Background history:

'Merry Morgan' is a semi-evergreen introduced in 2008 by Bunting.

This plant can be found in our Plant Database at:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Merry Morgan') .

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.



Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Merry Morgan')

It's not often that I will give a 'negative' review for a daylily that successfully grows in my zone 3 gardens, but Merry Morgan has earned one. I made a comment about it in 2023, and I will quote that comment here:

"'Merry Morgan' (Bunting 2008) is noted as being polymerous (99%) and single form. In reality, it doubles in form (nearly 99%), but does not poly with any consistency. I think I have seen two or maybe three poly blooms on it in the five years I have had it.

If you appreciate it for its double (not single) form, then I would say that it is reliably hardy in northern gardens. If your interest is for its ability to produce polymerous blooms, then I would say there are many better options to choose among."

Add two more summers (the remainder of 2023 and summer of 2024) and I do not retract anything said above. This daylily, at least in my gardens, is nearly 100% double form ... and virtually 'never' produces a poly bloom.

I have checked and rechecked my bloom against the AHS database, the colour / general appearance appears to be the correct daylily ... but the stats are just not correct.

https://www.daylilydatabase.or...

My garden...






I can't share with you a picture of Merry Morgan in single form: I don't believe I have one, not sure I have ever seen a 'single' form bloom on it. It doubles all the time. As for poly blooms... it polys so very rarely, I cannot produce a single image from my records over the time it has been in my gardens.

As though that were not already cranky enough as a poor review... the scapes are persistently short, often blooming within the foliage. I have this planted in a prime location, excellent soil and sun, and it still under-performs every summer. This coming spring, I believe I will be giving this one to a neighbor and replacing it with something better... which would be almost any other daylily. Disappointing, to say the least.

Negative reviews are sometimes difficult to write, but they really help others when deciding whether to invest in them.

I am kind of surprised that MM was registered as a single and poly. It's pod parent is Peach Magnolia and pollen parent is listed as unknown.

As an aside, the hybridizer, John Bunting and his wife owned Bunting Daylily Garden in Poquoson, Virginia. John passed away last April. His obituary said that he registered 13 daylilies.

I am sorry to be negative about any daylily. (No hybridizer registers a daylily they feel will under-perform.) And I would not expect there to be such a difference between what the hybridizer found to be true in his Virginia garden vs. a colder climate.

I have never seen a daylily bloom in double vs single form based on climate or garden conditions, so it's very curious that mine seems like such an aberration from the daylily Mr Bunting registered. Perhaps it's a one-off, wish someone else here in the forum could review it in another garden.

I just went through my last 3 years of pictures of Merry Morgan. All the pictures are doubles. I didn't see any I would call a poly. It is not my favorite plant & it may go to make room for something I like better.