In the spring here, when the snow cover thaws, the deer eat or have already eaten the leaves of most of the daylilies in my field. That makes it difficult to check registered classifications. The assumption has been that some of the daylilies registered as evergreen in locations further south of me are evergreen because they do not experience the environmental signals that cause them to set buds. Such daylilies would more likely experience those signals here where days can be shorter and the temperatures can be lower.

One such daylily is 'Priscilla's Rainbow' (PR). It is registered as evergreen. It sprouts in the spring in Ontario as a dormant. It also does that in Kentucky. However I think that it was simply incorrectly registered as evergreen and that it sprouts as a dormant everywhere that it is grown.

1) Does PR sprout like an evergreen for anyone?

2) If you grow any registered evergreens that sprout like dormants in the spring can you please name them.

Priscilla's Rainbow (Spalding-Guillory, 1985)
height 22 inches (56 cm), bloom 6.25 inches (16 cm), season M, Evergreen, Diploid, Pink lavender with rainbow halo and green throat.


Photo courtesy of Sue B. (Sooby).

By sprout like a dormant I specifically mean that the sprout has some very very short outermost/lower "leaves" that do not get very long at all.

Yes--Monica Marie behaves like this in my garden. Here, evergreens usually behave like evergreens and semi-evergreens usually behave like evergreens, too. I even have one or two dormants--Rainbow Candy springs to mind--that is evergreen here.

I don't remember how MM behaved the first few years I had her. But the last couple of seasons, I have specifically noticed that she has behaved like a dormant.

This picture would have been better last week. The emerging plant looked just like Maurice's picture above of Priscilla's Rainbow.

Spacecoast Black Sensation is like this.
Not a hint of a leaf in winter, then out it pops next year.

However, I have to note it emerges later than any "true" dormant.
So much so that I keep thinking it is dead and planning a replacement.
Pretty much the last one to emerge, maybe a full month or more after all the others are out and growing.

Does that count? Or is it just in "survival mode"?

Edited to add that the ones I hybridize with all emerge a bit later than the ones I did not, the year after. SCBS is also one I do set pods on.

@DeweyRooter Thank you. I have both of those cultivars growing in my field. I can check MM when it stops snowing since I know where one plant of it is. To check the second plant I will need to use my maps of the field. I will have to find 'Rainbow Candy' on my maps before I can check it in the field.

@plasko20

plasko20 said: Spacecoast Black Sensation is like this.
...
is it just in "survival mode"?

That may depend. How many fans are there in the autumn? How many fans finally appear the next year? Are the fans in the autumn large (wide at the base)? Are the fans that appear in the spring much narrower at the base than the fans were in the autumn?
Does it flower each year?

Just read your edit; thank you for the extra information. If it flowers reasonably well in comparison to previous years and bearing in mind that setting pods on a plant uses resources that would have been used for increase in fans or surviving winter, etc. I suspect that your plant is acting as a dormant (can anyone who also grows 'Spacecoast Black Sensation' please provide more information).

Here is a photo taken April 8th, 2023.
It is too small for me to see any details (blue circle).
It does flower each year, though. As for the narrowness vs thickness at different times of year, I have no memory or record of that.

OK, upon zooming in there is definite fan damage (especially on the right fan) as may occur with evergreens. But we did have that Arctic blast last year, which did damage a lot of things.

I will keep a better watch and records this year.

@plasko20 Orion
Leaf (fan) damage does not necessarily rule out that a plant is acting as a dormant. The cold hardiness of leaves could be independent of the cold hardiness of shoot apical meristems (growing points). In general plants are more cold hardy when they are not actively growing and less cold hardy when they are actively growing. Plants are less cold hardy (or not cold hardy at all) if they are not cold-acclimated in comparison to when they are cold acclimated.

Your plant is actively growing and may have lost its cold acclimation.