Always Afternoon is a much-honored daylily with 5½-inch dusky rose flowers set off by a striking plum purple eye and a green throat. The petals are crimped and edged in a thin buff-pink line, and the blooms stay open for at least 16 hours, well into the evening.
It blooms early in the daylily season, around late June, and reblooms later in the season, with semi-evergreen foliage that stays tidy all year. It grows equally well in northern and southern gardens and has won the American Hemerocallis Society's highest honor.
What it looks like
Rounded flowers about 5½ inches across with broad, crimped petals in dusky rose, each edged by a thin buff-pink rim, a bold plum purple eye band in the center and a small lime green throat; the narrower sepals are smooth. Each bloom lasts a day, but many buds open in turn on branched scapes rising to about 22 inches above a fountain of long, arching, strap-shaped medium green leaves. The foliage clump is about 13 inches tall and 18 to 24 inches wide. At peak bloom rose-and-plum flowers sit just above the compact clump of leaves.
Growing it with lavender
Its plum eye echoes lavender's purple, and it tolerates the same sunny, well-drained spot at the front of a lavender bed.
Care
Grow in full sun to light part shade (at least six hours of sun for the best bloom) in average, well-drained soil; once established it handles heat, clay and dry spells. Hardy in zones 3 to 9. Remove spent scapes promptly to encourage a later round of flowers, and divide crowded clumps every few years.
At a glance
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Botanical name: Hemerocallis
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Flower color: Dusky rose with a plum purple eye and green throat
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Foliage: Medium green
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Growth habit: Arching, fountain-like clump
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Mature size: 22 in tall × 18–24 in wide
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USDA hardiness zones: 3–9
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Light: full sun, part sun to part shade
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Bloom start: Late-June
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Peak bloom: Early-July
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Bloom pattern: Repeat Blooming
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Deer resistance: Susceptible
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Pollinator value: Good
Sizes and shipping
Dormant bare-root plant, sold in boxes of 25 per variety (order in multiples of 25). Bare-root plants ship or are picked up March 1–May 31 only. They are soil-free, so they may ship to every state in that window. Dormant plants often show little or no top growth on arrival; plant or heel them in promptly.
Lavender companion · grow guide
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