Background history:

'Chance Encounter' is a dormant tetraploid introduced in 1994 by Stamile.

It has earned the following AHS awards:
Award of Merit: 2001
Honorable Mention: 1998
LEP: 2000

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

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 Plant Performance Report to the database! Thank you!

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Chance Encounter')

This daylily has many awards and many children. However, I have always been frustrated by its slow opening. Lots of substance!

On Dave's Garden, gardeners in Maine and also from Ohio report the same opening limitations.

On a day when it did open quite flat:

I just planted this in my garden a couple weeks ago. I got a small clump from my father-in-law. It has settled in pretty well so far.

On his farm, the daylilies are kept in a field in full sun with no irrigation other than rain. Chance Encounter seems to not have the bright, contrasting throat under those conditions. It seems to increase well for him. However, I can't report on how it opens or how long it blooms because I am not at his farm often enough. I am hoping that with a little extra TLC (regular water, fertilizer, a little shade) in my small garden that i will look better.

According to the AHS Database, Chance Encounter has been a parent in 113 registries. Most are quite beautiful, and some are in the "BEST" class in my mind. Absolute Treasure, Big Sur, Night Rhythms, and Treasure Of The Southwest are examples of this. Chance Encounter always grows well making hefty fans and sturdy scapes. The flowers average 5.5 to 6 inches and have great substance and smooth texture. The flowers do not have intense color, and are hard to get pods on. However, most of it's kids have bright, intense color. This ability to intensify color is what makes Chance Encounter one of the great breeders.

I had the plant many years ago. As I recall, it did have a beautiful flower, but I kicked the plant out of the garden because it was a rust bucket!

(The database gives it a rust score of 4.5, or very susceptible. I can easily believe that.)

I remember winning this plant at the FREE STATE DAYLILY SOCIETY auction. I got into a bidding war for it. I think I paid around $50 for it. I still grow it. It is a prolific bloomer and moderate increaser. Substance is heavy and holds up well in my Zone 5 garden. Doesn't have a bad day. I also grow ABSOLUTE TREASURE, one it's children, and it is fantastic.

I have had Chance encounter about 3 years, and it has bloomed well during that time, despite being crushed by 2 larger daylilies. I moved it last fall & it has increased several fans this spring. I have not had a problem with it opening, at least not in its previous location.

Chance Encounter has been in my garden for a number of years, it does well here and blooms reliably in my northern climate. I also have some of it's offspring growing in the garden.

I had this plant years ago. The flower was lovely, but it would be covered with rust when those around it werent. I can deal with a little rust, but this plant was loaded with it. Had to toss it.

Chance Encounter has been here a lot of years, and it was always a favorite with that beautiful raspberry pink color. However, when rust reared its ugly orange in our garden, Chance Encounter was badly affected and last year it was decimated, went completely down. This year, amazingly enough, we have not seen rust yet and CE is doing very well except it has those short scapes, but that is happening to lots of our DLS this year, so I don't know if that's the cause now. I do think if there is bad rust this year, it will probably be removed.

I bought Chance Encounter last summer in July. It was field dug, probably about 5 fans. I went out and counted and the clump is now 10 fans. I am looking forward to seeing it bloom. It seems to be a strong grower here.

Thought I would update since it is a few years down the road. This has been a great plant. I have shared it several times and still have one large clump and a smaller clump of it now. Blooms profusely over a long time, lovely blooms, I highly recommend it, at least for my zone.