Dormants and Evergreens

Our northern hybridizing program focuses on breeding hardy plants that will survive winters here.  For us that means dormant foliage.  We often hear that dormant and hardy are not the same.  Our experience with northern dormant plants is that they are absolutely hardy.  Some evergreens are hardy here but many are not.  Some daylilies from down south are listed as dormant but do not perform as dormants here.   These have not all been hardy.  An example is Stamile’s Nordic Mist.  This plant was introduced a long time ago (1999) but I remembered buying it because it was dormant.  It never behaved as a dormant and died during one of our harsh winters.  I think that is why we hear people saying not all dormants are hardy.  We have never seen any hardiness issues with our own dormant plants. 

Luel and I check plant habit every spring.  Each numbered seedling is evaluated each spring.  We do this in April when the foliage is just emerging.  Most plants are easily identified as dormant or evergreen.  A few are somewhere in between and we will list them as semi-evergreen.  Even dormant plants behave differently.  August Bride goes completely underground and emerges in spring.  August Wedding always has one leaf that stays above ground but the new growth comes from a dormant bud under the ground.

Melanie Mason once told me that many plants are now difficult to tell if they are dormant or not.  I think she is right because of the genetics of evergreens and dormants are mixed together.  Regardless, we will continue to hybridize using one of our basic rules – “At least one parent should be dormant”. 

The photos below show 2010 seedlings we are evaluating.  Seedling 832-2 is a complex seedling involving Magic Amethyst, Tupac Amaru, Filled to Overflowing, and Heartbeat of Heaven.  The foliage is evergreen.  We crossed it with our 2011 dormant introduction – One Foundation.  Seedling 14-4 is listed as dormant and seedling 14-1 is listed as evergreen.  This is clear in the April photo but hard to distinguish in June.  Both plants are 3 fans but the dormant plant is a little more vigorous.