Background history:

'Smoky Mountain Autumn' is a dormant diploid introduced in 1986 by Guidry.

It has earned the following AHS awards:
Award of Merit: 1992
Honorable Mention: 1989
LAA: 1997
LEP: 1990

This plant can be found in the ATP Plant Database at:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Smoky Mountain Autumn') .

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 "Local Report" to the ATP Plant Database! Thank you!

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Smoky Mountain Autumn')

For me this daylily is a must have! I have had it for several years now and I love it. It is a great short one for the front of the bed. It is very hardy and multiplied very quickly for me. My large clump easily blooms for at least a month, maybe longer. The color is often hard to describe and to capture accurately on camera.

It is a dormant but one of the first here to break ground in the spring. I do not get any bud building or rebloom on it here in my zone 5 garden.

I highly recommend Smoky Mountain Autumn!

Tough daylily here in zone 4 with a pretty and unusual colour. I've had it for many years, no winter mulch.

I have had this daylily for many years and because of its unique color I will always keep it. It doesn't perform well for me at the present time but only because it is in a poor location and I need to move it, which I plan on moving it next year.

This does well for me, petals have good substance and blooms open well. The flowers are tall enough they are not in the foliage. The color is absolutely beautiful and hard to capture w camera or describe. I highly recommend this one. It is beautiful planted with cream, or yellows, or light purples or very dark/blackish color dl. Increases a little slower than some of my others, but does grow and perform well for me.

I've had this one for many years. It's in a poor spot, needs more sun. I need to get so many daylilies put into better spots. A very beautiful flower...a keeper.

Here is a pic...a little problem with couple of the petals in this particular pic, but does show its great color.

Smoky Mountain Autumn was one of my first daylilies. The color adds a bit of an attractive smoky overlay to it as the day progresses. It is a steady bloomer and is a bud builder (so don't cut down the scapes too quickly). I grew mine in containers and it did need to be watched for rot, but usually survived winter well enough outdoors to put on a good display the next year. Another oldie but goldie.............Maryl

Smoky Mountain Autumn blooms above the foliage and I have not noticed rust on it at all. It has not increased a lot since I purchased it in 2009, but I may have split it and given some away. Even so, I would not call it a fast increaser. It has a good 3-4 week bloom period from mid-June to mid-July in my zone 6b garden. A definite keeper!




This photo shows the branching and blooms. I have it in front of Brown's Honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa 'Dropmore Scarlet') vine, which is almost the same color as SMA in this picture, but SMA has different hues on different days.

This cultivar grew here from the mid 90's until around 2012. It stayed so long because of the unique bloom color. I recall branching and other plant habits to be adequate, nothing outstanding but nothing particularly bad either. Here's the only picture of it saved in my files, taken in 2009.

This is one of my favorites! I love the color. It grows well and multiplies in my zone 4 garden. I can't find a picture if it saved on my phone, but it is a beautiful flower!

Smoky Mountain Autumn did pretty well here for years, nothing extravagant, but dependable and such wonderful color. A couple of years ago it got crown rot. I was only able to rescue a couple of fans and it has not done well since.

I love the color of 'Smoky Mountain Autumn' but it just refuses do do well here. I have planted it three times now, placed in different locations, given it extra attention, left it alone, but it just barely survives. I still have it in three different locations, but the fans are pathetic tiny little things. In one location one single small fan survives, yet it put it a scape.

I have tried for 4 years to grow this plant, but this will probably be it's last year here.

I just purchased Smokey Mtn Autumn in 2019 for my Lennington Theme garden, it is growing well in zone 5a Waldoboro Maine, I am anxious to see it bloom this year!

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Iona Pink Promise')
I have smoky mountain autumn and it just does not do anything for me, I only a get a few blooms, this year a whopping bud count of 7. I am thinking of replacing it with Iona Pink Promise, does anyone grow that and how does it do for you? Is the color very similar? It looks like it is in the photos. Wanting to find a good replacement for it, that stays short, the same rich color and a higher bud count, any suggestions?

Smoky Mountain Autumn has been here several years. Nothing spectacular in the bud output department. In all honesty it is crowded by other plants in front of it. I will try to relocate it to the front of the border to see how it respond. No rebloom in my Z:5B garden.