I dont never count BUDS.now last year,I counted how many blooms I had on WONDER OF IT ALL..but, I have never thought about counting buds.

jean

Not sure which has the most:

Pink gingham was very prolific:

Octoberfest has 12 rebloom scapes and had this the first time around:

Then there is El Desperado:

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One of those three, probably El Desperado.
kay

Jean - Even if a daylily has stopped flowering, you can do a bud count. Count the bud scars on the naked scape. Also, did you count how many flowers Wonder of It All has this year? Put that on here, if you have it.

Kay - From the photos, it looks like El Desperado probably had the most the buds. Octoberfest was probably your rebloom king.

Debra

Like Jean I don't count buds per se, but I can tell you that one of the longest blooming (still going) and most prolific daylilies I have is John Shooter's "Sour Puss". He calls it in his catalog his best yellow, and it's hard to disagree. When it was cooler in early May it had a slight green tinge to it, but now it's mostly acid yellow. I couldn't capture all the blooms on this one scape - there were more in back, but it will give you an idea of why I'm so keen on this daylily. The blooms look so large because they are...Maryl

Ah, I was wondering when this thread would arrive (of course, for some people it's still early or mid season).

My plants are all still less than 2 full years in the garden, so I expect more improvement.

Bud king for me was BOLD MOVE (Maryott) at 20. It also put up 10 scapes from 5 fans, each fan reblooming exactly once, with the rebloom scapes the same height as the originals.

Nate

Bud vice president was DOUBLE DOWN (Breeden) at 19, from a Houston area hybridizing couple. It also increased and rebloomed quite a lot. Smaller flower, not very fancy and usually partial doubling.

Nate

Bud bronze medalist was FIRE AGATE (Stamile), a great plant in my garden, at 18. It doubles some, but not always (as in the picture). It is currently reblooming.

Nate

Nate - Bold Move sounds like another winner from Maryott: nice bud count, terrific rebloom and I see it sets pods for you! Thanks for posting your best bud counts! I've heard of the Breedens before. Double Down is small but mighty. Thanks for posting your bud counts!

Maryl - Sour Puss looks and sounds like a great performer. I like the pink blush in the petals, and it looks like a very large flower.

Debra

Avery's Little Brother

Buds Little Brother is quite pretty too...of course, in my heat, it would probably be more toward red dpectrum.]
kay

The most buds on one scape has been LADY LUCILLE. A couple of day ago I counted 39, today I count 41. The other scapes on this plant have mostly buds that are too small to get a complete count, but mostly they are in the 15 to 25 range. But I am going to keep an eye out to see if it is a bud-builder. The plant has 17 scapes and more rebloom scapes continue to appear.

CIMARRON ROSE has 18 scapes, average bud count of 12 to 15. Began blooming on June 6 and has a few weeks to go. This is a 3 year old plant.

BEAUTIFUL EDGINGS has 15 scapes, average bud count of 12 and is a 4 year old plant.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN has 17 scapes on a 3 year old plant. One fan has 3 scapes. Bud count between 8 and 10.

Christine

OOOOOO, Maryl, I love SOUR PUSS!
Christine

What exactly does the term "bud builder" mean?

Thanks!
~Anika

Here is a link that might be useful: GothicLibrarian.net

Ed - Avery's Little Brother looks like a great plant. Congratulations on your hybridizing!

Christine - How do you get these daylilies to multiply so well in such a short time? The ONLY daylily I've ever had multiply that quickly is Westbourne Good Old Days.

Anika - Bud builders continue to add on buds from the end of a branch as the the scape is well into its bloom. The new buds emerge right next to what would have been the last bud on the scape. There are not a lot of these daylilies, and most of them are diploids. Some examples of true bud builders that I have are Crimson Pirate and TNT. In some years, Autumn Wood and North Wind Dancer have been bud builders.

Debra

In second place for best bud producer in my garden, it was a four-way tie. Each of these daylilies had at least one scape with 29 buds.

