Jones, Andrew (University of Guelph)

Purpose

Daylilies are a versatile group of plants grown primarily as ornamentals in North America with great diversity in flower size, colour, and other characteristics. Despite the large degree of diversity available, few cultivars are commercially available and are not necessarily selected based on their suitability to Canadian growing conditions or even their floral characteristics. A major bottle neck in developing new cultivars for the mass market is the slow rate of plant multiplication of many promising cultivars. For example, while some cultivars reproduce quickly with a multiplication rate of 25:1 per season, others may only produce one new shoot per year. As a result, propagation rate limits the commercial feasibility of some desirable cultivars and it generally takes 10-20 years to move from the enthusiast market to commercial scale. The objective of this project is to test a variety of propagation strategies to increase the multiplication rate of daylilies to overcome this bottleneck, thereby reducing the time to market and enabling commercial production of some elite lines that multiply slowly using conventional means. These strategies will include root/leaf cuttings, application of growth regulators to induce multiple shoots, induction of proliferations on flower stocks, and the application of advanced cell culture techniques. As a result, Ontario daylily breeders/grower will be able to bring superior cultivars adapted to Ontario growing conditions quicker and cheaper, ultimately increasing consumer selection.