I have a plant here that I bought back around 2010 . I have yet to see Hubbles Buddy by Ned Roberts bloom.

Because it hasn't bloomed I have moved it 3 times to try to find a spot it likes ( so 3 times in about 13 years not counting its original spot it was planted in) . This plant doesn't die , doesn't decrease, doesn't increase , it just sits .

So I am searching for some answers as to what I need to do to get this plant to bloom . I just dug it up again and have potted it up this time. No point in wasting a spot in the garden for another plant until I can figure out how to get it to do something . When I dug it up this time ( 4th time digging it up ) I wasn't even sure there was anything there to dig as it had retreated into the ground . Upon digging I found the three crowns that were alive and just fine with nice healthy roots and tiny green protrusions that will become leaves if it ever decides to do anything . Boy this plant is frustrating .

So, I am curious to know if anyone else has ever had a plant do this and if you have , how did you resolve the issue .

Thanks again for any feedback

Does it get "spring sickness"?

How much nitrogen fertilizer does it get?

How much water does it get?

Hi Maurice .........no it doesn't ......if it did at least it would be doing something even if it is not a good thing. This plant does absolutely nothing ....grows a few leaves ......that's all.

I've had a few like that. Some were in pots & only did well when I put them in the ground (Alice Faye for example). But most were the opposite. Preferred to be in a grow bag (Carpenter Shavings, seedlings, etc). Once by themselves in a bag they took off. Maybe because I tend to water & fertilize the ones in containers first? They are also easier to move to a better position when necessary. Whatever the case it has worked for me.

I have a Highland Lord plant exactly like that. It has a nice spot, gets the same treatment as everything else. I've had one flower three years ago and it stubbornly stays at one measly fan.

signet
I suppose no matter what answers you get they will be a guess at best. I would say full sun, lots of water and some fertilizer or if it getting all that some extra water and fertilizer.

I've had a few daylilies like that. Very frustrating. As I grow in pots, I know that they are not being subjected to soil problems as I control the fertility, potting mix and pest situation.....After a few of these no show daylilies of my own I came to the point where I think the problem may be the cold winter (and it does get cold here-single digits lately). If you have a weak grower, or a warm climate lover, even a little set back year after year can weaken a plant and set back the blooming. So if you keep it in a pot, make sure it gets a moderately warm ( 30's or so) area to wait out the winter. Let it go as dormant as possible outside, but then bring it in when the temperatures really start to drop. Just a suggestion of course........Maryl

Most perennials flower once they reach their mature size. However, how well they flower after that time will depend on how well they are able to grow larger. Typically as they become larger they produce offshoots (new fans). As they produce new fans competition increases between the fans of the same clump which may cause them all to fail to reach "good" flowering sizes.

When the plant is growing in a pot its size is important for this (height as well as diameter). But so is the number of fans in the pot. In a similar way a plant growing in a garden bed will be affected by how close nearby plants are, how many nearby plants there are, how large they are, how much sunlight is available, and so on. It does not matter if the other plants are daylilies or not or whether they are perennials, shrubs, trees, spring bulbs, etc.

In my daylily field I have many cultivars that do not flower or that flower very poorly for their size or number or that flower only every few years, etc. I have some that have not flowered for a substantial number of years. The problem is nearly always solved by moving the problem plants to brand new areas (beds) where there is much less, little or no competition from nearby plants. I have sometimes tried to change the situation by providing the "problem" daylily with much more fertilizer and water where it is growing. Sometimes that has helped and I have watched the "problem" daylily grow large enough to flower over the years and to finally flower. It usually does not last as the extra inputs of resources would have to be maintained for as long as I want the "problem" plant to flower. However, those very extra resources make the "problem" plant larger so it needs more and they usually also affect the neighbouring plants making them larger also. The winners are the most competitive nearby cultivars (or the oldest/largest, etc.) not necessarily the problem cultivar. The new solution I am trying is to make new beds. Sorry, I know that is not possible for many. The alternative is to remove some cultivars to make way for new ones rather than what I have often done which is to squeeze a new cultivar where I see what I think is a visible gap large enough for another daylily.

signet said: I have a plant here that I bought back around 2010 . I have yet to see Hubbles Buddy by Ned Roberts bloom.

Because it hasn't bloomed I have moved it 3 times to try to find a spot it likes ( so 3 times in about 13 years not counting its original spot it was planted in) . This plant doesn't die , doesn't decrease, doesn't increase , it just sits .

So I am searching for some answers as to what I need to do to get this plant to bloom . I just dug it up again and have potted it up this time. No point in wasting a spot in the garden for another plant until I can figure out how to get it to do something . When I dug it up this time ( 4th time digging it up ) I wasn't even sure there was anything there to dig as it had retreated into the ground . Upon digging I found the three crowns that were alive and just fine with nice healthy roots and tiny green protrusions that will become leaves if it ever decides to do anything . Boy this plant is frustrating .

