For purposes of this thread, I'll define "northern" as Zone 5 and any zone north of it.

When I see a gorgeous evergreen daylily bred by a southern hybridizer, I can't help wondering if/wishing that it would survive in my Zone 5 garden. I'm unwilling to spend a lot of money on a cultivar, only to have it not survive an Iowa winter. Perhaps we can pool some knowledge and experience here to come up with a list of pretty evergreens that have done well for us.

Here are a few of mine that are doing well and have survived at least two winters:


Answering Angels


Better by Design


Buddy's Shaun


Collard Dream


Cosmic Kaleidoscope

The problem with southern evergreens is more because they are hybridized in the south where they can't be tested for cold hardiness rather than that evergreens are inherently tender. Cold hardiness and foliage habit are two separate things but southerners have tended to prefer evergreens because then they can have foliage year round.

Some that I've had here in Zone 4 for many years but may be too old to be interesting:

Chinese Temple Flower
Court Magician
Dark Star
Ethiopia (has struggled a bit but still hanging on)
Ezekiel
Jolyene Nichole
Midnight Magic
Night Beacon
Pandora's Box
Priscilla's Rainbow
Pumpkin Kid
Russian Easter
Scarlet Orbit
Two Part Harmony
Wisteria

There was also a poll of hardy evergreens some years ago so again they'll be older ones:

http://www.shieldsgardens.com/...

Edited to add a couple I forgot about. I'll try and add pics later.

OMG you guys, this is great information! So useful for researching the family lines! Thank you!

I look at those crazy beautiful pictures on the southern hybridizers websites, but don't know if those plants would survive in my garden. And that would just break my heart.

I'm not far enough north to count but I have the same problem. It's more due to lack of snow cover combined with wild swings in temperature in late winter and Spring. I went out in February to look at the daylilies and see what I'd classify them as and compare it to what they are registered as being. I found that the evergreens that have hung on (barely) act as SEVs. The evergreens that do well act as like dormant daylilies. For example, Double Gardenia is registered evergreen but when I checked in February I saw no evidence of fans (2 clumps). When I checked yesterday they had fans up (along with many other of my dormant daylilies). So sometimes the registration doesn't match what is happening in my garden.

Registration foliage determination really applies to the garden of origin and doesn't necessarily translate to other climates. I believe you are right that the "middle" zones have more trouble with daylilies that try to grow during warm spells. It's too cold to have that problem here, no daylily tries to grow during winter, all are dormant. We can get down to the -30C (-22F) range with very little snow cover too so I think the lack of winter thawing is what helps.

I have a lot more evergreens in my garden than I realized. Here is what I grow in my zone 5b garden:

Best of Friends
Black Plush
Buddy's Betsy
Cherry Custard Cheesecake
Chinese Temple Flower (slow grower)
Cleo
Country Pride
Critic's Choice
Destined to See
DeColores (slow grower)
Helaman
How Beautiful Heaven Must Be
Get Jiggy
Golden Tear Drops
Irish Elf
Jan's Twister
Fairy Tale Pink
Japanese Brocade
Jock Randall
Kate Carpenter (somewhat tender, slow grower)
Leroy (very hardy)
Lady Neva (very hardy)
Laughing Clown
Linda Daniel
Lexington Avenue (very hardy)
Mildred Mitchell (slow grower)
Morticia (very slow grower)
Palace Garden Beauty
Prairie Blue Eyes (grows like a weed)
Prickled Petals
Puccini
Red Ribbons
Royal Heiress
Spacecoast Starburst (fast increaser)
Spode
Suburban Wrennetta
Thais
Wind Frills (good grower)

Cindy, some of those are registered as semi-evergreens (I have some on your list too), are we including sevs, because if so I can add more?

Oh Sue, I didn't know that. I looked most of them up first and in our database they were listed as evergreen.

By the way Sue, would you happen to know why I could not find Freewheelin and Euromazing in our database??? I wonder if I have them spelled wrong.

