'DISPLAY' CHIMERA DELIGHT DIP, BROKEN, STRIPED (RON REIMER 2022)
Sdlg 46-16 (sdlg x sdlg) 7″ 36″ SEv EM Re 3 br 12 buds DIP HYBRIDIZER’S DESCRIPTION: From its 2016 maiden bloom in the seedling patch, this plant has always been an interesting one. It has a mind of its own, deciding if and when it is going to show its color breaks. To this day, I still don’t understand what conditions are needed to produce the color breaks. Some years the breaks are very small or non-existent at the beginning of the season, then they become more numerous and bigger later in the season. Other years it starts off with considerable color break pattern early in the season and comes and goes in the rest of the season. It has rebloom characteristics most years in our garden. The blooms in ideal growing conditions can be as large as nine inches across early in the season. These early large blooms usually do not show the color breaks. The beauty of the large flat greenish yellow flowers, even after a 40 degree night, justifies having this plant in the garden, in my opinion. Generally speaking, as the season progresses and the flower size diminishes to the 7-inch range, the best color break patterns start to show up. Some years they are large and very intense, other times you might see one large blotch, a few dots, and a few stripes. These traits (in my hybridizing program) tend to be passed down to the offspring of this plant. Its down side is that it is a relatively slow increaser, and its bud count is lower that I would have hoped. I have bloomed out a number of its offspring with large size and differing shades of colors, such as light apricot and gold; some of these have even more color break pattern than Chimera Delight. One thing for sure is, you never know from day to day what to expect from the bloom on this plant. This plant has the habit of waiting two years after transplant to show the red colorbreak pattern. Plant it in your garden in 2022, and it will give you yellow blooms in 2023, and some red and yellow blooms in 2024. I have seen this pattern of behavior after two transplants in the last 6 years. The substance of this bloom is heavy and it has outstanding sun resistance. Although three branches is normal under good growing conditions, I have seen 5-way spaced branching on occasion with this plant. The plant has scapes that are strong and hold the flowers up well. It has reasonable fertility both ways. This plant has been very healthy and hardy with attractive foliage. It remains rust-free during the main growing season, but can show some signs of rust at the end of the growing season as the plants are shutting down. I would call it a semi-evergreen because it tends to keep short small leaf tips in the crown during the winter. In bitterly cold weather, the plant does go dormant. It has never shown any signs of winter injury in our coldest winters.

Daylily Database Data