Julia,
I may not be answering this the way you want, but I would define Mid-Late season as a bloom which BEGINS initial bloom 1-2 week after the peak bloom in your zone. Absolutely, daylilies take time to acclimate to new zones. All of my Florida plants are still blooming on Florida time this year with quite a few rebloom scapes. I don't expect to see as much rebloom from them next year as their initial bloom season will be much later than it was in FL.

And, as we all know, something registered in zone 8 as a ML bloomer may or may NOT bloom that season in zone 5! I don't think you can give a definite time for when something would STOP blooming, as once they start, cultivars bloom at different rates. There are some which bloom heavily but might bloom out in two weeks, and others which might open only 3-4 blooms a day over a period of a month or 6 weeks. Hope this helps!

Julie: Thanks. I understand your points about the how many blooms, rescape, etc.
I guess the question would be then what is TYPICAL peak bloom period for Zone 7? Early July? Mid July? Or is it dependant on the state your in? This person is in Tennessee (hope I spelled that right).

Gee, I hope I haven't confused the question more...

Julia

It sounds like you are considering purchasing a ML blooming CV from a hybridizer living in zone 7 (Tennessee). If that's the case, everything Julie stated above would still apply. For instance, I bought KATHERINE MARIN from the Rices in KY last year. A ML bloomer, it arrived in the spring and bloomed during peak bloom here which usually is between the 1st and 2nd week of July for us. This year it started to bloom 3 days ago which is a couple weeks past peak bloom. In fact at this point most of our DL's have finished blooming. Another example is John Benz's UTLIMATE WEAPON (another ML bloomer). This one was hybridized in Ohio and reliably starts blooming here in early August. This is why I always have a good supply of pollen from and for both these CV's in the freezer.

Linda

Linda: I got it.
Thanks
Julia

Sometimes I think the "zone" thing can be ridiculous and quite misleading. People who live in Northern VA - 5 hours away - are still considered zone 7 although their bloom season is usually 2 weeks later than ours. In Eastern VA ( around Richmond) they are also considered zone 7, but their bloom season is a good 10 days ahead of us. Even within one climate "zone" there is so much variation. Once a plant acclimates to a different zone, if it blooms 1-2 weeks after your peak bloom - whenever that happens to be! then it could be considered ML. If you are in zone 5 and your peak is in Mid- July, then likely a ML would bloom in late July. That SAME plant, grown where the peak bloom is around June 30, might bloom beginning around July 10th and be considered ML for that climate. Is this about as clear as mud now?

LOL Julie.
I guess I'll just take a chance and see what happens next year.

Julia

Zones are also missunderstood when it comes to elevation too. Some folks think that just because they are farther North, that they have to be in a zone that is a lower number (Harsh). Someone can be in NY and think that they are "North" and in a zone that is rougher then say someone in the Hills/Mountains of say North Carolina....etc. This is totally untrue when you add in the elevation factor. It looked like a few years ago they were going to factor in elevation and many other conditions (Wind/Rain/Lack of) and location IE by the sea/ocean that have their own microclimates....It must not have gone over well....cause it seems we still have the "Old" system in place. It actually should have more like 15 zones and areas within other zones that actually can reflect the true growing seasons....not a system that widely uses First and Last Frost as it's basis. I also like to push those limits by creating my own micro-climates with the use of things like wind blocks/Stone/Block/Fencing/Tree,Shrub Lines/Soil(Not Standard to the area) This requires more work and attention, but allows one to grow far less hardy plants to the area and enjoy there beauty, also. I think Water is also/should be A major factor in zones, not just temps. IMHO...:)

Plant It High.....It won't Die
Plant It Low......It won't Grow

:) Rick

And some of us lots more north are still considered zone 7. Most of Long Island is listed as zone 7. Thats because we almost never get down to zero. In fact I can't remember when we last did get down that low. Getting down to 5 degrees is very rare and might last only one night or so. But our spring does not start as early in the year as the more southern states and of course winter comes sooner. So just adds to the confusion.

But I think its great that we are all discussing late bloom and related issures here on the forum lately. I am always for finding more late bloomers.

I wanted to add a note about bloom sequence. I have noticed that everything listed as late, and this would be even from the same hybridizer, does not bloom late before some I have that are listed as ML bloom. This would be after a complete cycle here in my garden having gone thru a winter here.

I want to use Murphy/Reed intros as an example. ALCHEMIST listed as a late bloomer, is totally finished blooming by the time all my late and very late bloomers are starting to bloom. This is annoying to me because first its in the late blooming gardenbed and second, I bought it because its a late bloomer. Didn't want a midseason bloomer.

