ELLISON PERENNIALS
Robert Ellison, Proprietor
Mailing Address: 504 Westchester Dr., Rockford, IL 61107 -- ph. 815-226-8298
Greenhouse: 1011 Brooke Rd., Rockford, IL 61109 -- ph. & fax 815-229-5459
Email: Raedaylily@aol.com
  

Homepage w/2008 Intros 2008 General Price List Previous Introductions Selected Seedlings

Greetings fellow daylily enthusiasts,

The 2007 season brought many beautiful seedlings as well as the many challenges mother nature throws at us each year. Let’s start with the weather. Spring started off with seven straight days of record cold - highs in the 20's, with lows in the mid-teens. Needless to say, the daylilies all died back to ground-level and didn’t show foliage again until late April. We had our usual summer heat and dryness, and throw in a 150 year flood in August. The fall has been one of the driest in decades. The weather always makes Northern Illinois one of the hardest places to grow daylilies.

Now on to the fun stuff. In spite of the bad weather, I saw some beautiful daylilies bloom. The diploid seedlings out of Too Wonderful and Waves Of Mercy were simply stunning. There are way too many good things to list, but the most exciting was flowers in colors other than pastel shades. There were several flowers in rose and mauve shades with wild ruffles that I believe take diploids to a new level.

2008 Diploid Introductions


Cantaloupe Smoothie

(Seedling 2-03) Spectacular Pink X Stunned By Grace)
Flowers are intense cantaloupe color, have excellent substance with quite a few ruffles. Flowers are round in form with some recurve. Flower form is very consistent. Flowers are 4" in diameter, which is the smallest of this year’s introductions. 26" scapes carry up to 18 buds. Cantaloupe Smoothie blooms early and is dormant.
$75.00


Lavender Garden

(Seedling 68-03) (Ruffled Rose Delight X Stunned By Grace)
Lavender Garden flowers are a bright lavender color that is intense and shows up well and does not get lost in the flowerbed like some lavenders do. The flowers are 6" in size, have a green throat and have some ruffles, but not as many ruffles as some of my other diploids. Scapes are 24" tall and carry 16" buds. Foliage is semi-dormant. Garden visitors really liked this flower for its strong color.
$85.00


Love And Adore

(Seedling 2-04) Ruffled Rose Delight X Unknown)
Deep rose-pink flowers have a red eyezone and a green throat. Form is very round and consistent from the first flower on the scape to the last. Love And Adore has good ruffling, but not as many ruffles as some of my introductions. The qualities that I like the most about Love And Adore’s flowers are its intense color and the uniformity of the flowers. Scapes are 28" tall with 17 buds. Flowers are 5 1/4" in size. Love And Adore blooms early and has dormant foliage.
$100.00


Love Comes Calling

(Seedling 34-04) (Ellison Seedling X Ellison Seedling)
Some of my customers have told me that too many of my diploid introductions are in the pastel range. Not this year! Here comes an intense rose-red with a green throat. Its 5" flowers are an intense color with a round and slightly recurved form and heavy substance. Love Comes Calling is a very welcomed color for my diploid program. 24" scapes are short on buds with only 12. Midseason bloomer. Dormant foliage. Very nice!
$100.00


Midday Sun

(Seedling 3-03) (Light Of Glory X Ellison Seedling)
Flowers on Midday Sun are as golden yellow as the sun on a bright midsummer afternoon. This is the most intense yellow color that I’ve seen in a daylily. Flowers have heavy substance, are round in form with a slight recurve. One of the first daylilies to bloom in my garden each summer. Scapes are 23" tall and carry 12 buds. Flowers are 4.5" in size. Foliage is dormant.
$75.00


My Utmost

(Seedling 56-05) (Stunned By Grace X Too Wonderful)
The first time I saw seedling 56-05 bloom I knew it had to be registered. My Utmost has it all; great form, heavy substance, great consistency of quality throughout the bloom period and tremendous ruffling. Ruffling is as good on My Utmost as any daylily I have introduced. Flowers are deep cantaloupe in color with a light tangerine tint. 5 ½" flowers have a small yellow throat. Scapes are 33" tall with 4-way branching and 25 buds. Blooms midseason. Foliage is dormant. My Utmost should be important for those breeding diploids.
$150.00