Edited to say: I found Free Wheelin. It is two separate words and I had it in my journal as one word. That one solved.

It's Euro-mazing.

The only reason I noticed the semi-evs in your list is because when I was going through mine I left out 'Fairy Tale Pink' and 'Prairie Blue Eyes' because they are registered as sevs. I didn't check any of your others.

A lot of the evergreens that are in my garden have already been mentioned, but here are a few that have not:

Great start, everyone!

Sue, thanks for the additional information. I should have mentioned the evergreen distinction in my first post. There is a lot more going on with the AHS categories of dormant (soon to be changed to "deciduous"), semi dormant, and evergreen. Depending on growing conditions, cultivars registered as dormant may act as semi-evergreens, semi-evergreens as dormants or evergreens, and evergreens as semi-evergreens.

In order not to get bogged down, let's stick with the AHS designations.

There are a few conscientious southern hybridizers who send evergreen seedlings or registered cultivars to northern growers for hardiness testing. I know that Mark Carpenter does this with at least a few of his. I wish more did.

I've compiled a list of evergreens tagged as hardy by Zone 5 sellers.
https://cottageinthemeadow.pla...
It includes the list that Sue posted.

That's interesting and perhaps valuable information, but that's not what I'm after here. I'd like to know *your own personal experience* in growing evergreens.

Here are a few more of mine:


Destined to See


Dragon King


Emmaus


Feathered Prism


Free Wheelin'


Get Jiggy


Indian Sky


Jane Trimmer


Jumble Edge

Larry, great idea for a thread; I'm in awe of a lot of these daylillies but cannot afford the prices that are asked to not make it through my Minnesota winters (4b).

"In order not to get bogged down, let's stick with the AHS designations."

Just to clarify in case I was confusing things, all those I listed are registered as evergreens. When I said all foliage types are "dormant" here I meant in the biological sense (temporarily not growing) not the registration use. I should have put a qualifier on it

Yes, I have heard that some southern hybridizers test in the north. Although having said that some peoples' idea of north would be south to me

Rj the ones I listed should not be expensive although they certainly aren't the latest and greatest. I still haven't had a chance to get to the laptop to add some pictures - maybe later.

Had these over 2 winters - so far so good and already coming up this year:








These I've had more than 10 years and moved from old house:



This was my very first non-Stella d' Oro daylily and the one that got me "hooked" well over 10 years ago:


Also have SEVERAL semi-evergreen and other evergreens that I just put in last Fall. We'll see how those do!

I have a bunch of evergreens that I'm not listing as this is their first year in the ground and with the weird winter we had, pretty much everything grew well... Okay, I'm posting a couple that are looking good at this date in the seaon- pretty sure the mild winter had much to do with the great growth...

Dragon Seeker


Jessica Lynn Bell

Sue, I hear you regarding some people's conception of "northern."

Ginny, I was so happy to see Dragonfly Dawn in your list. I'm a sucker for those patterned eyes.

Diana, your daylilies are looking healthy and are much further along than most of mine.

I purchased Dragonfly Dawn 2 years ago but it didn't make it here.

I have a number of evergreen DL's in my zone 5 Wisconsin gardens:
Azure Wings: Too new to tell
Celebration of Angels: Somewhat slow grower for me but makes it through our winters fine.
Christmas Celebration: Slow
Cleo: Does very well
Egyptian Queen: Almost lost it; gave it some TLC and it's hanging in there.
Filipina Bride: Too new to tell
Forty Second Street: Does quite well.
Inherited Wealth: Does very well.
Irish Envy: Not great, but hangs in there.
Mike Longo: Too new to tell
Monica Marie: Does quite well.
Night Beacon: Okay.
On the Fringe: Okay.
Pumpkin Prince: Does well, bloomed like crazy last year.
Punxsutawney Phil: Too soon to tell.
Queen’s Quest: Does quite well.
Strawberry Fields Forever: Okay
Tonga: Okay
White Parasol: Too soon to tell.
Wild and Wonderful: Does quite well.