I purchased ‘Asheville White-winged Dove’ at a daylily sale last August, and it’s blooming for me for the first time.
This cultivar grows 27 inches tall with 6-inch flowers that I won’t bother to describe on my own. Instead I’ll quote the mouthful of an official registered color description: “Cream lavender with patterned lavender blue watermark eye outlined in magenta, and triple picotee edge of magenta, purple and white over a yellow to green throat.” Whew!
This dormant daylily was awarded an Honorable Mention in 2018 and an Award of Merit in 2022 from the American Hemerocallis Society. The Award of Merit “is given to signify that a cultivar is not only distinctive and beautiful, but also performs well over a wide geographic area.”
I didn’t know it when I bought this cultivar, but I’ve since learned that a little dove shape appears on the petals just inside the watermark of this daylily. However, one online seller claims those shapes tend to appear when evening temperatures are “on the cool side.”
My first thought was, it’s summer heat time in Wisconsin, so cool nights are probably not going to happen while this daylily is in its blooming period. But I’ll certainly be on the lookout!
But a few days later the nightly low was more September-like than July, and sure enough the next day the doves started to appear!
