Hi all-

I am not an experienced grower of daylilies... mainly because of the difficulty in growing them in my area without taking extensive measures to protect them from deer but...

I was wondering if members here, who are experienced and knowledgeable about growing daylilies, could offer suggestions for best "white" (or "near-white") varieties- newer or older cultivars

- fragrance and reblooming would be a plus


thanks!!

Isabelle arose is very white here and is great, although I have only had it 2 years. Tall, large spider, good bloomer. Heavenly Angel Ice is also very white Spider, shorter, but has never done that great here. Gentle Shepherd is an old one, nothing fancy, but does well. Those are the whitest I have

I have been thinking that with your interest in white gardens you might start wondering about white daylilies. Daylilies do not approach the whiteness of many other species; most are actually a very pale yellow or have a faint peach cast. A group of us have been working on cataloguing the whiteness into five groups, with none making it into group 1, pure white. Since you are likely not a member of ADS, I don't think you have access to the recently published study (author is Stuart Kendig). If you are on Facebook there is a private group that discusses white daylilies that Stuart admins, and I am sure he would let you join if you sent a request.

The benchmark group 2 ("bright white") daylilies are Gentle Shepherd and Sagarmatha. There are some recently introduced ones that are falling into this group, but they are generally hard to find or quite expensive still.

Group 3 ("comparably white") includes favorites like Joan Senior.

Group 4 ("near white") includes Early Snow, which I see on your plant list, Margo Reed Indeed, and Ice Carnival, a nice historic one which is registered as very fragrant.

Group 5 ("white blend") includes lots of daylilies, such as Peggy Jeffcoat which you may have seen discussed on another thread recently.

I also have an interest in historic daylilies, and have collected many from different eras of hybridizing and different hybridizers. Those registered for many of the early years would fall into group 5 and frequently are more of a very pale yellow. Milliken's tend to be a little whiter (Big Snowbird and several others of his are in group 3)

I would suggest looking at the ADS database advanced search, but when you plug in "white" you get lots of daylilies that just have white in the description, often as an edge or stripe, or a daylily with a distinct eye or pattern in other colors. I spent a bunch of time a few years ago compiling a list of all the white daylilies registered through 1990. There are a lot of them.

You are fortunate living in MD that you don't need to be concerned about rust tolerance. Rebloom is a characteristic that breeders have been working on recently, especially northern hybridizers. Mike Huben has had some great success, and has registered some very white ones, including Vanilla Stella, which blooms on and off throughout the summer. Perhaps if you could narrow down what you are looking for in terms of height, size of bloom and form we could make some suggestions. There are a lot of really lovely white daylilies.

Wendy--my understanding was that rust spores can overwinter in zone 7 or warmer.

not sure where agardenofdreams is in MD, but I don't think it takes too many days of freeze to kill rust that might otherwise overwinter. I don't think we really have a clear answer on that, but others feel free to correct me.

if you bring in a plant in the spring that has rust, it will likely spread in your garden during the upcoming growing season, and you fight with it until it gets killed off the following winter

DeweyRooter said:Wendy--my understanding was that rust spores can overwinter in zone 7 or warmer.

I am in 7b. I only had rust once (thankfully) and it didn't overwinter even with a winter which wasn't particularly harsh. I try very hard not to get plants from places that will bring in rust but it is always possible that a rusty plant will slip in. I really don't have space to segregate new arrivals.

Well, the reason I bring it up is that some of the near whites, Joan Senior for instance, are evergreens, and if they get rust, it's hard to get rid of it because the plants don't die back all the way. I had a whole bunch of Joan Seniors that were lovely, grew really well and bloomed up a storm for a couple of years running. Then they got rust from somewhere, and then it was just a repeating cycle. I thought I had it licked once or twice, but the rust kept coming back with a vengeance. I finally had to get rid of them. Of course, I am in zone 8b where it rarely freezes.

I did replace my Joan Seniors with a couple of Monica Marie plants and a couple of Full Moon Rising plants. They are both near-whites with excellent rust resistance scores. I wish I could share some pictures, but the plants have only been there since last fall. They are all doing well, though. Full Moon Rising is an evergreen; so far, no rust. (fingers crossed!)

Hope the OP gets some lovely near-whites!

Well, I am hoping that even here in 8B we have enough cold this year to at least delay when rust appears this year. I have eight new plants on order, but I am now giving all my new plants a root soak in Azoxystrobin and that alone is suppose to protect them for a while. With the cold we have had I am hoping not to see rust still after peak bloom season.

Monica Marie may be another one that agardenofdreams might enjoy; it is also registered as fragrant.

