Background history:

"Mary's Gold" is a dormant tetraploid introduced in 1984 by Harold McDonell from Fayetteville, Georgia. Harold hybidized daylilies until 1995 when he switch to hybridizing hostas. For more information about Harold McDonell, check out this Hosta Online Journal article: http://americanhostasociety.or...

This cultivar can be found in the ATP Plant Database:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Mary's Gold')

According to the ATP database, this is a midseason bloomer. This cultivar won several AHS awards including: Award of Merit: 1991. Honorable Mention: 1988, LAA: 2005, PC: 2001. It has a rust susceptibility rating of 2.9.
It is particularlly pollen fertile with 11 registered children currently: http://garden.org/plants/paren...





Please join in, if you own this plant! We would love to know more! (I award an acorn for performance information posted on this thread.)

Also, please consider adding a "Local Report" to the ATP Plant Database!!! Thank you!
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Mary's Gold')

I would mass plant this one if i had more space. I have grown it for 5 years now and had to divide it 2 years ago. Bud count is not spectacular but ample (did not count this year) but the blooms are and this is my one and only large yellow daylily.
Have had very little to no rust problem and mine has grown to easily 30 inches maybe more. I think i have a pic from this year.


I think you can see the bud count is not too bad at all and judging by the fence it stands 32 inches plus some more. Full sun almost all day except last hour or so. If you love golden yellow flowers you have to grow this one. Great for beginners like me. Lol.

'Mary's Gold' has been a great performer here for many years. I've had it since around 2000. This past spring, I dug up a big chunk from the clump to donate to our club's public service project - we donated multiple fans of award winning daylilies from our gardens to a public garden here in Roanoke,VA. My clump didn't even miss a beat this summer. The tall scapes and big flowers always get visitors attention here! Yes, even though some say that yellow or gold daylilies are a dime a dozen, you NEED the gold and yellow palates in your gardens to make those purples and reds pop. These images were taken here this summer. Someone asked about the cultivars 'Jerusalem' and 'Golden Hibiscus' in another thread. All three of these are in the same general color zone, but this is IMHO, the superior plant of all three. The other two left the garden years ago - Golden Hibiscus ( not looking but think I remember) was registered with 14" scapes, and the short scapes detracted from the bloom. Jerusalem was a so-so bloomer, Mary's Gold has wonderful plant habits or it wouldn't have stayed here for so long!



I was fortunate enough to meet Harold McDonell back in 2008, and told him then what a great plant his 'Mary's Gold' is. I've seen it in many gardens around the country.

Wow Julie i am loving those pics. Okay maybe bud count is spectacular.

One of my favorites - such impressive blooms with fantastic substance. I have others with more blooms, but this is a favorite year after year.

This is a great one that has stood the test of time and will always have a prime place in my garden

I have this daylily, and I love it, but I can't say that it is a great performer. Part of that may be genetic, in terms of its natural budcount and branching. A great deal of it, I am sure, has to do with its treatment and placement in my garden. Most daylilies here get the "benign neglect" treatment when it comes to fertilizer (I do try to fertilize at least once a year), and this particular daylily is unhappily situated in more than part shade. Because of these problems, I am sure that I don't get as long a period of bloom, or as high of a bud count, as other people may.

Still, I have had this daylily for several years (15 at a minimum), and would be unhappy to give it up. I am not a big fan of gold flowers (daylilies or otherwise), but there is something peculiarly arresting and vibrant about the color on 'Mary's Gold'. The color is so attractive that it even makes me overlook the fact that the flowers are otherwise really rather plain, without ruffles; the color is absolutely fantastic . The plant produces large flowers on tall scapes, both of which traits are highly desirable to me, and which imo add to the show. More importantly, the blooms always open well, even after our cooler evenings.

There is a tendency to emphasize daylilies which rebloom (the more blooms the merrier), and who can argue with that... But given enough garden space, I think that exceptions can (and arguably should) be made for at least a few special non-reblooming daylilies, depending on their traits, and 'Mary's Gold' is one of those exceptions for me.

I note from the ATP database that 'Mary's Gold' has a rust score of 2.9. I don't spray for rust and have yet to notice rust on it (it has survived at least one garden purge for rust), but this fall may be another matter. (The daylily next to it has had quite a bit of rust, and is going to be kicked from the garden.)

To sum it all up, 'Mary's Gold' is a daylily that - for its large vibrantly colored blooms which always open well - I always look forward to seeing in bloom. The only reason I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone and everyone is its rust susceptibility, and its relatively low budcount and lack of rebloom.

(The above is my opinion on the plant. I do have a question regarding its ploidy, thanks to this thread. I was surprised to see 'Mary's Gold' described as a dormant in the ATP database, given that the AHS database lists it as a tetraploid. I had always thought it was a tetraploid. Perhaps it really is a diploid, and that is why I can't set pods on it (with tet pollen)? I'd like to know who/how/why it is thought to be a diploid, though. Help, anyone?)

Edit: The bolded word in the last paragraph should be "diploid", not "dormant". Duh. I must have been half asleep when posting.... My apologies...

