It must be cabin fever ... I've been looking at really tall-scaped, and/or big-flowered daylilies. I wonder if I have the space to work in any flowers that are taller than I am, or that have petals longer and wider than my hand-spread, but they are making me very curious. I realize they are not necessarily both in one cultivar (some tall ones have smaller flowers, and some larger flowers are on shorter scapes), but I'm curious about both as they represent the farthest ends of the spectrum. I'm not sure whether to include or exclude spiders, as they are thin and the long petals seem to mostly hang down, creating less viewing area, but maybe they also seem large in perspective when blended in the garden?

How do you blend your larger or taller daylilies into your garden or yard? Are there some that have just never made it to the size you expected, or ones that are listed as smaller but grew really large for you? And, are all the tall ones really bud builders, or do they have a set branching pattern? Do some have massive root systems or fans?

I've read that one hybridizer pollinates tall ones by climbing a ladder (some bloom on scapes over 7 feet tall), and I know some stake large, heavy blossoms (some non-spiders are more than 12 inches wide). So, if you have pics to share it would also be awesome to hear about how/when they might be supported, pollen dusted, etc.

Here are a couple of photos from the database that help with making size comparisons. If you click the photos you'll see a fence in the background for perspective. The first is six feet tall:


And here is a daylily that has 13 inch blooms, shown next to a bloom that is likely more average sized:


I just noticed a prior thread that looked at some tall ones, too, (allthingsplants.com/thread/view/19916/) but since the consensus was that modern tall daylilies have strong enough scapes as long as they are grown in sunny spots, maybe people could add on to include more info about cultivating both tall and large-blossom daylilies?

I enjoy the tall ones. I have played with breeding them, although I do very little crossing these days. I used Notify Ground Crew as one parent in my first set of crosses, and then have been using those first seedlings in crosses since. One of those first seedlings is the biggest daylily PLANT I have ever seen. The foliage is easily 4-1/2 feet tall. The clump is huge. It was moved from the seedling bed into my perennial border, and has grown so large, I can't get anyone interested in helping me try to dig it up. We joke that I am going to have to hire a backhoe. Scapes bloom at least 5' and last year it had over 75 scapes with most scapes having bud count of at least 45. That is a LOT of blooms for one plant. However -- the flower is plain, soft lemon yellow, rather small and opens at 11 pm and starts closing late afternoon the next day, but smells wonderful when I used to work and come home 2nd shift! Some of the siblings have smaller plants, but they are not in as nice of soil, so that may be a factor. Better branching, and bigger, prettier flowers that are open all day, and better color. I will probably name at least two of them, perhaps this year. I have been crossing them to the "voluptuous" big yellow Tets, to increase flower size and beauty. The scapes on these two siblings are quite substantial, so I think they will be pretty nice. I am especially hopeful of the cross of one of them to John Rice's fabulous GOOGIES, and to Santa Lucia's HIGH ROLLER.

The two I would like to name are bud builders, but the one that is the huge plant only bud builds part of the time. Some of the other siblings bud build. I don't think the bud building comes from Notify Ground Crew, though, I think it comes from the other parent, which is a 100% reliable bud builder. It is a seedling of a friend of mine.

As far as how to use them in a landscape…. my neighbor, who I speak of often here, is a perennial garden designer, and she and her husband install and maintain perennial beds. They have many huge perennial borders to show customers, and they are beautiful. She was not into daylilies at all when they moved into the neighborhood years ago. But, I have given her a lot of daylilies, and now have her converted to using them. If you click to see all of this photo…. to the very far right of this bed, you will see Notify Ground Crew anchoring this corner. There is another pink daylily there too… about half it's height. If I remember correctly, that is ABSOLUTE TREASURE, which I think grows about 30" here.



And, here is Curt Hanson hybridizing in some of his tall ones - he's been working to get the height in his reds and purples, and get the colors clear. For the longest time, the really tall ones only came in yellow or in muddy colors. You can see "normal" height daylilies, in bud, in the foreground.


I have grown Webster's Pink Wonder. I found the blooms a bit to large for the scape and plant. I like tiny blooms on tall scapes, like Nutmeg Elf - but the huge blooms -- I don't know…. they don't appeal to me as much. However, I do really like Judy Davisson's Loud Girls, which has WPW as a parent. The balance on the plant seems better to me, and it has richer color. Loud Girls must be a strong plant as well. A friend gave me a little tiny fan that fell off when he was going to ship out a piece to a customer. I planted it, thinking it would never make it, as it was in fall. Well, it grew, and even tried to bloom the following summer, but I pinched off the scape. By the next year, it was three fans.

wowwwww ...

I think I may just have to move some of my regular fans forward a bit and make a corner to anchor in a tall bloomer ... I'd love to see my neighbor's faces if they saw daylily blooms waving over our six-foot fence at them

I totally hear you regarding balance and form and sometimes get that "off" feeling whenever foliage/scape/flower seem a bit out of joint, so learning about these rarer ones before deciding which way to go is great.

And, on the _other_ hand, I would absolutely m-e-l-t for 4.5 feet tall FOLIAGE, no matter the scape or flower, I think!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know… at first I thought the huge plant was pretty cool --- but then I kept moving other plants away from it. And the next year, moving more plants away as the clump grew larger and larger. It's like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of plants. Now, it takes up space of a lot of "regular" tetraploids.

Notify Ground Crew has tall scapes, but reasonable sized plants under it.

I did spend some time looking through my photos to see if I had an image of the foliage of the seedling, out of bloom, showing it "looming" over the plants around it -- but I could not find one. It sticks out like a "sore thumb" when there are no scapes or blooms in the garden. That's one reason I thought I should not name it. The number of scapes and blooms is rather amazing, but the foliage is -- well -- not very impressive to me.