So, I am curious to know if anyone else has ever had a plant do this and if you have , how did you resolve the issue .

Thanks again for any feedback

Interesting.. many possible routes.

-->if it was me It'd find my compost pile. You seek a solution.. you have patience and want an answer.
1. give the plant a dose of potash and magnesium.
2. It's an older cultivar, buy another and compare results.
3. I've been told by a zone 7+ grower/seller they routinely slice off the new fans and dump the "old" center fan as it has 'aged'. I've seen some tendency's that direction on a few occasions.
4. you really have no evidence you have the plant in question.. having not seen it flower.

Who knows.. the criteria could be longer............

I never chase DL's w bags, pots or hand holding. That... is for the green house types.

For a semi-evergreen, I am surprised that in August, it has retreated into the ground. It is also a late bloomer, so again, should be performing its' best right now.

Maybe it is just too far north. I went to buy several daylilies from Dan Hansen and although I am zone 6A, he wouldn't sell me certain ones as they are known to perform poorly in the north.

Ned Roberts hybridized many of his daylilies in NM and then they moved to CO when he retired from teaching at UNM. Many of his plants prefer a warm climate to grow, and they didn't like CO when they moved, so Ned began to grow his crosses in FL at Dan Hansen's garden. He then moved a few plants that didn't like the FL climate ( He called these RFFs- refugees from Florida) to another hybridizers garden ( Kimberly Roberts who was in some part of MS that was cooler than FL) to see if they would be happier with some cold/ dormancy. One of those RFFs I used to grow, which preferred some winter chill was ' I AINT NEVAH' which might possibly be marginally happier in Canada. Ned died in 2006, I was fortunate enough to meet him in 2003 and hear him speak in 2005.


The bottom line is, if it hasn't performed in all this time, it's just surviving, not thriving, so IMHO, it's time to either put it out of its misery and compost it , or send it south where it is bound to be happier.

Here's I Ain't Nevah, one which I loved.


I used to grow many of his, but even SKINWALKER, his SSM winner, does not like northern climates. I've heard many spider aficionados tried to grow it repeatedly in the north admit failure.

Julie, thank you for your post! I had Skinwalker once... briefly. It is hard to know when buying a plant if it might not want to cooperate in my area. I will often buy evergreen plants with the expectations that they won't grow well here, but I use the pollen in crosses. In the same token, I have bought quite a few "dormant" plants that were even worse. Trial and error is the test I use.

We just had a seedling competition for growers in Region 2. I took some of my seedlings about 35 miles from here where they grew for a year. Got them back today, and I was blown away at how amazing they were compared to mine... and here I thought that I was giving mine decent care. It is amazing how results can differ considerably from one garden to the next even in the same city, but when a good many people have the same results with a particular plant-

This information is from http://daylily.shannan.f-m.fm....

'Hubbles Buddy' Under parentage LAVENDER HANDLEBARS and ROSY LIGHTS
My comment - this parentage may be speculation from someone in the spider robin.

Under Ned's comments "My feedback on the plant from all growers(North and South) is that it is possibly more vigorous than BRER RABBITS BABY. It is an awesome increaser."
==

If a cultivar does not grow well or does not flower well in some gardens there must be one or more specific reasons and there must be some visible effects of those reasons.

For example, a cultivar may not be sufficiently winter hardy in a location. Observations might show that the plant produces an increase fan during the growing season but after the next winter that fan is nowhere to be seen. Presumably it died during the winter. This might happen over and over again year after year so the cultivar would never increase.

Another cultivar might not grow very well in a location. It might not produce many leaves during the growing season. After the next winter the fans might only be barely larger than they were the previous year. The cultivar would need many many years to become large enough to flower.

A cultivar might lose its scapes because of bouts of drought or low temperatures while the scapes were still very small and not easily visible. This might happen every year. The plant might grow larger over the years and the number of fans might increase but it might flower only rarely.

There will be symptoms of the problem that can be observed although they might need frequent detailed observations of its growth to be detected.

How odd that it has not even produced one bloom in all those years. It was DOTD in 2019 and has a few comments.
The thread "Daylily of the Day: Hubbles Buddy" in Plants of the Day forum

@SunriseSide, @daylilly99, if you still have it, did it bloom for you again this year?

Since you have 3 crowns I would suggest splitting one off and growing in a pot indoors over winter. Grow the heck out of it. Visit it daily and make sure it wants for nothing. Food, water, grow lights.

When next year Spring rolls around it should be pretty huge with lots of fans.

The other 2 you can leave as an insurance policy in case something goes wrong with your houseplant daylily.

May 27 FFO, that is midseason here in TX
I was wondering a few years ago if HB would ever bloom:
no bloom for a few years. The plant is in ground and survives 100+F and short term subfreezing. Once blooming started, blooming has been fairly consistent.

Nathan Sommers, another Ned Roberts daylily has never bloomed here & single fan in a new bed has gone. Rainbow Serpent, which has never bloomed here, does bloom 150 miles Southeast.