Just wanted to let those interested know that I emailed Maureen Strong about donating extra daylily seeds to the International Seed Bank. I received two replies from her below:
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Hi Becky,
Your message is to timely! Right now there is a person from mid-Pakistan who is hoping to receive some crosses but he needs evergreen or semi-evergreen crosses for his climate and I have none in the Seed Bank right now, only dormant crosses. Anyway, here is some info about how it works. Donations from North American daylily gardeners (US and Canada) are invited and most welcome to donate their extra seed crosses.
I’m not sure how much you know about the AHS International Seed Bank, but it is a way of sharing daylilies around the world, even to countries that cannot import plants safely or economically. Plants are subject to agricultural inspections and require phytosanitary certificates in order to be sent across borders while seeds usually aren’t, depending on the country. Daylily seeds are donated by North Americans and sent to me where the envelopes of crosses are kept refrigerated. The parentages of the crosses and related info is entered into an Exel spreadsheet which is emailed out to those requesting it and who live outside of North America. Recipients do not have to be AHS members. Once those interested have indicated their choices and returned the spreadsheet, the seeds are mailed out to them.
Because this is an outreach program of the AHS, there is no charge to recipients of the seeds. It works so well because of the generosity of seed donors from around your country and mine, who are often rewarded with letters of thanks from recipients, and sometimes photos of resulting seedlings!
Thanks for writing, please let me know if you would like more information.
Maureen Strong
AHS International Membership Chair (and “Treasurer” of the Seed Bank)
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AND ....
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Hi Becky,
Thanks for your enthusiasm! For the seed bank, fresh (not wrinkled dry) seeds are best option, packed in small clear plastic pouches or bags with the parentages written on the outside or enclosed in the packet, pod parent first, then pollen parent. To explain, after harvesting the ripe pods and shelling each of them into mini muffin trays along with their ID tag, I leave them on the kitchen counter to air dry overnight. Before putting each seed cross into their individual packet/baggie, I do the squish test. Squeeze each one gently, discarding any that are squishy.
They can be mailed to me in bubble envelopes, the smaller the envelope, the less expensive to mail, as long as it will still fit through a letter-rate mail slot. If your Post Office has those little customs stickers, you can use one of those to write “daylily garden seeds” or else just write it on the envelope or box in the bottom left portion, even better if you write “daylily fulva seeds” then the customs officers would be able to find the full entry in their systems. Nothing else, just like mailing a letter or a box. That’s the great part about sending seeds around the world instead of plants (except to countries like Australia), no phyto certificate required!
You’re most welcome to pass on the information to All Things Plants. It might also generate interest in daylilies if there are any international enthusiasts on the forum....spreading the daylily smile around the world!
My address is below. Many thanks Becky,
Maureen Strong
48 Lakeshore Drive
Stoney Creek, Ontario
Canada L8E 5C7
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Michele (tink3472) also posted a thread about this a few years ago, so here is her thread link:
The thread "International Seed Bank donations" in
Daylilies forum
If you have extra seeds that you would like to donate, above is the information.
If you are outside of the US or Canada, you can contact Maureen for some FREE daylily seeds! Don't be shy! This is a good way to get some crosses of some daylilies that you might not be able to obtain in your country.
Her email address:
[email protected]
I will be mailing some seeds out to her this week or next.
