Hi Guys!

I was browsing the web and saw a site about Mike Huben daylilies, mainly small/mini dips, which said he was trying to get rebloom into his daylilies for northern gardens and that some were good clarifiers.

Has anyone grown any and do they really rebloom? There are a few of them available in Germany so could get hold of some of them if I wanted.

Any info welcome, esp. on the following:

Ice Trumpets
Early and Often
Boston Marathon
From Darkness Comes Light
Indelible Blood
Kanai Sensei
Vanilla Stella

I grow 'Ice Trumpets' and "Early and Often', I'm also familiar with several others you mention and have seen them in Mike's garden, he used to live not too far from me, although he moved a few years ago. From Darkness Comes Light' is one of his best, he pays attention to good foliage and characteristics than enhance the overall plant such as black stems. I need to buy that one.

I can't comment on "rebloom", not sure to in what context "rebloom" is used in the daylily world (I'm not a daylily hybridizer, although last year for the 1st time I did a bit of dabbling and made a few crosses, and coincidentally I used the lovely 'Ice Trumpets'). I have never seen what I would consider rebloom on 'Ice Trumpets' and 'Early and Often'.

I have 'Early and Often' and 'Kanai Sensei'. E and O does rebloom although it took a little while to settle in before it started doing so. 'Kanai Sensei' is a very tough little daylily and I haven't seen much rebloom on it but it is in a very poor location and I should really rescue it so it's not fair to judge. It's a pretty little thing.

I have had Kanai Sensei for a few years now and I have gotten rebloom from it.

Early and Often as well From Darkness comes Light were new to me last year, so no feedback yet.

I also have Delicate Lace and Vanilla Gorilla.

I've been adding some Huben cultivars to my garden because I, too, am looking for border plants that can rebloom in my Northern climate. I kind of differentiate disconnected rebloom from instant rebloom. So by rebloom, I mean it blooms for a while, shuts down for a while, and comes back, often when temperatures cool off a bit.

Early and Often was my first Huben purchase. Last year it bloomed June 15 to July 1, July 24 to August 18, and September 6 to September 18, for a total of 56 days (8 weeks) worth of blooms. Three reblooms is pretty rare for my Zone 5A location. So I'm pretty happy with it, and it's still a pretty small clump and will improve. In my garden, that puts this in a class with Happy Returns and not quite Stella de Oro, if you are familiar with those.

Early and Often

Not mentioned, I added White and Nerdy which hasn't rebloomed for me, yet, in two summers. I'm adding Magenta Kisses and But I Repeat Myself this spring, so check back again in a couple years.

For me in Massachusetts (the State where Mike developed this hybid), 'Early and Often' blooms at daylily season and once, without any noticeable rebloom, my plant from Mike is now a mature clump about 10 yrs ago.

Thanks for the info everyone. Might add a couple in autumn to cross with pretty but less vigorous ones in my garden.

I wonder what will happen with my little experiment... I saved pollen on 'Promises Promises' (hot coral pink) to hybridize with 'Autumn Prince' (yellow), a very tall slender cultivar (up to 6'), first flowers appear end of August, then flowers all September, last flowers at beginning of October. Here's the seed coming up as of today. I wonder about many aspects of the cross:
- what will be the bloom time
- crossing a 30" tall hem with a 72" hem, what will the size be
- flower color?

Nikki, Kanai Sensei reblooms in my garden every year since it has been here. About five years. Mike has used Early And Often a lot in his program. Search his blog for excellent rebloom info. I had Vanilla Stella on the radar also. Haven't heard anyone raving about it yet.

Thanks Mike! Do you know what he means when he says something readily gives up the melon colour in its seedlings? Don't really understand what he means.

Nikki the seedlings will most likely not have the melon colour is what I gleen from that statement.

I grow Ice Trumpets and Helicopter. Early and Often did not live long the first time I planted it in 2016. I added it back last year but have not seen it bloom. Recently, I was able to get a couple more from Tina "Been There" and they are looking good - O'Positive and Venous Blood. So far Ice Trumpets has done the best for me and may become the best white that I grow, but all my Huben's are fairly new. I am looking forward to seeing Helicopter bloom this year. It had a couple of blooms last year and it was the smallest UF type of DL that I have ever seen, registered at 3.5" but it was less than 3" first blooms.

Ice Trumpets (June 2017)


Helicopter (June 2017)

I bought 'O Positive' the year it was introduced, and it's been a pretty good daylily here, thriving despite being way out of its normal climate. The only thing about it which disappointed me was the height. It's registered at 46", but only gets around 18" here. I can't really explain it—the handful of other tall daylilies I grow (dormant through evergreen) come pretty close to their registered height, with the exception of Paul Owen's 'Eminent Domain' which has consistently bloomed around 12". (I've heard a couple other people say the same thing about that one.)

Pretty flower though, and it holds well in the sun. Maybe I need to move it to a better location.

Thanks Ken and Terry &Ashton,

They are all nice ones. I can't get O positive or helicopter, sadly, but I can get Ice Trumpets which I like a lot. I can also get Indelible Blood which I have been told is a nice red and a good plant.

When I had O Positive it was over 36 inches its first year , just decided that Indelible Blood had more spidery seedling possibilities, so switched to that. I also grow Helicopter, Venous Blood and Accentuate The Green. Very hardy and vigorous. All got moved last fall and didn't mind at all. I'm just overall impressed with the tough plants under those pretty flowers. And all but Venous Blood were purchased as single fans from Northern Lights Daylilies last spring. So impressed with them, I added more this spring!

This is one Accentuate The Green it's first summer.


O Positive it's first summer.


Accentuate the Green has sparkly little white blooms. and lots of them.

I have 'Early and Often' (hasn't rebloomed here but it gets a lot of shade), 'Vanilla Gorilla' (nice plant but ditto), 'Arterial Blood' (ditto), 'Twist Again', and 'Let Me Be Clear'.

Both 'Twist Again' and 'Let Me Be Clear' rebloom here (they also get a fair amount of shade). I really like the clear greenish yellow of 'Twist Again'; it is very attractive, and the plant is both pod and pollen fertile. 'Let Me Be Clear' is a clear pink, almost near-white. I have some crosses from it in the works, using its pollen (it is pod difficult at best). It has recessive genes for albinism, and apparently also some genes for bitone/bicolor, since some of my seedlings from it (versus a rose self) are bitones or bicolors.



If I could keep only one of those last two, I would keep 'Twist Again'. (But then, I'm partial to yellow daylilies.)

@Polymerous
Poly, may I please ask what daylilies you have crossed 'Le Me Be Clear' as a pollen parent that produced albino seedlings.

admmad said:@Polymerous
Poly, may I please ask what daylilies you have crossed 'Le Me Be Clear' as a pollen parent that produced albino seedlings.

'Coming Up Roses' x 'Let Me Be Clear' produced 5/30 albino seedlings. (Sorry, that's < 25% albino (memory said 25% but I just looked up my notes). But out of the 36 seeds originally planted 6 did not emerge, so some of those could have been albino also.) Some of the surviving seedlings are bitone or bicolor (few blooms thus far and cream-pink vs cream not easy to discriminate on the sepals (versus pink on the petals)).


one of the 'Coming Up Roses' x 'Let Me Be Clear' seedlings

'Stars My Destination' x 'Let Me Be Clear' had 3/11 seedlings albino; seedlings not expected to bloom until 2019.