Background history:

'Desert Flame' is a dormant tetraploid introduced in 1996 by Santa Lucia.

It has earned the following AHS awards:
Honorable Mention: 2003

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

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.



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Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Desert Flame')

Wow! Going on my want list.

This one is a Definitely Dormant rather than the "Kinda-Sorta" Dormants that one finds coming from the South. Desert Flame grows extremely well in my USDA 7a garden. It quickly formed a large clump in four years. Scapes are strong and 3-4 way branched. Flowers have good substance, sparkling texture, intense color, and full, round, overlapping form. Great foliage that is semi upright does not interfere with the floral display. It has not been used enough in breeding--it should be. I am confident that it would live well at least as far North as USDA 5a.

This one lives very happily in my zone 4 garden here in Minnesota. This is indeed a flame in the garden with it's bright color.

Desert Flame does really well in my Kentucky garden. I love it's bright, saturated color and that the sun does not fade it out.

Not 36 inches here. More like 28. Very vigorous with intense color.

Desert Flame is the most intense bright red in the garden. It is very hardy in my zone 6b south central Kentucky and increases quickly.

Does anyone south of zone 7 grow this? I see it has a 1.0 rust resistance rating, but it is a dormant. Maybe it just does not do well without cooler weather?

Seedfork said: Does anyone south of zone 7 grow this? I see it has a 1.0 rust resistance rating, but it is a dormant. Maybe it just does not do well without cooler weather?

@Seedfork, you asked this question a long time ago, but I have Desert Flame. I bought two DFs from Ogden Station in September of 2021. Each plant has increased by a fan. It's November, and the plant has not died back and has not shown a speck of rust.

Blooms are beautiful: a bright, vivid red with some pretty ruffling. According to my notes, it bloomed from late May through late June. I have them planted in my "red and white" bed in direct sun. The blooms do fade a bit at the end of the day, but I have been very pleased with this one. Here's a morning shot:

And an afternoon one:


September 3, 2023: I am adding this to note that Desert Flame rebloomed for me this year for the first time. This picture was taken a couple of days ago.