Background history:

"Tuscawilla Tigress" is a semi-evergreen tetraploid introduced in 1988 by Ra Hansen. Her son, Dan, and her cultivars can be seen at Ladybug Daylilies in Geneva, Florida:
http://www.ladybugdaylilies.co...

Bellee Ra Hansen, 69, passed away on Feb. 15, 1999. Some of her hybridizing "letters" can be read on Dan's website:
http://www.ladybugdaylilies.co...

And I also found an old new article about her and her gardens! :
http://articles.orlandosentine...

A video by her son, Dan can be seen on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

This cultivar can be found in the ATP Plant Database:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Tuscawilla Tigress')

According to the ATP database, this is an early to midseason extended bloomer with possible rebloom. It has a 2.3 rust resistance rating. AHS awards for this cultivar include: Award of Merit: 1996, Honorable Mention: 1992. It is both pod and pollen fertile. Tuscawilla Tigress has 18 registered children: 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 'Tuscawilla Tigress')

I really like Tuscawilla Tigress so far! According to my records, I purchased 4 fans of her back on July 5th and she's still only at 4 fans (one is sort of small/wispy), so I'll have to see what she does next year. There were two scapes total but there was only 1 scape of blooms for hybridizing with (I think the couple of blooms remaining on the other scape were the tragic losses left on the front seat of my car when I got home.)



Tuscawilla Tigress was a difficult pod parent for me. She could've just been upset about the transplant, the hot and dry weather we had for weeks on end, or she just might not have liked that I kept trying to pair her with Sound and Fury. (I have made a total of 10 pollination attempts with Sound and Fury, on a total of 5 different cultivars, and not a one of them took.) Tuscawilla Tigress did, however, make 2 pods for me this season. I've tried pollinating her 9 times, 4 of which were with S&F. If we discount S&F, that means that Tuscawilla took just under half...or 2/5 of my pollination attempts...that's not too terrible!

Anyway, though, I really like her color and plan on using her quite a bit in my hybridizing. I don't have exact measurements for her yet, but I will try to get some soon once I harvest the seed pods and bring the brown scapes in. I'll try to remember to do petal measurements next year.

As for appearance, I do recall most of her blooms being very triangular and she is NOT an early morning opener, but she WILL wake YOU up when you see her! She's listed as nocturnal, but I seem to recall her opening mid-day, so she must've stayed open all night and into the next day...which would explain how I accidentally double-pollinated one of her blossoms one day. ( )

Definitely worth buying, and for anyone in MI, she is VERY easy to find for purchase. If you want Tuscawilla Tigress and can't find her, let me know and I'll tell you at least 2-3 places you can purchase her!

Tuscawilla Tigress is a very strong performer in my Minnesota garden. The bloom color is vibrant, and definitely eye-catching from a distance and up close. My plants increase yearly -- the fans and scapes are strong -- and there are always a ton of buds. Definitely a favorite.

I'm pretty sure Tuscawilla Tigress was introduced by Ra Hansen, Dan's mother.
Dan's registrations are recorded as "Hansen-D", while Ra's are simply "Hansen".

Somehow I've never grown it, despite having heard very good reports during the many years it's been around.

Ken
East S.F. Bay Area
USDA Zone 9

Ken - Thank you! I just did a search on the internet and looked at numerous different nurseries selling this cultivar until I found one that said "Ra Hansen", so you are right! Thanks for helping me to keep the info on this thread accurate!

We find TT to be a very strong grower with very large fans, rapid increase, and some rebloom here in SW Ontario. It does attract attention with its vibrant colours, and because we see it growing at closer to 30" rather than the 25" registration, it tends to stand up taller than many of the other plants that are surrounding it as if to say "LOOK AT ME!!"

TT has been in the same place for three years.
Last year it had 37 buds per scape, this year it had 35-40 per scape.
It's probably the highest buded daylily we have.
It increases so quickly that we had to move all the daylilies around it!
Doesn't rebloom.

Tuscawilla Tigress is one of those dependable daylilies that are the backbone of my daylily garden. It blooms long and abundantly. I grow mine in a container and it has overwintered outside for years now, so I consider it winter hardy. While it retains a good bit of color, it really looks better when protected from the late afternoon sun..................Maryl

I got a small start of Tuscawilla Tigress in 2013 from my daughter, so I don't have a lot of info on it. All I know is that I loved it in her flower bed because it is tall, large, and bright!

I love this daylily! Tuscawilla Tigress has been in my garden for 5 or 6 years now and is a solid performer here. It has a standout color and blooms abundantly and has quite a long bloom season. It has increased well and produced quite a lot of seed for me.

I've had Tuscawilla Tigress for two years now. It is a real beauty and stands out boldly in the garden. It was small when I got it and did not flower the first year. Can't wait til next year when it will be even better yet!

Tuscawilla Tigress has been in my garden since 2012, it has done extremely well, with a high increase in fans. Scapes are about 28 to 30 inches, high bud count, so I get a long bloom period, and the blooms are very vivid in color. I really like this one and highly recommend it if you have harsh growing conditions as I do here. Next year I will divide it and plant in another area of the garden because I like it so much.
2015

Very bright orange with light midribs. I have had it several years and it is slow it increase for me compared to other daylilies I have had as long. It is in a crowded area so I may move it in the spring to see if that helps. Have not tried hybridizing with it. ,,

Tuscawilla Tigress was given to me as a gift. I Have enjoyed the shape and beautiful orange of this plant. It is a nice height.and great bloomer.

This is a tall bright orange w/ near white mid ribs and it has nice sized blooms. It shows off when used with a purple and white companion plants. I like it with white "David "phlox and "Kobold" blazing star or "May Night" salvia

LilySue,
Humm...I have a lot of 'Purple Kiss Phox' I think I might divide my 'Tuscawilla Tigress' when it needs it and plant those two together. Now to find something white blooming around that same time.

I like to buy daylilies that are good "garden" daylilies, ones that have lots of blooms, stand out color, multiply at a decent pace, bloom for an extended period of time and are easy to care for plants. I loved how this plant bloomed and it seemed to be a really stand out plant in many ways, but even though it showed to be rust resistant, after blooming it succumbed to rust. But nearly every plant in my garden developed rust at one point or another this past year. Very few were what I would call really rust resistant.

Most of the blooms had a triangular shape to them.

After blooming the foliage developed rust!

I've had Tuscawilla Tigress for a number of years. This is a tough plant in a difficult, overcrowded bed, but I still get cheerful blooms every early July. Great hot orange, very recognizable bloom. Mine seems to be a little shorter than the registered height. I think if I planted this somewhere else, with more sun and more room, it would do better. But it's plugging along so I think I'll leave it where it is.




With My Melinda in back.