RED HILL listed as late, really is while NUCLEAR MELTDOWN listed as mid/ML? starts blooming after ALCHEMIST and just before RED HILL. But really close in time.

I know that this does not clear anything up but I just thought they were interesting observations.

I can't even get an idea prior to planting and observing in my garden where some daylilies by the same gentleman and bred in my general area will bloom.

For example, I'm a fan of Robert Griesbach daylilies and have lots of his as they do very well for me and play in my mixed borders perfectly, but take his Arriba which is an Early but extended--it just finished. Wood Duck is an Early Mid and still has a week or so to go. Wild Turkey is a ML and is almost done (a few blooms left probably by tomorrow), yet Ruby Throat, a ML, is just started maybe a week ago and Cookie Monster, a Late, is just going to open.

Yet his Marginella and Indian Paintbrush , both Mids, bloom at exactly the same time and finish at exactly within a day or two of each other, both giving about 3 weeks of bloom, this being the final couple days.

I stopped trying to figure it all out quite a while ago.

I'm going to try some of the ML from Campbell Co TN and see if I can get end of July/first of Aug blooms, but if not, that is okay as I'm chosing ones that I really like even if they shoot off earlier than what I hope for. Just wish I had a better idea as a shrub will have to 'go' to make room. I think I'll order them and put them by my potting shed and watch them a couple years before I yank the shrub, they can 'live' by my 'cutting/dried' florals for a bit.

Why don't you send for the catalog from Perfect Perrenial? You could get some of the Dale Thomas lates and VLates. Those Dale Thomas intros are really beautiful and although there are no pictures in the catalog, I have pictures blooming of most of them that I bought sight unseen. I have loved every one that bloomed and couldn't be more pleased with them.

Just as an FYI, as I see Rita mentioned Perfect Perennials as a resource. I had already contacted Perfect Perennials aka Hardy Hems aka Diane and Stuart Kendig to see if I could visit their gardens since they are suppose to have lates and also they are listed as an AHS Display Garden. No reply yet and just discovered they have two email addresses. If no reply soon, I will call to see if they are still allowing garden visitors. It would be interesting to see what they refer to as lates in an actual garden setting.

I almost responded to this first, realized just how confusing it can be, and didn't. I tried to figure out just the few ML and L's that I have, but can't. For one thing, most of mine were purchased in the last two years and are just not good clumps yet, so am not sure if they have settled in enough to be on a set schedule.

Thought I could look at the hybridizers and where they were located to get an idea of the difference between their season listing and what my season was, but that didn't work. Here is a list of FFO's on the daylilies I have bought in southern Indiana, but were hybridized by the Salters in Florida (unless they moved from somewhere else in between):

SILENT SENTRY EM 06/12/09
AWESOME BLOSSOM EMRe 06/12/09
BORDER HERITAGE MRe 06/13/09
BORDER MUSIC MRe 06/13/09
SMALL TEMPEST MRe 06/13/09
CHINESE SCHOLAR MLRe 06/14/09
MAGICAL MYTH MRe 06/14/09
DAVID KIRCHHOFF MLRe 06/15/09
ED BROWN EMRe 06/16/09
MOONLIT MASQUERADE EMRe 06/18/09
MOON MUSIC MRe 06/21/09

Chinese Scholar has been in my garden for 4-5 years, but I would not call it or David Kirchhoff (purchased 2007) a ML since first bloom was 6/14 and 6/15. Moonlit Masquerade (purchased 2008) FFO'd three days later and is listed as an EMRe. Moon Music (purchased 2007) is a MRe, but FFO'd on 6/21.

I can't make heads nor tails of it.

Vickie

juliany- Diane is very slow at answering e-mails. I think they sell many other things besides daylilies so if your interested in going call her at 717-792-0021. She has nursery hours listed in her catalog for June and July but not for August but does say visiters are welcome by appointment.

Peak bloom for me in Tennessee is mid to late June. My ML bloomers don't start two weeks after peak. I would say they start at peak, or about week later. They start mid, which is my peak, and go late. Often they MLs finsih their blooming after the lates. My lates start about 2-3 weeks after the peak. Just my two cents.

Debra

Rita: Thanks for the phone #.

Debra: One of the people I did inquire with (because of Rita's glowing reports on her plants) was Westbourne (Tennessee also). The person who responded to my email said "In zone 7 MLa is from the first of July to the last of Sep".

Julia