Peach Smoothie

(Seedling 36-03) (For You Only x Stunned By Grace)
Peach flowers with a rose eyezone and a lime throat. 5" flowers are recurved and nicely ruffled. Flower form varies from round to slightly triangular. Peach Smoothie is not a fancy flower or one you would use for hybridizing. It’s just a pretty face that would look really nice in your garden. 28" scapes carry 12 buds. Blooms early to midseason and has dormant foliage.
$75.00


Whispers Of Mercy

(Seedling 3-05) (Parentage Unknown)
One of my best diploid introductions to date; made the front cover of the Rockford Newspaper in June 2006. Most flowers have a nearly flawless, round form with wonderful ruffles. 5" flowers are a deep mauve-rose with a lime throat. The petals are heavily ruffled with a narrow cream edge. Whispers Of Mercy blooms early and has 18 buds atop 36" scapes. Foliage is dormant. Order early as this one is going fast.
$150.00


My tetraploid breeding programs continue to focus on yellows and creams with big ruffled gold edges. I saw a few really good yellow seedlings with large ruffled or bubbled gold edges. I think there will be several new introductions in years to come from what I saw this year. I also saw several really nice cranberry colored flowers with cream edges out of Light The Darkness. If these seedlings improve slightly once they get into clump form they could become excellent introductions. As usual, I saw some very good reds that I know will be fine cultivars some year. I can’t wait until next year to see what shows up in the seedling bed.

2008 Tetraploid Introductions


Girded In Praise

(Spacecoast Starburst X Ellison Seedling)
Intense orange flowers with pink tints and a yellow edge. Flowers have a florescent orange coloration that I thought was quite attractive. I don’t see this color too often in daylilies. Flowers are 5" in size and produced on 27" scapes. Girded In Praise blooms midseason and has 15 flowers per scape. Foliage is semi-evergreen.
$75.00


King Of Angels

(71-05) (Ellison Seedling X Prairie Gold Ring)
Large cream colored flowers have a faint yellow tint and a yellow bubbled and hooked edge. Flowers are 6" in diameter and can go up to 7". When multiple blooms are open the clump looks very impressive. King Of Angels should sell out quickly as it got lots of attention this past summer. 30" scapes carry 18 buds. Blooms midseason to late. Foliage is semi-evergreen. King Of Angels is the best cultivar in this color range that I have registered.
$150.00


Loves Hope

(27-05) (Love Conquers All X Ellison Seedling)
Loves Hope has bright red 5" flowers with a small yellow throat. The flowers hold up pretty well on hot sunny days. Loves Hope continues my red breeding program that I started 15 years ago. The flowers are round in form and have good substance. Flowers are consistently good throughout the bloom season. A little shorter than some of my reds, at only 24". Scapes have 15 buds. Very fertile and sets pods easily. Blooms early-midseason. Foliage is dormant to semi-evergreen.
$100.00


Precious Diadem

(15-04) (Aim For Heaven X Unknown)
Cream colored flowers have a pink blush with a rose eye and a yellow bubbled edge. The 5" flowers have a sweet and delicate look to them - very pretty. Precious Diadem was very well-liked and in demand with garden visitors this past summer. Scapes are 27" tall and have 14 buds. Blooms midseason. Semi-evergreen.
$100.00


Pure Devotion

(76-03) (Dripping With Gold X Prairie Gold Ring)
Pure Devotion is not a fancy flower or a breeder’s tool. Pure Devotion is for the daylily gardener who is looking for a late blooming daylily that has lots of blooms. The 6" flowers are pale yellow with a small crunchy yellow edge on the petals. Pure Devotion is one of the last flowers to bloom in my garden. 38" scapes have 22 buds. Foliage is semi-evergreen.
$75.00


