Background history:

'Mighty Chestnut' is a dormant tetraploid introduced in 1994 by Blaney. I am unable to find any information about this hybridizer.

Mighty Chestnut is a mid-season to late bloomer with extended bloom. It is pod fertile with 5 registered children: http://garden.org/plants/paren...

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

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 'Mighty Chestnut')

I purchased Mighty Chestnut this summer from Home Depot...the color was so deep and rich that I couldn't pass it up. This is my first daylily purchase from Home Depot. Might Chestnut continued to bloom all summer. I put in in the ground after the last bloom and it is growing well. It started with two fans and now I have four fans. I think it is a late bloomer as I got it in late summer. This is how she looked in my garden.

Ted Blaney is a hybridizer in West Chester Ohio. As far as I am aware, he began hybridizing in the late '80s and was active through 1998, the year of his last introductions.

He collaborated with and was probably most influenced by John Benz, who featured Blaney's introductions in several of his catalogs. Ted treated many diploids in order to fuel his program, and although he grew a great many seedlings from crosses involving some of the best and most advanced northern-hardy material available at the time, his standards were high, and he registered only 13 cultivars, and was co-registrant of a fourteenth.

I have grown three of his registrations for several years; Ruby Laser, Ruby Lips and Super Magician. They are all top-shelf daylilies. I added Mighty Chestnut last fall, so I can't comment on its performance.

Ken

Ken - Thank you so very much for the valuable information about the hybridizer, Ted Blaney! I really appreciate it!

I look forward to you evaluation of Mighty Chestnut this coming season! I hope it blooms beautifully for you!

Mighty Chestnut has been growing here only one year. In fact, it was a purchased potted plant from a nursery that was split for 2 gardens. Even so, it has thrived growing to the registered 30" this year and producing an impressive bud count of 15 on 3 way branching. It blooms late here for the month of August and in general, is not splotchy. A burst of color when others are finished. It also gave me a prolif. This is a keeper for me

I've had Mighty Chestnut for at least 7 years... It does very well, tons of blooms and extended blooming. It has multiplied very well even in 5a (although, been closer to 4a for several of the winters it's been through.... last winter we were colder than Alaska several times ). So great recommendation for Northern gardeners. Beautiful color, not at all brownish like the AHS photo.

I'm dividing again this year if anyone is interested.

I planted Mighty Chestnut in April of 2019 on Upper Daylily Hill. I didn't see it flower that summer or in 2020, so I thought I might have lost it. There was also some confusion with Holiday Delight, which it resembles. But as soon as it bloomed this summer, 2021, the confusion was over. This bloom is much browner than Holiday Delight, as well as rounder and shorter, although that might just be because it's not established yet. The G Wild fans are always very small and it's anyone's guess how long they'll take to grow into a healthy plant.

This summer, Mighty Chestnut bloomed from July 20 to August 3rd. It threw 14 flowers, usually opening multiples, then waiting a few days.



Here's Holiday Delight for comparison

2022, a worse year for MC. Only blooming from July 18-31 with 8 blooms, it was definitely an underperforming year. I'm sure drought and heat was the culprit.

2023 update…a better year for Mighty Chestnut. It bloomed from July 15- August 1st with 15 flowers. Still pretty short, nowhere near 30", more like 18".