(edit - I split this off from the Bob Carr thread because I thought it deserved it's own thread - this is an interesting question! --- Juli)

shive1 said:Here's Charmed Existence in a clump. It's very well budded and always reblooms here in my Nashville, TN garden. Being a dormant, it's taller in the north than it was in Florida. Scapes are 27-28 inches tall here.

CHARMED EXISTENCE has a small flower in the 4-inch range, but it makes a big impact in a clump.


Debra

Debra, you made a very interesting comment: "Being a dormant, it's taller in the north than it was in Florida."

Do you know why this would be true? Is this because daylight hours during spring and early summer are longer in the north than in the south in the Northern hemisphere? Why would dormants rather than Ev's or Sev's respond differently to latitude?

I've seen enormous differences in plants (though not daylilies specifically) raised in Northern Europe vs Northern California. But, it hadn't occurred to me that the height of daylilies would also be affected.

Thanks!

Speaking of Latitude. http://www.region2daylily.org/...

If I had to guess, I would think it is a combination of the length of daylight and the intensity of the light. The same way that plants will 'reach' for the lights when grown indoors.

Thanks so much, Mike, for the link to that article! Fascinating observations!

Interesting how many dormant daylilies (“Katherine Woodbury,” “South Seas”, etc) bloomed much taller in the Netherlands (in a garden 18 feet below sea level) than their registered height in the US, but, so did the Sev “Desperado Love.” And here’s the offered explanation for this phenomenon :

“A clear example of just how important water is to this genus. As they are growing on a polder (The definition of “Polder”: A tract of low land—as in the Netherlands—reclaimed from a body of water, as the sea.), the water table is directly under them, and the plants do not need to look far for a drink.”

I really liked this quote, too: “Did you know that LITTLE GRAPETTE (Williamson 1970) can reach 120 cm (4ft)! Slap me silly, folks.” ” (“Little Grapette” is registered with a 12” height.) : )

JWWC, you're absolutely right about light intensity! I needed to plant a hedge at my country property in Latvia, and had hoped to find a particular evergreen at a local nursery. I’d remembered what a lush, lovely emerald green it was in Pennsylvania, and overall gave the visual impression of a ‘feathery’ texture to it. What a surprise when I saw the cultivar's black-green needles and a downright rubbery texture in Latvia! That’s just one example, but other westerners from the States had similar comments about other plants.

I don't think really the light or the latitude. It's the fact there are more days below freezing in the north and the plants can actually go fully dormant and build a bigger crown. Hard dormants need several weleks of cold temperatures to go fully dormant, and they can't do that in Florida winters. Pat Stamile used to say in his catalogs that he expected his dormants would grow taller in the north. I posted a comment about another dormant bred in the south. Grape Twizzler. It's scape height is registered at 30 inches. But scapes here are always more than 40 inches.

Debra

Thanks so much, Debra, for your explanation! Good to know that "plants can actually go fully dormant and build a bigger crown" in the north where "there are more days below freezing." All of this info about micro-climates - be that in Florida, The Netherlands, the US north or elsewhere - at least makes growers appreciate how different circumstances affect the growth of daylilies . : )

All the best! : ) - Elizabete

Elizabete - Growers in the far south raise dormants in boxes elevated with legs, so the plants will get colder and hopefully go dormant.