise as a continuous rebloomer, the only plant in the garden that blooms non stop from early July until frost. Some growers report as many as seven sets of scapes per season. Unlike other diploid rebloomers, it is a color clarifier and readily gives up the melon tones in seedlings. $15df
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