Solaris Symmetry
2009 - Nate Bremer – (Mystical Rainbow x Destined to See) – T - 34” – 6” – Mid – Br 3 – Bc 22 – Dorm – Re – ext – Light cream with violet purple eye and cream midrib and violet edge above green throat
Solaris Symmetry is one of the finest daylily cultivars I have ever grown, and it is a beautiful, modern flower to boot. The color is a cream/near white with a lavender blue, often patterned, eye and lavender edge. The flower opens well most days and is usually close to an unusual form. Some days it does a host of other incredible things. I have seen it polytepal, pleat, midrib cristate and stamen-transformation double. On cold days the eye can be exceptionally pastel blue and the petals and sepals can show a flush of lightest baby pink. The colors are always clean and clear.
The plant is gorgeous. In fact, one of the best looking plants I have ever seen with deep green foliage that shows very high late freeze tolerance and looks good throughout the growing season. The scape is tall with nice branching. The plant increases quickly, establishes quickly and makes a large clump. It also recovers quickly from division. It often reblooms in my garden, usually showing instant rebloom scapes and sometimes scapes in the late fall as well.
Solaris Symmetry is fertile both ways, with pods being difficult on the first round of scapes but much easier on the instant rebloom scapes. The pollen is very fertile. The quality of the seedlings makes it well worth the effort to set pods, and I have found many of its seedlings to show more ready pod fertility.
Solaris Symmetry shows good resistance to thrip/aphid/spider mite predation, rarely dropping buds, showing any damage to the buds or deformity to the flower due to insect predation. The rust resistance is low, and I would consider that its only flaw, but it is not damaged by rust, coming back the next year without diminishing the size or vigor of the plant. So while it isn’t resistant, I would consider it tolerant of rust. With that said though, I have produced rust resistant seedlings from it when it is crossed to highly resistant cultivars. It is worth the effort to make those salvage crosses, as this cultivar has so many good traits combined into one plant and is a testament to Nate Bremer’s breeding and selection work. If rust is not a consideration for you, this one can’t be beat. If rust is a consideration for you, I still recommend this one as a plant well-worthy of using for its many other fine plant traits and high resistance to late freezes and insect predation.
After a heavy downpour
