Background history:

"Red Volunteer" is a dormant tetraploid introduced in 1984 by Bill (and Stewart) Oakes at the Oaks Daylily Farm in Corryton, Tennessee:
https://www.oakesdaylilies.com...

This cultivar can be found in the ATP Plant Database:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Red Volunteer')

According to the ATP database, this is a midseason bloomer. This cultivar won several AHS awards including: Award of Merit: 1994, Honorable Mention: 1989, LAA: 2004. It has a rust resistant rating of 1.1.
It is pod and pollen fertile with 71 registered children currently: http://garden.org/plants/paren...





Please join in, if you own this plant! We would love to know more! (I award an acorn for performance information posted on this thread.)

Also, please consider adding a "Local Report" to the ATP Plant Database!!! Thank you!
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Red Volunteer')

We have this daylily, and we have noticed that it seems to have higher scapes than most daylilIes. It is our favorite red daylily.

I love this daylily. Calif_Sue gave me a big clump of it, which I divided into three sections so I could have it in more than one spot in my garden.

I don't have this daylily cultivar yet .... but I have a double fan coming in September in the box full of daylilies I am getting from Susan (stilldew) that she so generously sold in the Classified Forum here on ATP. With it's 1.1 rust resistance rating, I think it will do well in my garden! It sounds like a winner to have and red is my favorite bloom color!

This plant is always on Region 10 popularity poll and has good reason to be there. It is color fast, tall, fertile, good bud count.

I've grown it here for many years, it's a good daylily. It was reblooming this past week.

I purchased this plant from a grower in Lufkin, TX in 2009. I took it home to Austin and planted it in my garden. I don't think it liked the soil or lack of rainfall, because it never really looked happy. I got a few blooms, but very little increase. I moved to the Houston area in March of this year and it is doing much better! I got some blooms and the plant seems much happier now. I am anxious to see how it does next year. Good soil and rainfall are wonderful things!

Is it really more raspberry red than red? Don't think i have anything this color.

Ours has been pure red with the eye.

I would call it a classic red. No raspberry shading to me.

When I first purchased Red Volunteer in 2008, I distinctly remember thinking, "do I want just a plain jane red?" I bought it on the recommendation of someone and am so glad I did!

I think if you look in the database you will see a variation of colors, but I have to agree that at times I think it does look more like raspberry colored. My RV has been in full sun and then due to growth around it over the course of several years, it is now in part shade, so it looks different at different times. On an overcast day, it looks more red.

Unfortunately, I have already pulled the scapes on RV this year, or I would be able to see bud count and branching.

RV is listed as a midseason bloomer. My photo records show that in 2009, it bloomed from 6/29/09 to 8/5/09 and then had rebloom from 9/14/09 to at least 10/11/09. In 2010, it bloomed from 6/17/10 to 7/17/10, but no rebloom. This year, it only bloomed from 6/22 to 7/17. I really need to move it because the area has become overgrown with other stuff and I can tell RV isn't flourishing as it used to.

Here is the picture of Red Volunteer in 2009 in October on rebloom. Still has several buds left.


Red Volunteer at the end of a hot day - June 30, 2011. It tends to get shiny and lose its vibrance. But you can kind of see the nice branching and the bud count looks decent, but not outstanding.


Here is a picture of it showing nice saturation of color on a cloudy day after some rain. Taken on June 26, 2011.


Taken on July 10, 2011. Just look at the height next to Forever in Time on the left. Both are registered at 30", but I am not sure anymore how tall they actually were back then. Both are in the sun and standing well above the foliage. Keepers!!


It really is rust resistant. I have lots of pictures of it since I purchased it in 2008, and don't see any rust on the pictures. I'd say my purchase of this plain jane red was well worth the $6 I paid for it!

Vickie - I am giving you 2 acorns. One for posting your report (as I do everyone) and another acorn from me personally, for the excellent photos showing the height, variations in the bloom colors, and your very detailed evaluation. I really got a LOT of information from your post! Thank you!

You are very welcome, Becky! And thank you very much for the acorns I think you will like Red Volunteer!

This is one of my favorite cultivars. This is the second year of having it in my garden. I received a healthy double fan division last year, and this year it has easily multiplied to at least 10 fans. The bloom season was well over six weeks. Scapes are over the 30" registered height, with many blooms per scape. The color is amazing; it is a true red that is saturated and holds its color even on the hottest days. One of my favorites out of 300+ daylilies...I would never part with it.

It did very well. Great color. Leaves looked great. Bloomed a long time.

This is one that I would call a "backbone" plant. It is beautiful, reliable, a good bloomer, hardy in zone 4B, Iowa. No negatives that I have noticed.

Throwing in my two cents here.

'Red Volunteer' has large blooms on tall scapes, both of which I consider a positive trait.

It has thus far shown itself to be rust resistant here. (I don't spray for rust.)

I agree with whoever described the color as "raspberry". (I had been thinking of it, to myself, as "burgundy", but I think that "raspberry" is a very good color description. )

One negative this plant has is that the surface pigment of the blooms melts and slicks here on warmer days, let alone hot ones. Almost all reds here have a melting and slicking problem; I can't say that 'Red Volunteer' is any worse than the average in that regard, but felt that it was worth a mention. (I have a couple of seedlings which seem to hold up to the sun/warm weather a bit better than most red daylilies that I've had; in that regard 'Red Volunteer' does not perform as well.)

I have had Red Volunteer for 3 years, it has multiplied from 2 to 6 large fans despite it's too shady location. It has bloomed every year but the bud count has been low, probably due to not enough sunlight, scapes are about 24 & 1/2 inches. The large blooms are a lovely deep shade of red that looks like velvet, it really stands out in the garden.

Red Volunteer is one of my best reds (along with Duke of Earl). This is a rapid increaser here in New Hampshire. Very strong scapes with stunningly large, red blossoms. Love this plant.

Red Volunteer is one of the first flower I purchased. It always performes well in the garden, has been a little slow to increase. I can depend on it to bloom a couple of days before the 4th a July. It is true to the AHS description.