MY MELINDA - This one was a surprise because I did NOT water the garden where she blooms, and she was surrounded by tall grass during much of the spring. I don't pay much attention at all to Melinda, yet she performs amazingly. (The other three cultivars in 2nd place were watered regularly, and one was fertilized.)

Here's a photo of that beautifully branched scape to the right of the last bloom on MY MELINDA. I put a piece of posterboard behind it, so you could see it better.

JITTERBUG BLUES also had 29 buds on three scapes. I did water this garden almost daily, and JB was fertilized in mid-April.

FROZEN MARGARITA had 29 buds on one scape, 28 on another, and 25 buds on four scapes. She was hand watered at least four times a week starting in early May. I feel great about her bud counts because Bob Schwarz only registered her as having 20 buds per scape.

EL DESPERADO has been on the list of my top 10 bud kings for the past six consecutive years. Always a stellar performer, he is growing in a bed that I began watering regularly in mid-May.

What I'm finding interesting is how many of my bud kings and queens are dormants. Of these four, only Jitterbug Blues is not a dormant. A semievergreen, JB has a dormant on each side of its parentage. My evergreens took a big hit from Mother Nature this year in for form of stunted scapes and few buds.

Debra

Debra, wow, look at that branching on MY MELINDA. That's one negative about LADY LUCILLE. The branches are just too short, and once she gets going, it's really crowded.

As for the increasing, due to nonexistant planning, some of the daylilies are (temporarily - ha, ha) in the vegetable garden which over the years had generous additions of mushroom soil (AKA horse manure), compost, grass clippings, bales of straw. So, the soil is quite good. I water about once a week, don't fertilize, but I do distribute (thanks, Rita) alfalfa pellets around in good quantity in the spring. The rebloom on GSTQ, CIMARRON ROSE and BEAUTIFUL EDGINGS was significant this year, but I wonder if this good performance isn't just a weather-related fluke.
Christine

I'll have to pull this thread back up once our season gets into swing. Great topic.

Well, Crimson Pirate is bud building again - and not just on one scape but on three this time. Some of you may remember, this little red spider was my 2011 bud king with 45 buds. It kept building buds until August last year. Right now one of the scape with the most buds has 28, so it may well exceed Little Mystic Moon. That's if an extended period of triple digit temps doesn't stop its bud building magic.

CRIMSON PIRATE - Number 3 with a bullet

Debra

My WONDER OF IT ALL is still blooming., so cant count the blooms it had yet.

jean

Christine, how many fans did those plants have when you first received them? That is some excellent increase.

Debra, how do you know whether a daylily is a boy or a girl? *grin*

Nate

Nate - the good performers were originally 2 fans. But truly, I have more failures than successes. Some cultivars planted at the same time in the same vicinity with 2 fans are barely limping along. (Namely, SILVER RINGS, BRAIDED EDGINGS, BORN TO RUN, BAS RELIEF, OPTICAL ART, SWAN ANGEL to name a few. All of these have underperformed this year, and if they croaked, I would not replace them).
Christine

Nate - Some are easy to figure out the gender. El Desperado, for example. In Spanish El denotes male, so do words ending in o like Desperado. If they're pink, they must be female, don't you think? Others like Jitterbug Blues could go either way. Maybe they're transgender. :)

Debra

ORCHID ELEGANCE is in fourth place on my bud count list with 24 buds. Besides the great branching and budcounts, this cultivar has already put up four or five rebloom scapes.

Clump shot - throat looks orange because the blooms are backlit by the sun. It doesn't really have an orange throat.

In 5th place with 23 buds are two unusual forms by Terah George, GRAPE TWIZZLER and RASPBERRY TWIZZLER.

Here's GRAPE TWIZZLER

In 6th place is my own seedling Chartered Course X NOID, garden named "Rubber Maid."

In 7th place with 21 buds are BLUSH OF EMERALD, DESPERADO LOVE, MISTER BUBBLES and WINTER TREASURE.

