This is historic daylily ‘Tender Love’. Tender Love is our third oldest historic daylily in the townhome gardens, and I am not at all hesitant to say I wish I had more than one. With time and patience, they will multiply and need dividing.
Registered in 1970, ‘Tender Love’ is 56 years “old” this year. Remember, though, that registration does not reflect the actual age of the daylily variety. It takes years to get to registration – making the cross, harvesting the seed, bringing it to seedling, then waiting for bloom, and after that waiting to see how it matures (determining consistent characteristics and features it displays).
I purchased ‘Tender Love’ from Oakes Daylilies in 2020. It took a few years to establish. Back then I was planting in fall. I had a number of failures with that approach in our Minnesota gardens and have since shifted to spring planting when I do purchase, which is now pretty uncommon. (I have 29 new seedling varieties due to have first bloom within the next couple years, and that will keep me at capacity for this thing I am calling a “hobby”.)
This year ‘Tender Love’ is looking exceptionally beautiful. It is much more mature than previous years, with four scapes and multiple buds going to bloom per scape.
‘Tender Love’ is a diploid, a late season bloomer, has a beautiful form I very much appreciate, and is nicely fragrant.
On the hybridizing scene, ‘Tender Love’ is both a pod and pollen parent in our gardens. Last year I had two successful crosses that went to seedling – one with ‘Autumn Red’ (yesterday’s featured historic daylily) and one with ‘Pink Tirzah’. Both of those seedling varieties are awaiting bloom in the next couple years. This year I did a re-try of a “Tender Love’ cross that has failed in previous years, with ‘Naomi Ruth’, our fourth oldest daylily in our townhome gardens. TBD on that result.
‘Naomi Ruth’ was registered in 1972. It has one of my favorite forms, it is a diploid, and it is also late blooming. It would not be a daylily I would think of for naturalizing, but it was an excellent pod and pollen parent with ‘Romantic Rose’ and with “Pink Tirzah’ last year producing a plethora of seeds that went to seedling this year. Those blooms should debut in 2027-2028.
‘Romantic Rose’ is not an historic daylily, but it is a long-time part of our gardens.
‘Pink Tirzah’, from what I can gather, is also not an historic daylily. In fact, I cannot find it on garden.org or the AHS site. I bought “Pink Tirzah’ from Park’s many years ago, as a 1-year-old bare-root. ‘Pink Tirzah’ is also pod and pollen parent to multiple years of crosses, including ‘Autumn Red’, yesterday’s featured historic daylily.
Tomorrow we will be on to Cedar Waxwing, and Oh, the story of that one! Just a sneak peek – Cedar Waxwing may hold the key to the Hello Yello mystery.
