Maryl said: But San Francisco has a different summer climate then ours so again it's rather pricey for my budget to see how it holds up in our high heat. Plus it's only listed with 16 buds and NO repeat.
The East Bay Area doesn't really share San Francisco's mild, cloud forest-like weather. I think I understand what you mean about heat, but with daylilies, heat is generally your friend, although too much of it does require management. Daylilies in cool, inconsistent weather can be pretty dismal, because they don't seem to like wide day/night temperature swings. What's your humidity like during bloom season?
Picture taken here, 2015-08-16, 2:00 pm
92ºF, 29% relative humidity.
Same plant, 10 days earlier, during a stretch of pleasant,
weather, with overnight dew and 50%+ humidity.
FFO on the rebloom scape
Even on an 80º day, many purples and reds look stressed, sad and dull by noon because of the cloudless skies and low humidity, and this is compounded by the fact that our cool (typically under 60º by sunset) summer nights don't allow the opening buds to swell to capacity, further exacerbating the effects of the dry heat. This is why early openers are valuable—their segments swell up early, and don't start the day out with "flat tires". I've shared a lot of plants with family living forty miles further inland, closer to Sacramento, where the summer days are 90º and up, with even lower humidity, but the flowers open extremely well and behave much more "normally" due to the 65º overnight lows and extended warm evenings (it's usually still 80º at midnight), although most of the dark-flowered ones should still be called "Morninglilies".
Performance information for Soli Deo Gloria varies. Karol lists 20 buds and rebloom, the AHS database shows 20 buds, no rebloom listed, ATP says 16-20, no mention of rebloom. I received a big two-fan plant, and since they weren't strongly attached, I separated them—one in the sun for show-and-grow, and one in the shade for pod-setting, but it turned out to be unnecessary, as they both set pods easily, and had rebloom scapes showing before the first set were through. I didn't count buds, but 20 sounds about right, maybe fewer on rebloom.
I really wanted Buffalo Thunder too, but with my erratic weather, I have to be selective and do lots of "Daylily Math" before I spend big bucks. I can usually approach published performance data on northern daylilies, while Florida-bred plants never seem to branch or bud as well as they do at home, probably because of the cool, slow-onset spring weather here. Cool nights don't exactly suit flowers with huge edges, teeth, and intricate patterns, but the northern plants tend to bloom more like their pictures. I appreciate the detail and objectivity of Karol's descriptions, because it helps me figure out if something might do well for me. The ATP database is also extremely helpful when selecting plants, because I can see how the flowers do in different regions. Pictures of "real-world" blooms are probably worth 2000 words.
Like all daylilies, Soli Deo Gloria and Buffalo Thunder will be $20 and under before you know it. With a registered 42" scape, 6-way branching, 7.75" flower and 40 buds, Buffalo Thunder should manage to impress, even here, so I'll be trying to wrangle a piece of it some time later this year.
