Solaris Farms™ 2008
 Daylilies, Peonies, Lilium & Other Fine Ornamentals

 

2007 was a wonderful bloom season, even with drought and extremely high temperatures.  We got an early start due to very warm spring weather and had just enough water early in the summer to produce outstanding bloom.  Below you'll find a short list of plants we found to be exceptional for us this past summer.  We do not have all of them for sale at this time, but if you are patient we will in the future or they can be purchased from other sources.  Roy Klehm's introductions really shined in the gardens this year, so you'll see many of his plants make the list.  Our own introductions also really caught our eyes-we won't list all of them since there is a certain bias.

We will no longer list plants that fail to live or prosper for us.  If you are interested in a particular plant that you are unsure of, drop us an email and we'll give you any info we have on the plant.  We are growing less and less of the evergreen daylilies due to the high rate of losses, but we have many connections in our area to people that continue to try these cultivars.

1)  Foolish Dragon (Selman)...Extremely well branched scapes that produce flowers for a very long time.  Flowers open easily in all weather and are large and flat.  FD is has a huge red eye over a peach-pink background.  There is often a nice red picotee on the petals.   Nice hardy plant as well.

2)  Fringed Catwaba (Klehm)...This was a purchase that another hybrider recommend as a good scape plant and I was not wild about the flowers-I am now.  Excellent scapes as promised and a really great wine/pink color with light watermarked eyezone.  Nice cream colored edges that often express hooks.  Just gorgeous in the garden.

3)  Scratch My Itch (Bremer)...My three clumps bloom wild, twisting, curling flowers from the EM part of the season to the end of the ML part of the season.  Huge show off that bloomed many flowers each day and could not be ignored.  Coral-Orange UF.

4)  Beaucoup Bouquet (Bremer)...This is a 2008 intro that has so much going for it.  The gorgeous red-pink flowers are sunfast and have the clearest color of any red I grow.  The sunfastness makes these blooms standout when most of the other reds have long since given up.  BB is a bouquet bloomer, but bloom for a solid three and half weeks.  Scapes are on the shorter side, but present the flowers well above the foliage.  A can't miss in the garden.

5)  Swallowtail Kite (Hanson)...A UF, somewhat narrow form.  Color is such a clear purple-lavender with a wonder chalky eyezone.  Few plants can retain the great color this one has through the day and it presents itself so well.  Scapes are wonderful, foliage is outstanding and the height is in the 40 inch range.  Beautiful!

6)  Orange Angel (Klehm)...The flowers are a tangerine orange in all parts.  The ruffled edges are large and better than any other 'self' I've seen in this color range.  Superior scapes that produce flowers over a long period.  One I wish I had more of.

7)  Ruffled Strawberry Parfait (Reckamp/Klehm)...This one always makes my list.  A late flower, RSP is such a wonderfully soft pink polychrome and the edges are highly variable from day to day.  Some days you get nice even knobby edges, other days small teeth and still other days hooks and teeth.  Scapes are great and the foliage is a nice dark blue-green color late in the year.  Just a super plant.

8)  Patriots Passion (Klehm)... Bright golden tangerine flowers with knobby edges adorn this wonderfully budded and branched plant.  The color is intense and will not be missed in the garden.  We used this a bunch in hybridizing this year.

9)  Carnival In Mexico (Santa Lucia)...Huge, huge rose-pink UF with a dark rose-red eye and very green throat.  The colors were tremendous and no one walking the gardens missed it.  Plants make giant fans and grow fairly slow for us, but so worth it.

10)  Paul Voth (Griesbach/Klehm)...My favorite purple for clarity!  PV is a tremendous plant and scape maker and is a luscious flower.  It handles sun fairly well for such a dark flower, everyone should grow this one.

11)  Down The Aisle (Bremer)...Elegant large ruffled creamy yellow self flowers.  In a clump it is so ethereal.  A hardy fancy flower that will take our environment and is proving to be a very good hybridizing plant.

12)  Forest God (Bremer)...The large polychrome yellow, pink highlighted flowers were not to be missed this summer.  This one sneaks by my list often because it is so consistent.  Every day, for an extended bloom period, FG looks out over the garden and is taken for granted-he's always there-commanding.  Gorgeous.

13)  Angel's Realm (Reckamp/Klehm)...A typically colored Reckamp polychrome yellow flower.  What sets it apart is the wonderfully branched scapes with long laterals and the exceptionally fine ruffling.  Not everyone has the same experience with this plant, which makes me believe that  AR may like the heavy clay rich soils we have in eastern Wisconsin.  A show piece in a clump.

14)  Prairie Smiles (Ellison)...This one is not a dormant plant and I wonder about its hardiness, but it hasn't failed yet to put up heavy 46 inch scapes with wonderfully branched scapes.  Color is a peach pink with a muted pink eyezone. The bubbled and ruffled edges are gold with a repeat band of the eye color.  Truly a unique flower.

15)  Truly Angelic  (Rice)...TA never fails to be a productive plant.  Color is sometimes a bit muddy, but most days it is wonderful rose-pink flower with the large creamy eyezone.  Superior form (rounded) and wonderfully ruffled.  A winner as a hybridizing plant as well.

16)  Festive Fall (Salter)...This one appears to be dormant here and is being tested in the open field this year.  In any event FF is a super orange with a red penciled eyezone.  FF flowers very heavily for an extended period.  Flowers are rounded biscuits.  Good stuff.

17)  Cruising For A Bruising (Bremer)...Again this one never fails to impress.  Scapes and plant are always superior and the flower color is exceptional in our eyes.  Unique and super in a clump.

18)  Carrots Forever (Klehm/Reckamp)...A real zinger for color.  Super intense cantaloupe flowers have excellent knarled edges with teeth.  Plants are large and have an excellent bud count.

19)  Joan Derifield (Hanson)...Not the fastest grower, but a very good plant and beautiful flower.  Color is pink-violet with a chalky eyezone.  Great presentation and good plant habits.

20)  Honey on My Lips (Olson)...A truly gorgeous flower that is unique in the daylily world.  Flowers are very large and of an overall honey color with a large triangular eye of coral pink.  Scapes are large and well budded, also tall!  One of our favorites.

Other goodies:

Spider Walk, Royalty Surprise, Red Adventure, Rose Poetry, Cheese Weasel, Cheddar Weasel, Ox Tears, Ode To Faith, Surfing the Styx, Vitamins, Where Eagles Soar, Beaufort Slim Pitkin, Romantic Stares, Mandarin Seas, Virginia B. Hanson, Cerise Classic, Guilty As Sin, Greywoods Roseberry Sorbet, Concord Militia, Wren's Song, Dipped In Red, Virtuosity, and many, many others.