I love this daylily, but it doesn't like me. I've had it 4 times & it has died 4 times. Not sure why, but it doesn't return after the winter, and last winter was very mild. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'm not going to try again.

Here is a first year bloom from crossing Indian Giver x Catherine Woodbury.

Reliable bloomer that forms a great clump.

I received Indian Giver as a bonus plant in 2017 from Oakes. I gave it pride of place in my front Daylily bed. It's done pretty well, not amazing. I think there is a lot of competition in that bed and recently, more shade than I would like. Despite all that, Indian Giver continues to bloom beautifully. It has a relatively short season, no rebloom for me so far. And this, despite being in the one location in my yard that always gets watered. But the blooms are pretty and perfect for the front of a bed.

Indian Giver was a very reliable bloomer and excellent clump former in my drought-prone hilltop garden at the small farm where I used to live. The color and shape of the blooms are not personally very attractive to me, but I would still recommend this cultivar for the excellent characteristics mentioned above if you can spare the space.

Update on Indian Giver 2021. 29 blooms, beginning on July 7 and ending on the 29th. That is more flowers than I remember and most of them are gorgeous so I am very happy with this plant.

flaflwrgrl said:Indian Giver was new to me just about 1 year ago today so I can only relate how it has performed this first year. I am really happy with it! I can't give you bud counts or branching as I didn't keep track and probably never will. I don't hybridize so I'm not terribly concerned with those statistics. I generalize about number of blooms. When I received it I planted it in ground right away and let it get established over the fall & winter. It did very well especially considering June this year was a record breaker in terms of heat and we had almost zero rain the entire month. Indian Giver took it all in stride and is doing quite well. It bloomed well for a first year daylily and I have not noticed any rust thus far. I might add that starting in July we have had abnormally high humidity - killer humidity unusual for my particular area of FL, so I am happy with the performance in terms of rust.

I am in your zone, and my experience with Indian Giver has been completely different. I had been dazzled by pictures of this cultivar--I can't imagine a prettier daylily--and bought a large clump several years ago. It has not done well here. It has never bloomed, and it has gotten rust repeatedly. In addition, it has dwindled so that I have only a few fans now. In fact I dug it up and potted it to try to nurse it along. It's "on probation" now--if it doesn't turn around for me, I will have to get rid of it.

This will be my fifth year for Indian Giver in the gardens, so I give it credit for being hardy here in zone 3. I see some very mixed reviews among the gardeners who've responded on this thread, and I have mixed feelings about this daylily myself.

I purchased Indian Giver from Oakes for many of the reasons stated above... stated to have "beautiful blooms, nice clumps, rebloom." I don't particularly mind the low bud-count per scape if the bloom is pretty enough (just as I would never complain that lilacs or lily-of-the-valley have a limited season).

Being new and zone 3, Indian Giver did not flower for me at all in the first year. When it did flower that second year, I looked at it and all I could think was, "Oakes sent me the wrong bloody plant!" The flowers were, at best, a 'muddy red' colour and I came very close to digging it up and tossing it out of the garden.

Fortunately, I gave it another year.


Yes, relatively short and low bud-count. But cold climate hardy. True, small fans ... but it has gradually multiplied in the gardens here. No rebloom in my zone 3 gardens in any year... so far.

And one thing I have not noted above anywhere - it does show water spotting on some of the blooms. But, being in the cold north, no rust problems here. It does have a nice colour, now that it has become established - and I do have a space where it shows well at the edge of a border.

It kind of reminds me of my great-aunt Mary... a little annoying sometimes, but very sweet. And that is enough reason to keep her.

2022 update. A good year for IG, , 6th year in the garden. I counted 14 little fans in April and had 34 flowers blooming from July 8-23. It's a short bloom season and I don't get rebloom but IG is such a beautiful flower!

2023 update…IG is now a clump of tiny fans, blooming from July 10-27 with 38 blooms counted. I love this flower…