julrich said:
Bela Lugosi, in my garden never gets to the incredible near-black of the photo by Daylily (I wish it did!), but presents as a deeply saturated dark red with yellow throat.
Mine is planted where it gets shade till noon, and that does help with photos.
Curt is known for purples, and Bela still is one of the nicest, in my opinion. I also like his Sleepy Hollow. I grow Rice's Theodore Kline, which is a favorite in the purple color range, but I still judge them all by Bela. This morning, I looked **really** hard and might have sen the faintest darker area next to the throat. An hour later, it was all one color.
I have grown a tissue culture one from Lowes for 2-3 years just to see what it was like. Who knows if those mass produced things are even related to the "real" plant, or do they just take any old daylily and put the catchy Bela Lugosi name on it? Anyway, the one I grew had poor plant habit, was burgundy/brown and not quite the right shape.
Any chance yours was from tissue culture? Even if it came from a club or a grower, it could have been TC before they got it.
Ok, now, Jerry.... I just looked at it in full sun, 96 degrees, almost 2 p.m. The magenta area is still lighter than the base petal color, even though it is slicked from the sun. It will look much better this evening. Hot afternoons are the worst time to look at daylilies, that is for sure.
When you do get the real Jerry.... It hates to be moved and divided. You will see the branching and prettiest flowers after you let it clump up.
It is a great plant to breed with if you like unusual patterns, spots, smokey greyed lavender purples. Taking it to Joan Derifield has produced some amazing and very interesting things for Curt and for other people I know. Check out Paradise Bar and Grill. It is one that photos just do not capture.
