Background history:

'Always Afternoon' is a semi-evergreen tetraploid introduced in 1987 by Morss.

It has earned the following AHS awards:
Stout Silver Medal: 1997
Award of Merit: 1995
Honorable Mention: 1992
JC: 1988
DCS: 1993

This plant can be found in the ATP Plant Database at:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Always Afternoon') .

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.



Also, please consider adding a "Local Report" to the ATP Plant Database! Thank you!

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Always Afternoon')

I bought this one many years ago and it died the first winter. I haven't tried it again so don't know if it was not hardy, which would seem an obvious possibility, or its demise was for some other reason.

I purchased Always Afternoon from an ebay vendor last spring and it bloomed within a few weeks and I love it. Mine was more of a peach color rather than a mauve or soft pink. I started with 3 fans and by the fall it had grown to 6 fans and divided it and placed a few in a front bed. I didn't get an exact bud count, but all three fans scaped and had several buds each. I am extremely happy with Always Afternoon....she is a keeper for me. This is how she looked in my garden. She survived the first winter with several below freezing nights without any issues.

Always Afternoon is a great Stout Medal Daylily and performs great, clear color, increases very good and blooms great.

This one is a hardy keeper in my garden, it has been here many years, love the dark eye.

Always Afternoon has struggled in my garden. I moved it to a full sun location two years ago. I'm going to fertilize it next year to help it along. Hope that perks it up. As you can see in the picture from this year, it is VERY short and didn't open well.

I have had this daylily in my garden since 1997. It is a good performer for the front of the bed as it does not grow very tall. I find the color is not as intense as it appears in pictures from warmer climes but it is still a pretty one. Bud count is not high for me but it is reliable blooming every year. A keeper for me.

My husband calls Always Afternoon the perfect bloom for a daylily, every bloom is the same lovely and consistent colors. It is very hardy here in zone 6b, south central Kentucky. It is pod fertile for me, I have not used the pollen so I don't know about that. I love it and I will always have a place for it in my garden.

Always Afternoon is one of the first daylilies I planted in my garden. It has performed well and I particularly like the color, with the dark eye and bright lime green throat.

There's a wide range of colours in this thread and in the ATP database. My recollection is that mine was nearer to Theresa's above, and Vic and Joy's in the database before its winter demise. Does it really vary that much between gardens? Pat's is the peachiest above and also the furthest south. The picture in the AHS database doesn't look like mauve with purple eyezone and green throat as in the registration text description but that looks more like a camera effect to me (although presumably was provided by or approved by the hybridizer).

Thanks for showing me this one. I have managed to find one for sale over here in the UK to add to my garden.

Hey Jon,
Always Afternoon has been in my garden for almost 14 years. It is a Keeper! The blooms are very consistent in color, form, and substance. Here I get 4-way branching on scapes that are at least the registered 22 inches. It sulked for a few years when the shade from neighboring trees got too much for it. It recovered quickly when moved to full sun in good soil with plenty of fertilizer. It is registered as an Sev---but it looks quite like a Dormant when it first comes up in the Spring.

I've had ALWAYS AFTERNOON for a number of years. It was one of the first plants that I ever acquired. It's grown from a small single fan into a massive clump. It performs reliably here with little intervention from me, however, a good feeding in the spring and fall does seem to increase bud count. I have found it to be reliably fertile, easily so, and will often set pods with (for a tet) a large number of seeds. I have actually crossed a few newer plants (like DRAGONFLY DAWN) back into ALWAYS AFTERNOON due to how well AA performs for me.

I've never made note about it's rust resistance so I cannot speak to that. It blooms mid to mid late season for me and does not rebloom.

I have had Always Afternoon in my garden for about 10 years. It's preformed well in my zone 8b yard and I have shared it many times because it has increased well. I also love the eye on this one.

I have had this one for several years, shared it many times and it has never missed a beat. Always blooms well, and I really like the color on it. I call the color a purple on purple, but have seen variations in some years. Maybe temperature related?

I've had Always Afternoon for about 5 years. Scapes are always 24" or more. Bloom like crazy, nice foliage. It has survived winters with -30, although I do get a lot of snow. My blooms are mauve colored. Always a favorite with friends and family.

Acquired in July 2017 for MI garden as a double fan. 2019 5 scapes and 7+ fans. Top branching only so far as V or W. Color matched picture when it blooms.

My AA has been in my garden a number of years. It's done fine but better this year because my neighbors tree fell down so now it gets plenty of sun. I even had some reblooming!

Thought that I would add a few photos of Always Afternoon that speak to its color instability. The picture above is from 2020

This photo is from 2019 when the bed had become quite shady



This photo is from 2018, when the plant was receiving more sun. It seems that as it gets shaded, it becomes a bluer, more lavender pink. With more sun it gets closer to mauve or a redder pink

This is Always Afternoon's first bloom in my garden in 2020. I was surprised at how blotchy it was; I didn't realize at that time that blotchiness was common in early blooms. However, the plant never did much for me after that. It never increased, and this year (2021), it did not bloom and also got a bad case of rust. So it is going to a new northern home. It struggled here.

I do not recommend this cultivar for southern growers.