Popularity Poll 2011

The American Hemerocallis Society's annual Popularity Poll is official! It has been posted to the AHS website. You can find Region 2 full results here!

Joyce Hersh, our wonderfully efficient (and retiring) Regional Publicity Director provided the following report:

H. 'Primal Scream' ran away with the lead this year!!   But, you can see, there was very close competition in other groupings.

In 2010, 24% (306 ballots) of the 1298 members participated in this poll.

With the prescribed ballot, voting took a bit of a turn this year. We started with 101 cultivars and had 581 in the end. A total of 372 cultivars received only one vote and 76 received only two votes. Thus, only 23% of the cultivars received three or more votes.

There was some very dramatic movement:

• H. 'Persian Ruby' went from 31 last year to number 7 this year!
• H. 'Shores of Time' went from 17 to 9 this year.
• The number 15 spot was shared by three cultivars that made pretty dramatic movement to get there: H. 'Michael Bennet' moved up from 35 the previous year; H. 'Peggy Jeffcoat' moved from 26; and H. 'Lavender Blue Baby' moved from 23 last year.  

Here are the TOP TEN for Region 2 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio:)

1. Primal Scream (101 votes)

2. Webster's Pink Wonder (73 votes)

3. All American Chief (72 votes)

4. Ruby Spider (67 votes)

5. Bela Lugosi (60 votes)

6. Heavenly Angel Ice (55 votes)

7. Persian Ruby (49 votes)

8. Swallow Tail Kite (46 votes)

9. Shores of Time (45 votes)

10. Beautiful Edgings and South Seas (tie) (41 votes)

Thank you for the awesome report, Joyce!

I am almost embarrassed to admit I only grow two of our regional winners, but they are the "top two" so I get some slack for that!  I have grown others from this list in the past, but for one reason or another, chose to move them out in favor of new and different daylilies.  Here is our winner, H. 'Primal Scream' in my Michigan garden this summer.  It is a past Stout Silver Medal winner, introduced by the amazing Curt Hanson from northern Ohio.  This is the first unusual form daylily to be awarded the societies highest individual cultivar award.

From the AHS Website:  As a service to its members and to the general public, each year the American Hemerocallis Society (AHS) conducts a popularity poll among its members to determine the favorite daylilies from each region. It is the hope of the AHS that this Popularity Poll presents a true picture of which daylilies perform well in a given area and which are best liked by the membership. Popularity polls are important to daylily growers -- both AHS members and nonmembers -- who make daylily selections for purchase.

Thanks to all who participated in the poll!