Background history:

'Larry's Obsession' is a semi-evergreen tetraploid introduced in 2005 by Ted Petit. His hybridizing work is done at Le Petit Jardin in McIntosh, Florida. More can be found on his website: http://www.petitdaylilies.com/...

Larry's Obsession is a mid-season bloomer with possible rebloom. It has earned the AHS Honorable Mention: 2009. It is both pod and pollen fertile with 19 registered children: http://garden.org/plants/paren...

This plant can be found in the ATP Plant Database at:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Larry's Obsession') .

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.





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Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Larry's Obsession')

I have only had this one for 2 years so I really am still evaluating it. It did bloom the first year I got it and it is planted in a shady area so, I thought it was good that it still bloomed. The edge has not been as pronounced yet but I think that will improve. Scapes were tall and it didn't produce a whole lot of buds the first 2 years for me, maybe l0. I did set some pods on it and its pollen works great. Some of the blooms were a little splotchy for the first time blooming. I don't know if that is normal for that plant or not. Did survive 2 winters here so that is a good thing. Blooms did not hang up when opening and opened well after a cold night. Here is a pic of it in my yard.

We have had this one for 3 years and it still is just sitting there in our zone 5a. It may just need a bit more heat, say a Z6. We purchased it from a friend an hour south and in the city, and it was groing well in their garden.

I'm letting it stay, but if I knew this about it, I wouldn't have purchased it. I don't want to wait several years for something to "settle in".

It's beautiful, but I think it would do better in at least a Z6.

I've grown 'Larry's Obsession' for a few years and I love it. It's in a bed that gets full sun until around 3 in the afternoon and readily sets pods. The pollen is good, too. I've had no trouble at all with it.

I've had Larry's Obsession for about four years.
Under 12 buds a scape, I usually have to open it since it hangs up.
Always somewhat splotchy.
Here's the best bloom it's ever had.

In four years I think it's increased about 1 or 2 fans.

I tried it twice and never got to see it bloom.
Both times it died in late winter/early spring when we have all the freeze and thaw. The first time I thought I did not mulch it enough so I mulched it heavy the second time. A small wispy fan tried to start in the spring but it rotted out. Too bad as I love the dark color.

I'm somewhat sorry to hear that everyone is having difficulties of some sort or another with this plant. It's a beautiful flower and I kicked myself for passing it up this summer. I thought it was beautiful and had it in my hands for awhile at the local daylily show, but I was determined at that point to not purchase any daylilies with teeth and I was too cheap to pay $20 for a single fan of a daylily when I had been to daylily farms and purchased large clumps of other cultivars for $3 - $6 each. Since then, I regretted not purchasing it; however, now that I'm hearing reports of it not doing so well, maybe my initial reluctance to purchase it served me well in the end. It's too bad, though, that such a beautiful flower is so fickle.

I had it for at least three years and it never bloomed, so out it went...

We have had Larry's Obsession for several years. It is a very S-L-O-W increaser. The blooms are pretty. This is probably one that will work its way out of our garden. We are downsizing, and those that are not good performers here will be leaving.

Doris

I purchased a single fan of Larry's Obsession and have only had it for about a month (it arrived in May and it is June now) and it is already blooming! Beautiful near-white teeth! I love the contrast between the dark, velvety petals and the near-white teeth! I'm writing this in the morning (the first bloom, atleast, seems to indicate this is an EMO), so I will try to remember to come back and write about its performance later in the day, how well it holds up. Considering the petals are pretty thick, I imagine it doesn't wilt easily in the sun, but I am curious about how sunfast the color is.


(It is much darker than the picture shows.)

Edited, later in the day, to add:
We didn't have a lot of sun today, so it's hard to comment on its performance. It was fairly hot and humid today, with periods of sun and the color held out, as did the substance. It's really a beautiful flower, and is the one flower that really got me interested in toothy cultivars, even though it took me so long to get it. (It was being offered for $5 SF at a show a year or two ago and I passed it over because I was trying to stay focused on particular hybridizing traits and I wasn't interested in toothy cultivars at the time, but I kept kicking myself in the butt for long after...and then I tried purchasing a seedling from a local hybridizer that was also a red-purple with white teeth.)

judydu2 said:I've grown 'Larry's Obsession' for a few years and I love it. It's in a bed that gets full sun until around 3 in the afternoon and readily sets pods. The pollen is good, too. I've had no trouble at all with it.

Hi,

Any rust?

Thanks!

Interesting to read how many different issues people are having in their gardens with Larry's Obsession... especially the gardener in zone 6 who thought it needs a 'warmer' climate. I have been growing it for five years in zone 3.


And yes, the bloom is actually darker than it shows in the photo (taken in the afternoon, in the sun - after a rain shower passed through). It's planted with Phlox Barfourteen 'Flame Purple' and yellow foxgloves, and wow! Does that show off in the gardens!

That said, yes - the bud count is around 15, so there are a lot of daylilies out there that might give you more bang for the buck. But it's just so very gorgeous when it does bloom... For me, that's roughly at mid-summer, and in my cold climate I have never seen it rebloom in any year. And yes - I've had a couple of buds that have hung up, not opened perfectly.

To me, every plant in the gardens is perfect, each in its own way. I can forgive / excuse an imperfection so long as it not 'always' - if Larry's Obsession failed to flower at all, or consistently the buds did not open, I would have to remove it.

But just because something is gorgeous 95% of the time... not 2000% of the time... is not a reason for me to discard it. I'll keep it in the gardens just for the days when... on that particular day... it's the most beautiful flower in the gardens.