BETTY WHITE  (Laffin 2023)  33" tall, 6.5" bloom, Mid, Dip, Sev, 3 branches, 25 buds

                            DF $70

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BETTY WHITE is the whitest daylily I've ever grown, and I've grown quite a few.  As with all 'white' daylilies, it is not pure white. It has a yellow throat and the petals have a faint yellow cast in the early morning. But once the sun hits it, it's as close to pure white as you can get for the rest of the day. This is especially so in drier weather. On top of that, it has a beautiful graceful form, with ruffled petal edges and twisting (or sometimes quilling) sepals. Long bloom season, always looks good all through the day. The blooms never get tired, but look fresh and graceful all the way into evening.

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I was at a loss as to how to register foliage, as it is different from any other daylily I have grown. The summer foliage dies down in the fall, like a dormant or sev. But then, if it is a warm fall, it sends up new leaves about 4-5" tall, and these continue to stay green and look great all winter, then in spring they start growing again. They never die or get mushy the way cold-hardy evergreens do. All winter they're green and fresh as if it's spring. I've never seen anything like it here in Zone 4. 

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Altogether a beautiful daylily, from a cross of intros from two classic, great hybridizers: Snowflake Empress by Hazel Dougherty and Loch Ness Monster by Geraldine Couturier. Betty White was lucky enough to get the best of both parents: the white of Snowflake Empress, and the graceful form of Loch Ness Monster.

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Increases nicely, is rust free and growing up here in the frigid north, is extremely hardy. Fertile both ways. 

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Just like its wonderful namesake, it's always bright and cheerful, and just looking at it lifts one's spirits.