Background history:

'Handsome Ross Carter' is a evergreen diploid introduced in 1993 by Spalding-W..

It has earned the following AHS awards:
Honorable Mention: 2005

This plant can be found in our Plant Database at:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Handsome Ross Carter') .

Please join in, if you own this plant! We would love to know more! I award an acorn for performance information posted to this thread.



Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Handsome Ross Carter')

I received this plant from Stilldew back in 2017, it did well and bloomed nicely and I loved the color. However the spot I planted it in was soon taken over by Oak tree roots and I was forced to move all the plants in that bed. So I really can't make much of a report on the plant yet.

I bought a box of daylilies from Stilldew here on the forum back on 09/08/2017 and this was one of the plants in the box. I love the color: The plant had to be moved the second year here due to invasive Oak tree roots. It recovered from the move and has been in that spot since and has bloomed regularly. I don't show having divided the plant so it is not a fast increaser.

It blooms above the foliage.

Bloom from last year.

Here in my garden it is not a daylily with a high bud count and lots of blooms.

Pretty, though.

Handsome Ross Carter does have beautiful blooms, but I was not fond of the bloom to height ratio. It is registered at 14" tall with 6" blooms. My daughter loved it, so she has had it for the past 10 years and it has done better for her as far as blooming above the foliage and it seems to be taller for her, but all my pictures show that it bloomed down in the foliage or just barely at the top.

Usually two-way branching with maybe 12 buds. Blooms from mid-June to mid-July in our zone 6b. I don't recall ever seeing rust on it, but I only had it from 2009 to 2013. If my daughter had any issues with it, she would have said something.


This is what it looked like in my garden in June 2013. I wish the scapes could be about a foot taller. 'Handsome Ross Carter' is in the foreground, with 'Panama Hattie' (registered at 28") and 'Bold Heritage' (registered at 27") in the background.


It has a beautiful green throat and sometimes the orange- red eyezone is very prominent.


One thing I realized about this plant blooming at my daughter's house is that she has two clumps that bloom in the landscape around the pool. There are no other daylilies close by to compete with for attention, so this one looks bright and beautiful when in bloom and the height is perfect for the area she has it. I wish I had a picture of it in her landscaped area.