Introduced: 1939 |
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In the introduction year, A.B. Stout described it as:
" This daylily has a vigorous and robust habit of growth with coarse, erect, and much-branched scapes that rise to a height of about four feet. The foliage is medium coarse and it remains green until the first freezes of autumn. The flowers are about five inches in spread, the petals somewhat twisted and folded. The throat of the flower is a rich orange; the sepals are orange with slight reddish-brown tinges; the blades of the petals are nearly English red with darker veins and an orange mid-stripe. The general effect is that of a bicolor. The period of bloom at New York is throughout most of July with the climax about the 15th. The flowers are day-blooming with some fading when exposed to full sunlight in hot dry weather.
Of many selections in good bloom together at The New York Botanical Garden, this seedling was especially admired as a "red and gold bicolor" by Reverend John Allan Blair who has urged that this plant be propagated for garden culture, and has suggested that it be named the Festival daylily. "
( cited from: Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, 1939, vol. 40, p. 32-34 )