Kenneth Hixon mentioned Lilium ‘Black Beauty’. From a hybridist’s point of view, ‘Black Beauty’ is one of the most important hybrid lilies ever raised. Many of the first generation of modern OT hybrids (hybrids of Oriental and Trumpet lilies) have this lily in their background. How can that be if it is sterile? Part of the answer is that ‘Black Beauty’ exists (thanks to much determined lab work back in the 1950s and 1960s) in several forms. The easiest to work with from a breeding point of view are apparently the tetraploids. These tetraploid forms have been in commerce now and then since many years ago. It’s possible, Kenneth, that what you have is one of the somewhat more tractable tetraploid forms. Kenneth also mentioned the successful use of triploid Hemerocallis pollen in hybridization. Yes, I knew about that, and should have mentioned it. When a similar topic was discussed on this forum years ago, I think it was Jim Shields who pointed out to me (maybe in a private communication rather than in a posting to the forum) that the use of triploid Hemerocallis pollen was sometimes successful. Most of what I know about breeding with triploids comes from what I know about lily breeding. With true lilies, the probability of success using triploid pollen seems to be very low. But many triploid lilies set abundant easily germinated seed when given suitable tetraploid pollen. Lycoris and true lilies are not closely related. So little is known about breeding in Lycoris that you will have to excuse me for looking to other groups for potential models. But as the use of triploid pollen in Hemerocallis demonstrates, past experience is not always a good guide to future success, and it pays to try everything many times. And I would ask those of you who find these posts too long or too boring to consider something E.A.Bowles wrote in one of his books: “If readers…come across passages containing more references to illustrations and the lore of early authors than they appreciate, will they please skip them, charitably believing that there are others to whom they may prove useful and interesting?” Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/