Background history:

'Webster's Pink Wonder' is a semi-evergreen tetraploid introduced in 2003 by Richard Webster and his grandson, Rob Cobb (Webster-Cobb). Richard did his tetraploid hybridizing in his North Alabama backyard. More information can be read about Richard at this link: http://www.ctdaylily.com/Webst...

Webster's Pink Wonder is a mid-season bloomer. It has earned the following AHS awards: Honorable Mention: 2009, Award of Merit: 2012, and Stout Silver Medal: 2014. It is pollen fertile with currently 92 registered children: http://garden.org/plants/paren...

This plant can be found in the NGA Plant Database at:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Webster's Pink Wonder') .

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.





Also, please consider adding a "Local Report" to the NGA Plant Database! Thank you!

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Webster's Pink Wonder')

This daylily REALLY makes an impact. I love large daylilies, and this one truly fits the bill. Mine is too new to comment on how prolific it is or how good of a pod or pollen parent it is.

What I can say, however, is that it is a very distinctive daylily, with HUGE blooms. It's scapes are very tall and somewhat narrow. It also fared very poorly in the heat compared to several other varieties. I brought this home in the trunk of my car on a 90+ degree day (it was in there for a few hours) and it was the only daylily whose buds browned and withered, along with the top portion of the scape. Are some varieties of daylily more sensitive to heat? Perhaps, because its scapes are so tall, it is more prone to withering in extreme heat because plants, like humans, probably cut off 'supplies' (nutrients, water, warmth, etc...) to extremities in unfavorable conditions in order to preserve the bulk of the living mass. That's pure speculation, but it sounds pretty logical.

Anyway, I do love its huge blooms. I don't love pink, but this is a nice pink for a pink.

I just got mine about 2 weeks ago I look forward to incorporating it in my breeding program next year. Thanks Gerry!!

This daylily does very well in my Zone 5 garden. It is quite popular with visitors. I dig into the clump every year. It is pollen and pod fertile. I just love the huge blooms. I have even had it rebloom for me. Great all around daylily.

David

Thanks for sharing, I'm glad to hear it's both pollen and pod fertile.

WPW is 3 years old in my garden. It has increased from 2 fans to 5 in those 3 years. I noticed one fan is quite a distance from the clump so I am thinking it is a bit of a traveller. It is disappointing in the bud count as I don't think I got even 10 blooms this year. It is also not the registered height here . More like 24 inches. Perhaps it needs a longer time to really settle in. The color of the blooms is good and they are consistent, rain and sun fast. The blooms are the registered size and form.

Webster's Pink Wonder is a fabulous daylily. It really stands out from a distance and is also beautiful up close. This was my first year with it so I cannot report on it's increasing habit. I grow it in front of Lavendar Mist Meadow Rue and the contrast of the big floppy WPW blooms with the tiny meadow rue makes a beautiful show. My WPW held up will in rain and the colors stayed true. In short order this became one of my favorite daylilies.

WPW is vigorous and hardy here in my Z5 and makes a nice clump.

There have been over 100 daylilies registered with it as a parent, but in all but 3 cases it's the pollen parent. My experience and that of everyone I have ever spoken to about it is that it is an extremely difficult pod parent.

Here's a little tidbit for anyone wanting to hybridize with it ............ TRY DIP POLLEN ON IT. One of those 3 plants registered as having it as the pod parent is a dip. I have found that it is much easier to set a pod on it with dip pollen, but still takes repeated attempts. I haven't grown these seeds out, so can't speak to their fertility yet.

It would be interesting to have someone look at the pollen under a microscope.

Edited to add that it's pollen sets pods on dips easily.

This is one GREAT daylily! It clumps up fast, throws unbelievable numbers of scapes/flowers on an established clump, has great color and UF form, and seems to be somewhat resistant to rust. The only problem I have with it is it does all that at the expense of setting pods/making seeds. I have set pollen on it at least 500 times and gotten only one pod. Many of the daylilies that are like that---are like that. Another example is: Primal Scream. I put pollen on at least 500 flowers of it, and used it's pollen on another 100 or so. The pollen did not work at all. The plant set two pods from which I got a handful of seeds. However, the seedlings from those seeds are all keepers, so I guess it was worth it.
Here are some pics of the seedlings: The first ones are of Primal Scream x Cotopaxi, the next ones are of Primal Scream x Solar Music, the last few are of Primal Scream seedlings I got from Jim Jeffcoat.

Webster's Pink Wonder performed great for the first year in my garden and the weather we had in the spring. It had one scape with 5-6 blooms. The color is great. It truly lives up to being a Stout.

It does well in my zone 6 garden and the pollen works great,I have some nice seedlings from it.

So far the only bad thing I've heard about this daylily is it's low bud count, which is typical for lager flowers anyway. Has anybody noticed higher bud counts in it's offspring?

Well, I hate to be a party pooper, but this one was very disappointing here. Short scapes and low bud count. I couldn't believe the performance here when I saw pictures from elsewhere. The large flowers (not particularly sunfast) on short scapes were never impressive. I probably should have moved it and tried another location, but after many years, it left.

Webster's Pink Wonder has a low budcount which I think is how it is registered. Here the bloom makes a big statement I always know what is blooming at a glance. I am wondering how it will do next year as we had a huge branch fall during a storm so next season there will be more sun in the area.

Very showy bloom, good scape height, low bud count ( but more than one open would most likely not work anyway). Clumps well with any scapes. I divided and moved it last year and it did not miss a beat this year. I have only been successful with the pollen.

I thought I had a picture of the clump in full bloom--not. Since it clumps rapidly, the few blooms/scape are made up for by lots of scapes with flowers. That can be a better show because the flowers will not be crowded in the display. Again, daylilies like this that seldom produce pods/seeds are the best display plants in the garden. I do not know why your scapes were short. Could be too little nitrogen. Flowers will fade some in sun, but still look OK at the end of the day. Here's some flower pics of it:

In the first picture above, the coin is a US quarter.

My first year for Websters, and it was fantastic with 12 buds on one and14 on the other. Tall gorgeous flowers. I ordered three more fans so I have a nice clump of this one next year. Even those
who are not particularly fond of the spiders and unusual forms are impressed with Websters. The only Stout winner left in my collection.

I acquired 2 fans of Webster's Pink Wonder in September 2015 which were potted up. It was transplanted into a raised bed in October 2015. It produced 2 scapes in 2016 and bloomed the beginning of June probably through the middle to end of June. Large blooms that didn't hold upright straight on the scapes. The scapes leaned from the weight. Maybe as it gets more established the scapes will become stronger? Just a handful of blooms per scape.

Here it is a year later (Fall 2016) and it has shown no increase so, it remains at 2 fans.

The early blooms were weird-looking producing some blooms with only 4 petals:


The final bloom looked quite nice:


Showing foliage: