Background history:

'Yesterday Memories' is a evergreen introduced in 1976 by Spalding-W..

It has earned the following AHS awards:
Award of Merit: 1985
Honorable Mention: 1982
LAA: 1986
PC: 1981

This plant can be found in our Plant Database at:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Yesterday Memories') .

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 'Yesterday Memories')

I bought Yesterday Memories during an Oakes sale in May of 2022. It had been on my radar before then because of Maryl's experience; she posted a note on the plant's entry about a rust outbreak she had during which Yesterday Memories remained clean even when surrounded by rusty plants. I am always looking for rust-resistant plants, so it went onto my want list.

Unfortunately, I must have different strains of rust here, because Yesterday Memories fell victim to rust within a year. I have had to keep cutting it back, and that has affected the bloom. It is a pretty pink, though, and someone for whom rust isn't a problem might like it. This is one of the few bloom pictures I have of yesterday Memories:

That is too bad, Nan. I know what it is like to have hopes for a particular trait and then be disappointed. It is a pretty color.

I grew this one for a summer more than 25 years ago but it died during its first winter.

Golly Nan: I'm so sorry it rusted for you. When I got rust that one year I pitched all my daylilies that had rust, but kept Yesterday Memories because it never got spot one. I've had this same plant since almost the beginning of the millennium in a pot and it has survived everything Oklahoma can throw at it. But as you found out, rust plays no favorites which is why I'm very finicky about where I buy new daylilies. I want to reduce the risk of ever having it again (and knock on wood - haven't had it since that one episode).........As for Yesterday Memories itself, I'm still sold on it and highly recommend people give it a try. All the awards it won were deserved given my own experience. Here are a few pictures of it.

The branching is very good on it with blooms seldom crowding each other at the top:


Blooms well in the landscape highlighting other plants around it without looking like a giraffe with a pot of flowers on its head:




This is the daylily I will take to the rest home with me. It has just proven to be so versatile and resilient. An odd thing too is that it is an Evergreen. I have a hard time keeping Sevs going with my pot culture, but Yesterday Memories never misses a beat even when temperatures have dropped down to the single digits or even below Zero for days on end. It's my little sweetheart daylily...........Maryl

@Maryl, I am so glad you wrote a review of Yesterday Memories. It's nice to hear how well the plant has done for you, and I love the way it looks in your pictures. It's so good for readers of the site to see a review from someone who has had wonderful success with a plant.

I am never surprised when a plant that is rust-resistant for someone else gets rust here. I consider my yard "rust central," and I don't spray any fungicides. I have had a lot of plants coming in over the past few years, so I am sure I have newer strains of rust than you. Yesterday Memories fell victim to one of them.

With that said, I love the way you described the plant as the one you will take to the rest home. That really is a testament to how well it has done for you over the years and how much you love it.

Nan: That rust is a bear isn't it. Never hope to see it again. Do you have any daylilies that have proven rust proof in what you call "rust central"?..........On Yesterday Memories I failed to mention something very important to me and many of those who grow in hot summer areas. Yesterday Memories is heat hardy. The second picture I posted was taken smack dab in the middle of the afternoon in full sun with a temperature of 95 degrees. It has even withstood our triple digit heat (107 last year) and held up pretty well considering (not that I recommend it in place of a cactus when the temperature is searing like that)...........Maryl

I have grown some cultivars that are very rust-resistant. Some of my dormants don't show any rust at all except at the very end of the season, right before the foliage dies back for the winter. That is good enough.

Only a few have been completely rust-free. I started a thread about rust-resistant cultivars and will find it and bump it up to answer your question so I don't take over this thread about Yesterday Memories.

I've grown Yesterday Memories for a little over a decade. I'm in Maine zone 5a. It seems to be a slow increaser, but it is a lovely attraction in my Lenington Award Garden.