Spacecoast Snowflake
Ice Cream Social
Brown's Ferry Cream Supreme
Stardust Dragon
Michael Miller
Margo Reed Indeed
White Perfection
Early Snow

thanks all!!

Very interesting!!- as a daylily "outsider" it was my understanding that there may have been a brief focus on trying to obtain a pure, bright white daylily some time ago... and that goal has been eclipsed by trends with breeders working on all the new exotic varieties of brightly colored lilies with eyes, quilling, etc, etc...

I might go so far as to say many of my grandparents generation would not recognize many of the newest fancy cultivars as daylilies!! am I sounding very old-fashioned at this point????

anyway- I am just north of the District of Columbia. We are 7a and have had relatively mild winters for the last few years. Last year we actually had honey bees every month of the year- at least I noticed them almost every day It was above 40 deg!! This year has been dramatically different when we got quite a bit of snow and cold temps soon after the new year... and currently it is still cold with temps in the teens and 20's...

As mentioned, I currently only have a few daylilies that I grow in containers that I can keep away from the deer. Luckily, I have not had rust that I am aware of... not sure I would recognize it though!!

Does anyone know if "white" daylilies are a little more fragile (as some white flowering plants are) and more prone to rust????

A great favorite here and my avatar:
Lillian's Thin ice

robinjoy said:I have been thinking that with your interest in white gardens you might start wondering about white daylilies. Daylilies do not approach the whiteness of many other species; most are actually a very pale yellow or have a faint peach cast. A group of us have been working on cataloguing the whiteness into five groups, with none making it into group 1, pure white. Since you are likely not a member of ADS, I don't think you have access to the recently published study (author is Stuart Kendig). If you are on Facebook there is a private group that discusses white daylilies that Stuart admins, and I am sure he would let you join if you sent a request.

The benchmark group 2 ("bright white") daylilies are Gentle Shepherd and Sagarmatha. There are some recently introduced ones that are falling into this group, but they are generally hard to find or quite expensive still.

Group 3 ("comparably white") includes favorites like Joan Senior.

Group 4 ("near white") includes Early Snow, which I see on your plant list, Margo Reed Indeed, and Ice Carnival, a nice historic one which is registered as very fragrant.

Group 5 ("white blend") includes lots of daylilies, such as Peggy Jeffcoat which you may have seen discussed on another thread recently.
....

Wendy-

this is fascinating: that there is enough interest in this area to standardize the the terminology-grading-describing-etc of white daylilies

I am very interested in genetics and have just started to try hybridizing iris-
and wish I knew more about the science involved in this area of study

as someone with a background in the arts- I know how hard it is to communicate about the subtleties in color as many perceive these qualities differently-

agardenofdreams said:
Does anyone know if "white" daylilies are a little more fragile (as some white flowering plants are) and more prone to rust????

No, I don't think near-whites are more prone to rust or more delicate in general than daylilies of other colors. I think genetics determines rust susceptibility. Sometimes a cultivar will be susceptible to one strain of rust but not others, making the whole thing more complicated. Sometimes you just have to try various daylilies until you see what does well in your garden.

Another one you might try is Sunday Gloves--I haven't grown it but I want to try it. It's got a good rust rating and I think it's quite pretty, maybe a touch more modern-looking than some of the older ones (which I also love). It's also listed as fragrant.

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Sunday Gloves')

I wish I had more of these "white" daylilies. I do have Ice Carnival.

Here it is with some Shasta Daisies in the background, so you get an idea how far away from white those Group 4 near white daylilies can be.

Stuart Kendig breeds for whites. He has some of the whitest. His new intro white tail is on the the truest whites. You could also contact to discuss since he is an expert in whites. http://www.hardyhems.com/

My vote is for LILLIAN'S IVORY TOWER

That one is stunning, Betty.

Lyshack said:I wish I had more of these "white" daylilies. I do have Ice Carnival.

Here it is with some Shasta Daisies in the background, so you get an idea how far away from white those Group 4 near white daylilies can be.

This one is interesting but a bit lighter in color (I would describe as a pale primrose yellow) and has broader petals than another daylily that I am looking for....
https://garden.org/thread/view...

JasonT said:Stuart Kendig breeds for whites. He has some of the whitest. His new intro white tail is on the the truest whites. You could also contact to discuss since he is an expert in whites. http://www.hardyhems.com/

Thanks Jason for sharing this link. See Wendy's post above. I find it interesting that there are some breeders out there working in this specific area with all that color out there!
"White Tail" is a little pricy at $150 a double but think I will spring for it!:

http://www.hardyhems.com/Catal...