By Deborah Morehead

“The winning daylily, known simply as #33, is one of about 50 varieties ISRR has developed as part of a comprehensive partnership with the Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association’s Beautiful Gardens program, of which Virginia Tech is a key collaborator.”

Researchers at the Institute for Sustainable and Renewable Resources (ISRR), located at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) in Danville, have developed a triploid daylily that took a blue ribbon at the Richmond Daylily Show and a yellow ribbon at the Tidewater Daylily Show in its first two showings last summer (2008).

The winning daylily, known simply as #33, is one of about 50 varieties ISRR has developed as part of a comprehensive partnership with the Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association’s Beautiful Gardens program, of which Virginia Tech is a key collaborator. Bred to exhibit prolonged blooming and more vigorous growth, the triploid lily, according to ISRR researcher Zhiwu Li, “will be much more valuable than the popular existing cultivars in the floriculture market because of its rarity and its unique phenotype.”

Dr, Barry Flinn (l.) and Dr. Zhiwu Li (r.) are in the final stages of preparation before taking their colorful daylily commercial.”

Li and his cohorts at ISRR and at Virginia Tech have some 20 daylily varieties currently in the garden for evaluation. According to Barry Flinn, director of ISRR, the triploid is expected to go commercial in the very near future. “Working with the IALR Foundation, we hope to have our commercial tissue culture propagation company up and running before the fall,” he says. “One of the first plants that will go into production will be #33, with additional daylilies and other plants to follow.

Virginia Tech Magazine Feature

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