I wonder how many of dissatisfied people with poor performing plants have a division of Bela Lugosi that came from one that was tissue cultured.
Daylilies are not as "purple" as other some other types of flowers. Bela Lugosi is as purple as any daylily was of it's day. I bought mine from the hybridizer's garden in 1997 or 1998. It holds its color well and is still the daylily that I compare all other purples to for color and holding up. Bela has a sheen to it that seems to reflect the sun. My clump was planted in sun years ago but the small trees have grown and it has been in shade the last few years. I just dug it up this year and it was a bit of a tangled mess. I don't think it's been divided in over 10 years. Maybe longer.
I will say that it has not been one of the extremely fast increasing daylilies. Moderate increase. I do not fertilize or water regularly. I **might** put some fertilizer on every other year. I only water established plants if there has been no rain for several weeks.
I have set pods on Bela and have seen bee pods on it, but it's not a super easy plant to work with.
I remember when daylilies were first being taken overseas to be tissue cultured and remember hearing that Bela was one of them. Some said that it would not make a difference, that the plants would grow and bloom the same.
Read here about Julie's
@floota experience growing the tissue cultured versions of daylily cultivars next to the "real thing"….
http://garden.org/thread/view_...
I bought a few tissue culture cultivars that I knew I had natural division of and grew them alongside to test, just like Julie did. I found the tissue culture plants to be inferior. The flower colors were muddier, they were smaller. The bud count was reduced and the branching less impressive. The foliage was thinner and less healthy. I composted the tissue culture plants after testing for 4-5 years and never knowingly bought another one.
So - when I see in the database, there are photos that are clearly more purple, and others clearly more burgundy - and read in this thread people with poor performers and others with good experiences -- makes me think some have the tissue cultured and others have natural divisions going back to the hybridizers original plant.
Even if the plants were bought at daylily gardens - they could have come from divisions years ago that were from tissue cultured divisions. The TC Bela was done a long time ago. There would be so many of the tissue cultured ones now that they far out number the natural divisions. Especially since Bela is a moderate to average increasing plant. I think the tissue cultures were sold at most nurseries and big box stores for several years. Being dark purple, they were popular.
Bela has never had a super high bud count (I consider over 50 a high bud count in my garden) for me - but remember I don't water and fertilize a lot. Without having the old scape out there to go out and look at, I would guess it averages about 22-25 buds and 3 to 4 way branching. It always looks above average at the hybridizer's garden where it's properly watered and cared for.
It was one of the first daylilies I paid more than $5-10 for, and I am sure I paid at least $150 for it. That was a lot back in the 1990's. I have never been sorry. I still love it.
I've done a huge cut back in my garden this year.
But Bela is still here.
