Plant Preview


Welcome to Plant Preview, a blog dedicated to helping gardeners learn about gardening techniques and preview new plant cultivars. Read about new plants here first and hear how your "comrades in compost" are making use of new plant introductions in their gardens and landscapes. Blog author Geri Laufer is a life-long dirt gardener, degreed horticulturist, author and former County Extension Agent. Plant Preview is copyrighted by Geri Laufer.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Luminous Key Largo Moon™ Daylily Blooms Non-Stop


Continuous blooms from spring through fall add value to the landscape.

Light-years ahead of previous long-blooming daylilies, Garden Debut®’s new introduction Key Largo Moon™ Daylily "the no work plant collection" delivers brilliant flower color, long blooming season and disease resistance.  Enjoy 24/7™ plants share outstanding characteristics that appeal to gardeners, homeowners, landscape designers and contractors.

Flowers of Key Largo Moon™ Daylily are a gleaming golden yellow with a deep green throat and petals with heavy substance recurve to form a symmetrical, round flower.  The incandescent, medium-sized blooms of Key Largo Moon™ capture attention from across the garden.  The petals are heavily ruffled with a combination of tight crimped ruffling to large, looping ruffles along petal edges.

This shimmering moonlit daylily is one of the Garden Debut® Tetraploid daylilies in the Enjoy 24/7™ “the no work plant collection” that features three seasons of continuous bloom on short plants with large, brightly-colored flowers. Plants in the series are each named for the luscious, soft pink dawns and tropical island colors evoked by the Beach Boys’ classic song, Kokomo.

Key Largo Moon™ Daylily is a 2011 introduction from Garden Debut® that features flowering that begins six- to eight- weeks earlier than standard daylilies and flowers that develop despite cold spring nights, a big plus for retailers whose customers will be captivated by the colorful display on their springtime trips to local garden centers. Compact plants with short flower scapes and foliage eliminate blow-over in garden centers common to taller daylilies sold in gallon pots.
Blooming continues throughout the summer and fall until cut down by hard frost (as late as Thanksgiving in U.S.D.A. Zone 7). What’s more, Key Largo Moon™ Daylily is resistant to daylily rust that blights older daylily varieties. Short, grassy foliage, clean shedding of old blooms, prolonged reblooming that extends the season, and rapid increase of clumps add up to high customer demand.    
The culmination of seven years of targeted plant modification by renowned daylily breeder and author Dr. Ted Petit of Le Petit Jardin, McIntosh, Fla., Garden Debut® is pleased to provide the green industry with superior plants through this new partnership. Key Largo Moon™ Daylily is available in early 2012. Additional introductions in this daylily collection will continue with enjoyable names derived from the Beach Boys hit, Kokomo, and the flowers will evoke a tropical feel of freedom and fun.  


Key Largo Moon™ Daylily, Hemerocallis ‘SPd 06-14’ PPAF one of Enjoy 24/7™ “the no work plant collection”
Plant Category:
 Perennial
Mature Height:
18 inches, shorter plants won’t blow over in gallon pots
Mature Spread:
12 inches
Mature Form:
 Grass-like foliage, short mounds (like cushion mums)
Growth Rate:
Vigorous; rapid increase in landscape or garden quickly forming large plants
Disease Resistance:
 Very rust resistant, “No Work Plant Collection”
Sun Exposure:
 Full sun to partial shade
Soil Moisture:
 Wide range, tolerant of dry to damp soils
Soil Type:
 Loam, Sand, Clay, tolerant of all soil types 
pH Level:
 Wide range, tolerant of soil reaction
Flower Genetics:
 Tetraploid. More flowers with heavier substance, yet the series are shorter with narrow leaves that will not blow over in gallon nursery pots.
Intensity:
 Brightly colored, rich, golden-yellow blooms
Flower Color:
Key Largo Moon™ Daylily flowers are a brilliant golden-yellow color. The flowers have a deep green throat and petals with heavy substance petals recurve to form a symmetrical, round flower.  The medium sized blooms of Key Largo Moon™ are a luminous gold and grab attention from across the garden.  The petals are also heavily ruffled with a combination of tight crimped ruffling to large, looping ruffles.
Flower Size:
 4 inches
Bloom Time:
 Continuous bloom spring through summer.
 Starts blooming 6 to 8 weeks earlier than standard commercial varieties, blooms during spring retail rush.
Weather:
 Flowers even in cool weather and cold nights
Repeat bloomer:
 Good re-bloomer with multitude of flowers on well- branched scapes
Self-cleaning:
 Clean shedding of old blooms
Season:
 Flowers extremely early (with Azaleas and Redbud) and throughout  summer
Landscape Value:
 Improved of garden mainstay; popular perennial now fits into retail racks and has greater landscape application
Zones: 
 5 – 9
Heredity:
 U.S., Dr. Ted Petit, McIntosh, FL
                                                           
                        When performance counts, use Garden Debut®'s great new plants

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