Consider the daylilies: a guide to creating your own personal hybrids.

ONE GREAT JOY OF DAYLILIES IS THAT IT IS SO EASY to create your own hybrids. By breeding plants, you can create new plants that have enhanced or even new features just to your own personal liking. The actual technique of hybridizing daylilies is quite simple--anyone can do it. Simply take the pollen from one flower, paint it onto the pistil of another, harvest and plant the seeds, and within nine months to two years your newly created hybrids can bloom.

The easiest way to hybridize daylilies is to remove a stamen from one flower and brush its pollen onto the pistil of another flower. If the parents of a particular desired cross do not bloom at the same time, collect …