We were sorry that the year for photographing ended abruptly with the onset of very hot dry weather. But before this happened, we were able to record many new and recent daylily introductions both at home and at other places.
Our list this year includes powerful new daylilies, which had the ability to have special appeal for one reason or another. All of them were notable contributions to the daylily scene and to pare them down to just a few was a difficult job. What follows is the result of sorting and endless selecting.
What a challenge at home! Even with the third dry and hot year, constant care and watering has paid off with quite presentable plants and blooms. We wonder that our weather pattern has changed. If this is so we are preparing ourselves to be able to cope in one-way or another. One thing is certain – we will continue to do our best knowing that next bloom season will also be a good one. We will again try to record at least some of the daylily beauty growing around us.
ONE LAST DANCE by Steve Moldovan was a huge 6.5-inch rose beauty with giant ruffles. Blooms were widespread and had a large cream watermark and dark green throat. Not symmetrical, ONE LAST CHANCE is in that class of fine cultivars that are memorable and beautiful. Flowers had a narrow, light border around their petals. This is also a good, solid, dormant tetraploid with exceptionally good substance.
BOLD ENCOUNTER by Pat Stamile has to be one of the best of the eyed, recurved, ruffled and edged daylilies out there. Our single fan increased like rabbits and the bloom buds kept coming on the scape like they wouldn’t quit. The flowers measured 5 inches across and are of a beautiful shade of light cream, pink and orchid coloration. The form is wide open – enough to show off the gorgeous bloom colors well, while the eye is a purple hue, broken into six parts at the midrib indentation. BOLD ENCOUNTER is a tetraploid
Pat Stamile’s PLATINUM AND GOLD had that clean, beautifully colored look. The near white, very slightly pink blooms were 5.5 inches wide and had a great gold edge around their petals. Blooms were flat and had a green throat. This tetraploid was loaded with small ruffles, bumps and “horns” around its petals. We also noticed that each days blooms were slightly different in some way, but always beautiful. One visitor described PLATINUM AND GOLD as “pure white velvet with a gold necklace around it.”
John Kennebrew is from Florida where he produces exceptional daylilies. His recent introductions show it. SPACECOAST SWEETNESS is one of them; a pink self, small flower (4-inch) daylily with much class. Blooms are very round with wide overlapping segments and intense, heavy ruffling. The throat is darker pink in color and seems to glow in the sun. SPACECOAST SWEETNESS is a very good addition to the small daylily class.
Jeff Salter’s MACHO MACHO MAN is a crisp looking beauty that must be mentioned. At home, it is a 7-inch lightest cream yellow with deeper golden edge. Blooms are round with heavy ruffling, which goes down into the little green throat, making for distinctive beauty. We were pleased with MACHO MACHO MAN’s ability to take any kind of harsh weather and temperature changes easily. Also, our strong plant grew well. Tetraploid.
LIGHTNING STRIKE by Pat Stamile joins the very small group of daylilies which are absolutely distinctive because of several reasons: wide overlapping segments, a huge feathered purple eye, great form, and petaloids which also have edging in two colors – purple and tan. This daylily is cream colored and has a purple picotee’ edge part way around its petals. Blooms are encircled with small ruffles. All of these features add up to a fine tetraploid daylily indeed.
We also liked Margo Reed’s CREATURE OF THE NIGHT, a dormant spider variant with lots of class. This is a purple with mauve segment ends and distinct cream midribs. Segment ends recurved under, displaying the nice cream green throat and the three colors. Blooms are 7-inches wide. We noticed that the mauve color is reminiscent of that in Child’s TRAHLYTA.
Jack Carpenter’s TEXAS MOON MAGIC was a 6-inch cream pink blend diploid which was outstanding also. This large diploid was a pastel pink cream of flat form and ribbed texture. Blooms had that “fresh” look, were well ruffled and recurved just enough to give it that fullness of flower form.
With ROSEMARY DIXON, Tom Wilson has a produced an exceptional 5.5-inch peach-pink blend daylily. Blooms had exceptionally good form and colors. We noticed shades of lighter pink on the blooms. This added to their distinctiveness. We also liked the small ruffling around all segments. ROSEMARY DIXON is a diploid and blooms well.
Jack Carpenter’s LAVENDER BLUE BABY is perfection in colors and form. This must be seen to be believed. Consider the colors: lavender, blue and green with a thin bluish band encircling the throat of the flower. To this add beautiful recurved deeply ruffled blooms and you have a fine daylily indeed. On many “lists,” LAVENDER BLUE BABY will be in demand for quite some time. We took our slide at the garden of Reuel and Bobbie Adams in Mt. Hermon, Louisiana. It was a “once in a great while” opportunity to photograph this uniquely colored daylily. Blooms are 5.5 inches wide on this dormant diploid.
Dr. Darrel Apps’ MERINGUE MIRAGE was a severely recurved double with a big and forward facing puff of petaloids that we admired. Petals and sepals were extra wide on this beautiful pastel blended daylily. The colors were pink, lavender and cream with slightly darker coloration around the petal and sepal edges. Blooms were slightly over 5-inches wide on this remarkable diploid. Darrel told us that blooms were consistently of double form.
We liked Bob Tanksley-Clark's VOLCANO, an unusual form 8-inch orange gold and light red polychrome. Bloom segments were rather narrow and wide-open, displaying a big cream green throat. Some of the segments were recurved while others had pinched ends. An attractive accent of this daylily was its extra long pistil sticking straight out of the flower throat. This one is for the grower seeking the unusual for the garden. Diploid.
Frank “Bud” Bennett has hybridized KNOW THE CODE, a fine 3-inch rosy lavender miniature with a rosy lavender purple eye that we liked. Blooms were full and round with heavy “seersucker” texture. The eye was vivid and beautiful, accenting the dark green throat. KNOW THE CODE is a diploid and definitely different.
We still spend much time photographing our favorite flower, often traveling far from home to do so. We are also happy that we are able to photograph successfully in our own yard. In any event, we try to seek and select the very best new and recent introductions from everywhere to write about. We consider this year to have been a successful one for us.
Clarence Crochet
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