I have a CLEDA JONES clump that I started from a fan I accidentally cut off with a pick while I was less than alert (as normal). The parent clumps have scapes around 30" while it always has much larger scapes at >56". Who knows?

Glen, it may be related to location and soil.
Juli, I would love to see a pic of that foliage. You peaked my interest.
Love the first pic of the landscape. Very nice!!
My tallest last year was Sears Tower and Autumn King. I have several that I got the last couple years that I am expecting great things from this season.
Autumn King


Sears Tower

Some of the tallest daylilies I have are Gudrid 48", Medicine Feather 48", Orchid Visitation 46", Never Never Land 45", Orchid Forest 45", Dream Queen 42", Lady Neva 42", North Wind Dancer 42", Red Ribbons 42" and Wholebunchalotta 42". I have several also in the 40" range.

I only have 2 tall daylilies so far, Gossards Reach for the Heavens (68") and Heavenly Dancing Fairies (52").

Amazing! Looking forward to seeing more pics, especially long-shots that give a perspective on height. :)

Juli, you anticipated why I am cautious about getting a plant in my rather small back yard that would soon challenge my ability to keep it contained in-ground. Clump size and spreading rate would both be strong considerations for me - and I wonder what people are experiencing (generally?) with those taller plants. Rapid spreading makes even normal clump size cultivars a concern...

Any recommendations for taller-scaped cultivars that have both near-normal clump size and a slower growth rate? That kind of observation is rare to find through any source, so would be cherished.

And, does anyone think root-sytem/increase concerns might apply to large-flowered daylilies?

Do the really big scapes (>48") only come as dormants or something?

Tina, for me, Thin Man is slow to increase. Never measured the scapes, but they are at least hip high and I am 5"8".

Largest blooms I have are on Handsome Devil and Solar Music. Although the scapes are shortish on both, HD is fully 9" across and Solar Music is 7" across.

Handsome Devil in the middle.


Solar Music to the far right.

@Gleni, I just did a search in the database (click on Plant Database of course, from the far right drop down custom databases menu select 'Daylilies'. Then click on the » Search by characteristics (height, bloom color, etc). From there I just entered Evergreen in Foliage Type and added 48 to Scape Height. It creates a nice long list just for 48 inch scaped ones. I did a search for Evergreen with 52 inch scapes and got a list of nine daylilies.

Wow, yay on Sue - I tried the search for 48 inch evergreens and see over 100 of them. Cool!

Debra, I can't thank you enough for those photos - its so wonderful to see a perspective of the larger bloom size within a mixed garden. I hope those will end up in the database, if not already there!!

Thanks Sue. I am just getting the hang of the excellent database!

I've been going through some image files in my spare time this week and found a few more talls.
The Levitating Ananuki is registered at 64" it is a kid from Notify Ground Crew. A late bloomer as you can see from the buds in the image, the cultivars in the front are around 32 - 34" and have a few buds left. Ananuki is not a huge plant and doesn't take up any more space than a regular cultivar, it's also a bit on the slower side multiplying for me.





Another tall late bloomer is Mascara Snake, registered at 57". The scapes reach the registered height but are slender and can not hold the weight of the large blooms so tend to lean over the shorter cultivars.





Also really like the sound of Juli's seedling with the tall foliage! Anything to add some height in a bed of daylilies breaks up the horizontal line making your eyes move up and down.

What a lovely, tall-ish and late blooming yellow. I so agree about the horizontal sight-line issue - that is a large part of why I am drawn to learning more about each of these, to see if there are some that do not take up much horizontal space while adding vertical interest.

In my zone 5, "Notify Ground Crew" never opened it's blooms very well, so it's been discarded.

I know some will turn their noses up to a "yellow", but I love "Sears Tower", and will always grow it. It Polys once in a while, is very fertile and passes on it's height and bloom size.



For tall with large blooms I don't think you can go wrong with Judy Davisson's introductions. Good branching, and wonderful performance in my garden.

Early Shirley (Davisson-J., 2006)
height 42in (107cm), bloom 7.5in (19.0cm), season E, Rebloom, Semi-Evergreen, Tetraploid, 32 buds, 5 branches





Mister Monopoly (Davisson-J., 2012)
height 41in (104cm), bloom 8.5in (21.5cm), season MLa, Rebloom, Dormant, Tetraploid, Fragrant, 34 buds, 6 branches, Unusual Form Cascade, Orange with serrated edges on petal tips, a wide yellow throat, and fine lemon edges. (Mean Green × (Orange Clown × A Bloom with a View))

The scape and blooms on this one just WOW'd me last year.




Redneck Reunion (Davisson-J., 2011)
height 50in (127cm), bloom 8.5in (21.5cm), season MLa, Rebloom, Dormant, Tetraploid, Fragrant, 28 buds, 5 branches, Ivory and peach blend with yellow throat. (Al's Peach Tower × Webster's Pink Wonder)

Photos don't do this one justice ... at least mine don't and I can't find one right now. AMAZING branching! I can tell you it's both pod and pollen fertile, we have a ton of seeds to grow.

There is a picture of Redneck Reunion in the database - I think yellows are awesome, Kathy, thanks for including these

Wow, Juli - I'd love to see your huge daylily plant. I would think that the really tall daylilies with huge blooms would benefit from a huge plant under them. Might even be a new trend! Just imagine; a daylily privacy fence! If you ever dig it up, I'd volunteer to do some crossings to see what happens. If you think of the parentage you crossed Notify Ground Crew with, I'm all ears.

Every picture I have ever seen of Notify Ground Crew shows it not fully open. I'm wondering if that is the norm for that bloom, more of a trumpet shaped bloom.