Background history:

'Little Rainbow' is a dormant polychrome diploid introduced in 1963 by Brother Charles Reckamp. He passed away in 1996. He was one of the premier tetraploid breeders in the U.S. and together with Roy Klehm registered over 240 daylilies.

Little Rainbow is an early to mid-season bloomer. It has earned the following AHS awards: Award of Merit: 1973, Honorable Mention: 1970, and ATG: 1967. It is both pod and pollen fertile with 18 registered children: http://garden.org/plants/paren...

This plant can be found in the ATP Plant Database at:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Little Rainbow') .

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 'Little Rainbow')

I love the colours of many of the Reckamp daylilies and when I first got into daylilies I started collecting them. I found out that some are very robust, like 'Tender Shepherd' and 'Egyptian Spice', while others seemed to often struggle here. I really liked 'Little Rainbow' and it did reasonably well for a few years but then I had to move it due to house renovations. For some reason, and to my surprise, it died the subsequent winter having survived several previous ones before the move perfectly well.

Reckamp was the first Hydridizer I fell in love with! I have owned several of his over the years. I am very fond of his polychromes. I have a few of his that I would still like to acquire!

Little Rainbow was received in a trade back in 2009. It has done pretty well for me here in zone 5b. It blooms every year. It has increased slowly but steadily. I would say mine comes in a little shorter than the registered 24 inches. It is early midseason for me here. That being around the first part of July and over a period of 2 weeks for my clump size right now. I moved mine last fall just a few feet from where it had been all these years so I am hopeful it will not suffer any setbacks.

This is one I just do not see me getting rid of. It is small and so simple but I find it brings me such pleasure. I get so excited when it blooms!

I have had Little Rainbow in my TX garden now for about 4 years. It is a really pretty color and I look forward to seeing it bloom every year. It is slow to increase here as well but I still enjoy having it in my garden! I tried to add a photo of it from my garden but for some reason it is not letting me upload it. Has anyone else had any trouble posting pictures on this forum?

Dianne


Think I got it figured out!

love this one!
The polychrome blooms are bright and always make me smile.
Slow to Medium growth rate but I am always taking a fan or two off to give to friends that want it and that may slow it a little. Pod and pollen fertile.

I don't have many Reckamp daylilies, however Little Rainbow is one that I have had for many years. For me it has grown well with very little extra care. Probably 5 or 6 years ago I had moved and divided it to another location and now have some smaller clumps of maybe 7 to 10 fans each. All but a small area of my daylilies grow in total sun all day long. We have approx. 10 acres of open land along with 15 acres of woods/with swamp and a small creek. We haven't planted any trees on our property as of yet but we live down a dirt road so our property is outlined in trees. The soil here is terrible! I don't think I have ever experienced such poor soil in my life. For the most part though the daylilies do pretty good...I do have exceptions though and have learned over the course of years to be careful what I want to add.

AlleyCat said:I do have exceptions though and have learned over the course of years to be careful what I want to add.

Would you explain what the steps are you take when being "careful" in selecting what plants you want to add?

Over the course of time I have noticed that if I purchase daylilies that come from areas that have similar growing conditions such as mine the daylilies perform much better for me and have very little set back. I also tend not to order a plant from a hybridizer if I have had problems with other cultivars of theirs. If it is something that I really want I will ask other daylily friends that are in my region or state to see if they happen to grow it in order to see how well it performs. I also try looking for that plant in areas that have similar or harsher winters than what I have then ask the seller how well it performs for them. I probably have lost more Evergreens over the Dormants and Semi's but do not let that discourage me too much as I have other Evergreens that perform and multiply great...Midnight Magic is one that comes to mind. For me my favorite places to bring in daylilies are Indiana, Ohio and Kansas.

I am also pickier now than what I was in the beginning when ordering flowers as I look at the branching and bud count. Each person has their own personal preference on what they like in a daylily. I really like them all, however, I am always disappointed when a daylily starts blooming and it is done within a few days. Now I look for branching and bud count and look around at what is blooming with these good traits to cross with each other. Here in Southwest lower MI I do not have as many daylilies that rebloom...spring and summer arrive too late...lol, or fall and frosts arrive too soon.

Hope this helps, I believe that mini climates within the lake effect snow area that I live in along with soil conditions play a big part in a plants performance also. I always appreciate it when others share their experiences on daylily cultivars.