Debra

It's always interesting to read this kind of threads.
El Desperado is awesome. That's a beautiful picture of Rubber Maid.
Most of mine with good bud count are older flowers.
Sherry Lane Carr with 33+2 (2 are getting yellow), 38 34 and 30 buds. Not quite its last year record of 40+
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Bombay Silk with 28 and 38 (and instant rebloom); last year was 34 and only one scape
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Chance Encounter is doing good, 27 and 24, it has 8 scapes I only counted two; not correct color
{{gwi:803899}}

I'll post the rest later

Well, I didn't count the buds but Paco Paco was in the first to bloom and he's still going. If I remember tomorrow, I will count the scar but it's to darn hot to do it now..Ellie

Nat - Those are still very impressive bud counts for Sherry Lane Carr, even though it didn't reach last year's record. I'm really impressed with your numbers on Chance Encounter. Mine has never had more than 20 - even in that year we had the flood. The scapes AND blooms on Bombay Silk are gorgeous!

Debra

I meant to mention this one the other day, but I couldn't remember the name until now. At the flower show at our regional, two people brought scapes of PLANET MAX. One was from Dallas and one was from Houston. They had so many buds that I decided to count them, and they both had between 38 and 42 buds.

One scape could be an aberration, but I think two scapes from different places is a pretty solid endorsement of the plant.

Nate

Nate - Thanks for adding that information about Planet Max. I'd never heard about that one having a lot of buds before.

Debra

Thank you, Debra. Those three flowers are in the best spot (for my garden), the sunniest.

Here are the others I counted buds on -
Super Mama with 33 (and there were two more scapes with 33 and 28 that cats broke, and it has several rebloom scapes)
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Dream Legacy with 30 buds on one of the scapes I could reach. It was 2 fans plus one small last year
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Another older one, Elegant Candy with 26 28 28, and it has two scapes in one fan
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Light of the World with 28; it has several scapes but I counted only one closest to me
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Yet another oldie, Lullaby Baby with 26. It had 35 & 28 last year. There were 4 scapes but 2 dried out. It's growing in somewhat shady spot

Iowa Summer Evening with 39 and 29, has 3 scapes + 3 instant, I didn't bother with that 3rd scape. I guess she's the winner
{{gwi:803906}}

And since I was counting buds in the heat ;) I'll add what else I checked:
Cosmic Traveler 20
Filipina Bride 20
Soul on Fire 20 18 24
Utopia or Oblivion 22

Should we do the worst bud count too? ;) :)

Just bumping this up to remind our Northern most Garden Webbers to post their bud queens and kings.

Nat - If you want to start a thread about worst bud counts, go ahead. I would recommend that it only be for established plants. Especially in the North this might be useful info since some of the Florida bred plants have 35-50 there but under 10 for Northern growers.

Here's my update on ones I posted. Crimson Pirate's bud building was cut short by the 10 days of triple digit temps. It ended the season with three scapes with 29 buds each, and two others with 22. Seedling "Rubber Maid," who was my sixth place finisher with 22 buds, put up a very nice rebloom scape with 19 buds.

CRIMSON PIRATE

Northerners - Don't forget to add your info here.

Debra

I did not count buds on any of mine, but did keep a rrecord as to how many blooms WONDER OF IT ALL had this year. Was 145 blooms, and had its first bloom on May 10th and last bloom on JULY 12th.My next high bloom daylily is CHINS BRIDE, but I did not keep a record of her blooms,and most of the scapes are no longer on it either, but she IS still blooming, too.Its a great daylily, too.

jean

Here's another vote for BEAUTIFUL EDGINGS. It was one of the first to start blooming, and it is still blooming, as of today. Frosted Amethyst and Beautiful To Behold by Carpenter and another Carpenter seedling that I call Awesome Angel had loads of blooms, and bloomed consistently. But Beautiful Edgings is still at it...healthy, tall scapes - a great lily.

Northerner here! I didn't count the buds, but here are my best bloomers this year in the drought.