Strong And Courageous

(30-05) (Creation of Class X Key Lime Ice)
Flowers are very pale yellow or almost cream colored with a fair sized yellow crunchy edge. Flowers are 6" in diameter and have good substance. Scapes are 27" tall and have about 12 buds. Bud count is on the low side, but the quality of the flowers makes up for it. Strong And Courageous was well-liked by visitors to the garden because of its very light color. Blooms midseason. Foliage is semi-evergreen.
$75.00


Sunrise Blush

(48-05) (Parentage Unknown)
Flowers are a light creamy yellow with peach highlighting. The flowers of Sunrise Blush also have a fair sized deep yellow bubbly edge. The flowers are fairly large at 6 ½" .I am attracted to yellow flowers and have put quite a bit of effort into their breeding the past 5 to 8 years. It might be because of the clarity that the color yellow has to offer versus other colors. You don’t very often hear someone say that a particular daylily is a muddy yellow. Scapes are 28" tall and have 14 buds. Blooms midseason. Foliage is dormant.
$75.00


Surrender To Love

(Parentage Unknown)
The flowers on Surrender To Love are a bright red with a hint of orange. The flowers are as sunfast as most other red daylilies. The 5" flowers have a lime throat and are of good substance. Surrender To Love is a little taller than some of my previous red tets as it stands at 35". The scapes carry 17 buds. Blooms the early part of midseason. Foliage is dormant.
$75.00


Sweet As Candy

(53-05) (Keeper Of Creation X Sharon Brinkmier)
The color of Sweet As Candy’s flowers are difficult to describe. The base color is rose with orange and pink tinting. The flowers have a yellow throat and the petals have a bubbled yellow edge. Flowers are 6 ½" in diameter and are produced on 29" scapes. Blooms midseason. Foliage is dormant. Well liked by garden visitors for its different color.
$100.00


The Beat Goes On

(43-05) (Bending The Rules X Ellison Seedling)
Rose-red 5 1/4" flowers with a wide, flat border of creamy yellow. This is a very unique looking flower with its wide cream edges. Flowers like this seem to get a lot of attention in the garden as they seem to be few and far between. I did some unusual crosses with it this year in the hopes of getting some really different looking seedlings. 32" scapes carry up to 20 buds. Midseason to late blooming. Foliage is semi-evergreen.
$100.00


Thunder Happens

(33-05) (Mr. Thundermaker X Palace Garden Beauty)
Thunder Happens is one of the most beautiful flowers I have introduced. The 5 ½" flowers are medium purple with a tint of blue and a purple eye. The petals are edged in dark purple with a thin wire edge of yellow. When I look at Thunder Happens, I see a definite blue look to the flower. However, I don’t want to deceive anyone into thinking I’ve come up with a blue daylily. Simply put, the flowers are purple with a blue sheen. 30" scapes carry 20 buds. Blooms mid to late. Foliage is semi-evergreen.
$150.00


Under The Gun

(35-05) (Parentage Unknown)
Flowers are apricot with a pumpkin colored tint and a purple eye and edge. The overall appearance of the flower gives it a quite striking look. Many garden visitors commented about the startling look of the flower. This type of flower doesn’t appear in my garden very often as I don’t breed for this type of flower. 25" scapes have 13 buds that unfurl into 5" flowers. Blooms midseason. Foliage is semi-evergreen.
$100.00

I hope that this catalog finds you happy and in good health when it arrives in your mailbox. It will only be a few months before we are out in our gardens again digging in the soil with hopes of seeing some real beauties come summer. Remember there’s no better place to be than in our gardens surrounded by all the beauty of God’s creation. Have a great year and enjoy life!

Each year we hold Daylily Bloomfest during the first three weeks of July. We would love to see some new faces this year as well as our old friends. Until next year, please take care and may the Lord bless you.

Bob & Pat Ellison


Greenhouses are located on the south side of Rockford and easily accessed from the 11th Street exit of bypass 20. Once on 11th Street, travel north to the second stop light - Brooke Road. Turn left and travel west for ½ mile. Greenhouses are located on the south side of the street.

site started 2-2-07