Cultivar Name: Mars Needs Women
Seedling Number: WSMMIB21
Bloom Diameter: 6"
Scape Height: 43"
Branches: 4
Bud Count: 26
Bloom Season: Mid-late
Rebloom: Yes
Color/Description: Flat flowers in purple with a dark purple band above green to chartreuse throat turning to white-lavender as it meets the purple on petals and sepals. Sepals also have thin white edges.
Ploidy: Tetraploid
Bloom Habit: Diurnal
Foliage: Semi-evergreen
Pod Parent: Women Seeking Men
Pollen Parent: Men In Black
Year Bred: 2014
Rust Resistance: A+/2 year tested
Fertile: Both ways
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Comments: Mars Needs Women is a truly gorgeous purple flower on an excellent plant with nice scape height and excellent branching that carries nice bud counts. The flower is a bright, clear purple with a darker purple eye. The throat is green to chartreuse. The sepals show a thin, pale blue watermark and a thin white edge. The flower is very flat, opening well even in cool weather, creating a plate-like effect that is stunning. Some days the plant is covered in these nice sized, striking flowers looking like purple plates all over the scapes.
Bred in 2014, Mars Needs Women went through the last two years of my rust resistance testing program, scoring A+ both years. As a semi-evergreen, it should do well throughout the south, but has never shown any problems in even my coldest polar-vortex winters. It also shows moderately high thrips resistance, as high as pod parent Women Seeking Men and higher than pollen parent Men In Black. The plant is vigorous with good increase and fast recovery from division. Fertile both ways, pollen has been easier, while pods require more work, but I have produced a good number of seedlings from its pods over the years. It is an outstanding breeder for both plant and flower traits, producing both excellent scapes and flowers with flat form and beautiful anthocyanin colors.
The plant of Mars Needs Women is truly impressive. It is a show-stopper in the garden and everyone who has seen it over the last few years comments on what a nice plant it is, in addition to how pretty the flowers are. The plant has real gravitas and the flower has both form and color, combining to make a real standout. Though it is tall, and certainly tall enough for most daylily people, the only thing it lacks for me to consider it perfect is about a foot of scape height. However, I have combined it with such introductions as The Spice Must Flow to produce amazingly beautiful flowers on giant plants with very tall scapes. It is a major breeder in my program, which is why it is only getting introduced this year: it has been a secret weapon in my breeding program since about 2016 when it first flowered. I've added a bunch of images below so you can see Mars Needs Women over the years and see many images of both the plant and the flower.
