- Angel’s Smile
Part 3 – Angel’s Smile
You cannot discuss the work of Brother Charles and not talk about Angel’s Smile which is easily the cultivar for which he is best known. It is a charming little flower but certainly not the best plant – slow growing, prone to bud drop and so dormant that southern growers treated it like an annual. Yet everybody and his brother used it. An old search of the AHS database showed 95 first generation kids out of Angel’s Smile and it is probably more by now. The progeny of Angel’s Smile show various attributes in a range of colours – rounded petals, watermarks, halos, even blue-violet eyezones, but most will show ruffles and gold edges.
The most dramatic edges in the progeny however came in crosses with cultivars that already had strong edges like Admiral’s Braid and Startle. John Benz had 3 intros out of the cross of Startle x Angel’s Smile those being Imperial Gypsy, Millennium Madness and Shirley Farmer all of which showed teeth. Of course that cross has 3/4′s Reckamp genetics with My Sunshine being the parent to Startle. Midnight Dazzle (Benz-J, 2005)is a cross of Tet Super Purple x Angel’s Smile and while I suspect that Super Purple doesn’t have much of an edge, you can still some some shark’s teeth popping out in this cultivar.
I actually find it a bit surprising that Angel’s Smile has not been used more with strongly edged cultivars. Perhaps a better strategy given the plant habit of Angel’s Smile is to use some of its kids crossed with toothy cultivars.
Next, Techny Peach Lace on the Daylily Teeth Blog
Dave Mussar
Puslinch, Ontario
© 2011, Mike. All rights reserved. Copyright extended to images.