This cultivar is a tetraploid w/o a doubt!! Maybe a typo in this DB? Boyd, I agree that the bud count is average and if you look closely at my clump shot, it shows that the scapes can tend to be top branched, and at best, three way. However at clump strength, there are numerous scapes and those 6.5" blooms make a big show. In years with adequate rainfall, this will bloom profusely. Visitors will spot it when they round the corner. This sets off several big reds growing near it. They wouldn't be nearly as noticeable without the bright gold pulling your eye in that direction.

Julie - Thank you for catching that error about the ploidy. I changed my initial introduction post at the beginning. I will try to remember to check BOTH the ATP and AHS databases to ensure consistency.

Boyd - Would like to hear how it does this Fall concerning rust resistance. I base most of my current daylilies on their ability to produce nice foliage during rust season. All the above reviews definitely have me interested in this cultivar! I agree that the color looks to be quite the eye-catcher in any garden!

Edited to add: Thanks Boyd for actually being the first one to catch the error in ploidy!

Mary's Gold is a tet?!?! ATP and the seller I bought from list it as a dip! In addition to its great looks I bought it with the idea of crossing it with another dip. I am not happy about this!

Interesting to read that MG doesn't like the shade too much. It was a first-year plant for me but was one of only a couple first-years that didn't bloom for me. It is in more shade than the rest so I guess that explains it. I may have to move this one to a sunnier spot to make it (and me) happier!

Mary's Gold came to live in my garden after a couple of years of prodding from one of the diggers at the local daylily farm (now out of business). For about two years he would tell me "you really need Mary's Gold!" But it was "gold" and I wanted other colors. I finally gave in and bought a double fan for $6 in 2008. I put one fan on each side of the little bridge that gets morning shade. I am happy to say that I do love this daylily.

If there were any complaints at all, it would be that it is top branched and on occasion the blooms get in the way of each other. BUT, other than that, it is a fantastic daylily.

In 2009, the year after I bought the double fan, I made notes about branching and bud count. These are the stats on Mary's Gold from 2009:

Increased from 2 to 4 fans in 1 year
Scape 1: 2-way branching, 24 buds
Scape 2: 4-way branching, 20 buds
Scape 3: 3-way branching, 17 buds

Since then, I have given away one whole clump on the one side of the bridge. The other single fan now has 20 fans after 7 years and no dividing.

I don't see rust in the pictures from June, but the clump now has just a couple of spots, which I'd say is darn good for this late in the season. Looking at past pictures shows that there is very little if any rust.

Bloom season for Mary's Gold is a true midseason bloomer in my zone 6b garden. It bloomed from 6/23 thru 7/18 this year.

Sometimes the midribs have a creamy white appearance.
Not sure what causes that, but it reminds me of a Dreamsicle bar.


This is Mary's Gold this year. I did not get bud count, but I think it may have declined a little bit. I do not fertilize and the clump needs dividing. In the second picture, you can also see how the blooms kind of get in the way of each other.



I think Polymerous statement about the color is spot on. Mary's Gold really draws the eye and makes the garden pop.

Just look at that rich, vibrant, gold color!

Vickie - Thank you for the stats for 2009! Very helpful information! She is a beauty in your garden, no doubt about it!

I submitted a change to the Plant Database and it has been changed to a tetraploid. Thanks again to Julie for catching that error! Am passing the acorn I earned, for bringing it to the attention of the database moderators, on to you!

@floota Julie, I am curious-- how you did you determine that Mary's Gold is a tet?

Dennis - For one thing, it IS listed as a tetraploid in the AHS database.

http://www.daylilies.org/Dayli...

Becky, I saw that but as you know the AHS database is rife with errors so I was curious if she had a different source, or if an actual genetic test was done or something...

One way to find out for sure ... try crossing it with a tetraploid.

( @Dennis616 ) Check out the children of this cultivar. Seems they were crossed with other tets:

http://garden.org/plants/paren...

I just checked a bunch of daylily reseller websites and the vast majority list it as a tet.

Of course I had to choose one of the two that list it as a dip! Oh well, live and learn!

I just re-read the end of my post, wondering why I also didn't get an acorn for bringing up the topic of the ploidy. (Lol, just kidding (sort of).) I must have been half asleep posting it because I used the word "dormant" instead of "diploid" in the third sentence of my last paragraph (where I was questioning what the ploidy really was). (I actually did mean to check the children, to try to determine what the ploidy "should" be, but got distracted and then came back and posted without doing further checking.)

Anyway, thanks Julie for your clarification. I am glad to see that there is a consensus that 'Mary's Gold' is a tet. The blooms do have a very long style... perhaps that is part of my problem with not setting pods. I would love, love, love to see a daylily with blooms of this exact same size and color, on the same height scapes, but which are a bit fancier/rufflier/fuller.

Off to correct my previous post...

Boyd - I awarded you an acorn as well for actually being the first one to catch the ploidy error! I saw "dormancy" was confused by your last paragraph and didn't catch what you were talking about. Now it all makes sense!