Shy Girl
Mister Bubbles
Snake in the grass boo
Culture Vulture
Bombay Silk
Playing With Sharks
Cameroons
Moonlit Masquerade
Belle Isle Eye
Sweet Butter Cream
Harvest Moth
Lavender Blue Baby
Tetrina's Granddaughter
Janice Brown
Heavenly Masquerade
Cookie MOnster

Best Bloomers but Top branched:

Charles Johnston
Root Beer
Highland Pinched Fingers
Coburg Preview (usually had good branching)
Kent's Favorite Too
Wayside King Royale

Going to bump up this thread with just one thing I can add. Since I was gone, I didn't get to do much in the way of bud counting, but I must get this one, for sure--Beautiful Edgings, in our garden for its first bloom season, is now in rebloom with three scapes.

I counted 28 buds on this one, up from 17 when I first began to count.

This one now has 13, since I began the count, up from 10.
Scape #3 is in the development stage, won't bloom for awhile but the count now is 8, will check again in a few days to see if more are added. Also, the first scapes in the spring were rather short, but these have reached the listed height of 30 inches, and I think gone beyond that. Just amazing to me. Evidently, everything has gone right for this plant, wish all our Dls were all like this. Avedon

Jean - Wonder of It All bloomed a long time here too. It will be my longest blooming daylily, if the three still blooming don't beat it.

Alameda and Avedon - I'm one of the few on this forum who doesn't grow Beautiful Edgings, but it sounds like I should. It sounds like it is bud building for Avedon.

Dani - I see you have several on your list that I also grow: Snake in the Grass Boo, Mister Bubbles and Harvest Moth. While those have all done well for me in the past, here they had mediocre performance. In fact, I've lost a couple of fans of Harvest Moth. Some of my dormants didn't like the warm winter.

Debra

Debra- It's Harvest Moth's 3rd year and it has not done much for me until ths year. I've got a ton of pods set, too. Strange! Mister Bubbles- I had to get it after your pics that you post. Shorter plant, but still has good branching. Snake in the grass boo- Beautiful flower but WILL NOT set pods. Pollen is poor, too (atleast this year).

The one I'm worried about is Neon Flamingo. Had 2 fans and I've lost one.

Dani - That's so strange that Snake in the Grass won't set pods for you. It sets pods here - even in the hottest temperatures.

Debra

Compared to those monster numbers from further south, my bud counts seem piddly. These were the best (and they were all on plants with at least three-way branching):

1. Two Sues (21)
2. As the World Turns (19)
3. Claudine's Charm (18)
4. Finish with a Flourish (17)
5. Odds and Ends (16)
6. Betty Ford (15)
7. Arctic Lace (14)

Chris - It amazes me to see how well Two Sues and Claudine's Charm do for you. I still have those growing in pots. Claudine's Charm had 4-5 buds per scape, and Two Sues had 9-10. NOw your bud counts don't so low, do they?

Debra

Debra I was half serious about worst bud count. Of course most of the southern plants' bud counts are not even close.

And I found a bud builder here! It's George Jets On. Found 2 buds on it yesterday. I thought it was done.

And like Jean I count flowers (and then scapes). Last couple years I had a diploid with 300+ flowers but it was sick this year. So this year's winner so far is Soul on Fire with 154 flowers (I consider them doing well when they have over 100 :)) and it had 11 scapes incl. 4 instant.
The problem is they all bloom out very quickly. FFO on Soul on Fire was on 6/14 and LFO on 7/19

Debra, I'm feeling a little better now. Once I hit the magical 20 mark, I was pretty excited.

My best scape in the garden was Yellow Monkey with 41 buds. Another scape had 29. I will check out the rest of the garden this weekend. I know there will be some that are above 25.

{{gwi:673384}}

What a nice scape on Yellow Monkey!

Debra

Elegant candy topped out at 29 this year. It is normally in the 30s. I can't seem to find any pictures of it from this year.

Raspberry Candy had 25 buds and Ah Youth and Lullaby Baby had 24. It was an off year for the last two. They are usually around 30.

Ah Youth

I found a picture of Elegant Candy from August 4th.

I have never counted buds, but just today I pulled 37 dried up scapes off Wisteria. I don't know how many years I've had this one. Its a huge clump, and I'm sure it needs dividing but it still blooms forever.

Thirty-seven scapes from one clump is A LOT! It must have given you many, many flowers!