Background history:

'Sweet Sugar Candy' is a dormant introduced in 1991 by Stamile.

It has earned the following AHS awards:
Honorable Mention: 2008

This plant can be found in our Plant Database at:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Sweet Sugar Candy') .

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 'Sweet Sugar Candy')

I guess my review is more of how a daylily can languish when planted under a tree.
Because unfortunately, Sweet Sugar Candy sat right under a Japanese maple tree for most of the time in my garden, so it really hasn't had a chance to shine until recently. The Japanese maple was cut down in 2022 because the roots were raising the sidewalk and other areas.

I got SSC in July 2009 and it has not been moved since then. I'm sure it would do better if I dug and divided it now that the tree is gone. Branching and bud count has always been low. And again, because of the tree roots, I do not think that it got as tall as the 25" registration height.

July 8, 2023


SSC is supposed to be a late bloomer, but it blooms from about the last week of June to mid-July in my 6b zone. I have not seen rust on it. The blooms always seem to be perfect and they are always fully opened by 7am.

Back in the 1990's when my garden was in Michigan, I grew many of Stamile's popular "Candy" series and SWEET SUGAR CANDY was my favorite. It had cookie cutter blooms that always opened right to make perfect recurved blooms every time in a clean pink color with an excellent scape, as well. Unfortunately, many of the candy series were tissue cultured later and fell into disfavor when the tissue cultured versions were not like the original. You can see the variations in the database with weaker eyezones and blooms that aren't opening right. If you can locate plants from the original hybridizer's stock….nearly impossible now, I would highly recommend it. If not, you are buying an inferior tissue culture.

I bought SSC in TX in 2022 [I'm sure it is a TC plant] & picture above is from that year. No bloom in 2023 first year in-ground. None of the Candy series do well in my TX yard but are great in MI [Huckleberry Candy would 't bloom, Strawberry Candy bloomed sporadically in TX]. So...it's heading North next summer to join the "cousins"

Good information to know, Judy. Since I got mine in 2009 from a local daylily farm that used to be here, it probably came from the Stamiles because I know they purchased a lot from them, but who knows...

I bought Strawberry Candy from a big box store and then found out about tissue cultured daylilies. I got rid of that plant and got another one from someone, but am still not sure if it is tissue cultured or not.