STOUT SILVER MEDAL AWARD WINNER DAYLILY GARDEN
What is the Stout Silver Medal Award?
Named after the “father of the modern daylily” Arlo Burdette Stout, this is the highest award given by the American Daylily Society. Iowa has one award winner (2019) named ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ bred by Nan Ripley (pictured below).
To be considered for the award, the daylily must receive an Honorable Mention and Award of Merit from the American Daylily Society. This means the plant is not only distinctive and beautiful, but also grows well in a large geographical area!
Did you know that daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.) are named for the fact that the flower typically only lasts for one day? However, bloom time for a clump of daylilies is extended by multiple buds on the flower stem and frequent branching, flowering over a couple days to several weeks. Thus they make excellent and carefree plants in the sunny garden but can be challenging to use as a cut flower in floral arrangements.
The display of the Stout Silver Medal winners surrounding the Beckwith Grand Pavilion shows the evolution of the modern daylily over the history of the award. You will notice that many of the earliest varieties bear either yellow or orange flowers with fairly narrow, smooth-edged petals. Newer awardees often have wider petals and come in an array of colors. Diamond dusting, distinct eye zones (e.g. ‘Carnival in Mexico’), ruffled or toothed edges (e.g. ‘Entwined in the Vine’), and different flower forms such as the spider form (e.g. ‘Skinwalker’) or double flowers (e.g. ‘Dorothy and Toto’) are exhibited among the newer varieties. Breeders work with both diploid (2 sets of chromosomes) and tetraploid (4 sets of chromosomes) forms. Tetraploid cultivars generally have thicker flower scapes and flowers with more substance. The first tetraploid daylily to win this award was ‘Mary Todd’ in 1978 but since 1994, tetraploid cultivars have dominated this award category.
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