beckygardener said:I am confused about the "dormant" label on daylilies. True dormants are those that completely disappear (above the soil)
from the spot they are growing in until they sprout new leaves in late Winter/Early Spring?
Becky, I am not sure that there are any true dormant daylilies. It all depends on what one means by "true dormant". That can be interpreted biologically or just for registration purposes by definition.
Biologically, dormancy has been defined as being of three types, ecodormancy, paradormancy and endodormancy.
(1) An example of ecodormancy is when temperatures become too cold for a plant to grow. All daylilies can become ecodormant. Any daylily could be ecodormant in a cold winter location depending on just how low the temperatures become.
(2) An example of paradormancy is when the growing tip of a plant prevents branches from being made and we pinch off that tip to get the plant to branch. The buds that make the branches were paradormant. Some daylilies
may be paradormant after they have bloomed and it
may be the old green leaves that stop the daylily fan from growing new leaves (stop it from sprouting).
(3) An example of endodormancy would be when forcing forsythia to bloom inside in the winter one has to wait for the right time to bring the branches inside so that the flower buds on the stems have experienced enough chilling to break their dormancy. The flower buds were endodormant until they received enough chilling and then they were ecodormant because the temperatures outside were too cold for them to grow.
A daylily that completely disappears under the soil is both dormant and deciduous. It is dormant because it is not growing any new leaves and it is deciduous because it has lost all its previous leaves.
The daylily dictionary (
http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_d...) defines "dormant" as:
"DORMANT:
For AHS registration purposes, the term "dormant" refers to daylilies that lose their foliage completely before or shortly after frost and over-winter with pointed foliage buds, usually just beneath the soil surface. Dormants will resume growth in spring.
However, in plant science, the widely accepted definition of dormancy is a temporary suspension of visible growth of any plant structure containing a meristem*. Thus technically the term “dormant” is not restricted to deciduous plants but applies also to evergreen plants, which can retain their foliage while having dormant buds. All daylilies, regardless of foliage habit, are capable of cold temperature dormancy in the technical sense where it gets cold enough to suspend growth."
The AHS registration page (
http://www.daylilies.org/AHSre...) defines dormant as:
"Dormant (dor.)
These daylilies lose their foliage completely before or shortly after frost and over winter with pointed foliage buds, usually just beneath the soil surface. Dormants will resume growth in spring"
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I interpret the definition for dormant for daylily registration to require a cultivar to be both deciduous and endodormant (because if they were only ecodormant they could resume their growth before spring simply depending on the temperatures during different times in winter in different locations or in different years).
That may be a problem as I have not found any cultivar that I have tested to be endodormant - so far they have all been only ecodormant. That includes cultivars that act dormant in Florida, such as 'Hyperion' and 'Taos' and cultivars that act dormant here in zone 4, such as 'Ophir'.
