Could be yellow Stella. Or Happy Returns. There are soooooo many daylily varieties. The very common Stella d'oro is crayola orange orange. My Happy Returns is a pretty sunny yellow, and popular among landscape designers. A good candidate for that one, if I were to guess.

Probably eenie weenie ( 10X 1 3/4) or elfin stella ( 11 X 1 1/2), or penny's worth ( 14 X 1 3/4)...there are a name of mini yellow rebloomers.

Are we talking about the same plant? 'Stella D'Oro' daylily is a clear true yellow, not orange. And it IS a dwarf - only about 12" tall, although flower stalks sometimes will rise a few inches beyond. Poor soils and the neglect often occurring to plants located in parking strips can certainly result in less robust growth and shorter height.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stella D'Oro

Stella De Oro is described as "gold self with very small green throat." [Both in Tinker's and the AHS.]

As gardengal says, not yellow. [Happy Returns is the yellow one in that family.]

But definitely not Crayola orange, either.

Mine, I think, are taller than 11". I bought them from Oakes. I think Oakes can be trusted to sell the correct daylily. Maybe mine are just happy?

Tinker's Gardens Daylily Database

American Hemerocallis Society's database

Yes, I understand now that Stella are dwarf daylilies. But someone told me there was a dwarf version of even the Stella.

Anyway, I have many Stella and these are much smaller and almost groundcover like in places.

Here are the only daylilies I found listed at Tinker's or the AHS which are: 1) shorter than Stella De Oro, 2) either plain gold or plain yellow, and 3) have "Stella" in the name:

Stella Junior: 9''; flower 2"; gold self with green throat.

Little Yella Stella: 10"; flower 1.25"; yellow with yellow throat.

Tiny Stella: 10"; flower 2"; light gold self with green throat.

Have you tried the Daylily forum? They could probably give you other possibilities which don't have "Stella" in the name.

There is also "Mini Stella" which is a brighter yellow than Stella De Oro and comes in at 10" (height if stalks) and 1" blooms. It's an early bloomer (plus repeats) and is noctural in blooming.

Stella De Oro itself, has always reminded me of the color of cheez whiz. Happy Returns is a light yellow (think of baby yellow like baby pink/babyblue). My Happy Returns are much taller in bloom than Stella De Oro, a good six inches.

isnt there an active daylily forum????

not that i care where you post.. but in the sense that you are getting the opinions of some wonderful botanists...

but perhaps you can do with some opinion from the hardcore DL peeps ...

no one has addressed whether any of the named possibilities actually COME TRUE FROM SEED ... your facts seem to indicate these are seedlings.. and if so ... perhaps they are NOT NAMED PLANTS ... period ...

ken

In what world, before a proper cup of coffee, does FACTS (it's not nice to shout you know), say these are seedlings? Poster stated these are being used as replacement grass in x city (which would indicate city is purchasing and planting the daylily...likely in bulk for like 50cents a double fan).

As long as this particular topic stills in this thread, why do you care how long other's chose to carry on the conversation? For that matter, just because someone choses to take a swing by the 'Name That Plant' forum, that those someones don't also grow 1000plus hemerocallis also.

Good morning to you too, Ken.

i just love peeps who take up the cross for others...

they said '(area has not been weeded)'

i suggested they could be seedlings .. and as such.. might not be named ....

and its quite a presumption to think the city is wallowing in so much money.. that they only buy named varieties ...perhaps paying a premium.. for patent protected varieties only ... or maybe they buy unnamed seedlings ...

but whatever you do depot.. dont go asking anyone else.. anywhere.. or jsutme will be offended ....

what a hoot...

peace to justme ...

ken

There is also "Mini Stella" which is a brighter yellow than Stella De Oro and comes in at 10" (height if stalks) and 1" blooms.

Mini Stella is described as "yellow with burnt orange eyezone and green throat." I didn't include it because the daylily in the OP's photo doesn't seem to have an eyezone, and the OP didn't mention any markings. I didn't mention Black Eyed Stella for the same reasons (supposed to be 13", but mine has always been way shorter).

At only an inch shorter than Stella De Oro, Mini Stella doesn't seem to fit the "much smaller" criteria or the OP's "almost groundcover like."

Another possibility is that if these groundcover daylilies are never divided, they might be growing shorter and with narrower leaves due to overcrowding.

I'm going to try and get a comparison photo so show the height better, maybe with a yardstick. Give me a day or two.

close up of mini stella

Oh, and Ken, this one was released 30 years ago...not exactly premium priced treasures. Geesh, even Smokey's Garden will sale you 500 fans of old Stella De Oro with $170 retail...not exactly a huge investment LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:292851}}