There is a little bit of pride in taking pics of daylilies so we all tend to show our best on their best days. How about we flip that, and kick pride to the kerb? A thread for daylilies looking their worst. Cultivars having off-days, or just really bad seedlings that you threw away.

I will go first with one of each.
Earl Porter.
This year had a very bad year. Very few blooms and each one took a full week to open.
Here is a pic taken about day 4 of opening.


Seedling.
This one I was unsure of. Yes there was true water damage, but there was also big circles that I found quite fun. These circles were repeated on most blooms. I ended up tossing this due to lack of space, though.



Go on, you know you can beat that in this competition of ugliness. Something that might make us smile in these dreary winter months.

Oh, I love this idea! If my SIL ever manages to fix my desktop for me, I'm know I've got some contenders on there!!!! Not certain if there is anything recent enough to have on this computer, but I'll look. If crappy photography counts, there surely will be some.

Sorry to hear you had to get rid of the spotty one. It was prettier than a lot of the broken color ones I've seen.

Hah! Finally, the ugly Daylily thread! I knew we'd get there eventually…soooo many in my collection! I'll just start with 2022 and see how many I find! I love this!

May 28, first bloom of any Daylily in my yard, The Tribble With Blue…hilarious!


June 4, Strawberry Rose, very unhappy!



Also on June 4, A very squidgy FFE on Angel on a Cloud




June 9, a very rained out sad bloom on Rosabelle Van Valkenburgh



June 17, a bug eaten , blotchy Body Snatchers



June 19, a pretty ugly FFE on Scarpia…this deserves two views of the awkwardness

Ohhh poor Earl Porter.

They snatched his body

Here's a first bloom, first year seedling last year. Twisted and 3 fused sepals....ugly puppy.


Got it's act together a little better this year...

This is the only picture I have of Always Afternoon. It isn't a very lovely one, as you can see.

Ok, couple more uglies…this is fun!

June 21, Snaggle Tooth FFO, wow. Good thing I know what this usually looks like



June 23, Whale Tails FFE


June 24, Little Wild Thing…ouch!


June 25, Stephanie Returns, new horizons in blotchy



June 26, another crazy one from Snaggle Tooth…and a poly too

Another day, another batch…

June 30, another bad Snaggletooth



Pinchy looking Pink Penguin



Hexenbeast FFO, oh boy



July 2nd, another amazing Snaggletooth



And, finally, July 3, Sweet Miss Rose, wow

Here is the bloom that convinced me to never again buy daylilies from the big box stores and big catalog sellers. This was from Brecks, it was supposed to be Ocean Spirit. Maybe in time it would have "come around", but I suspected it was a rogue seedling, so I dug it up and tossed it. Lesson learned. If I am going to buy daylilies, it is going to be directly from growers who have pride in what they sell and strive to deliver the daylilies they promise.



Curiously, when I just now googled Ocean Spirit to find out a good grower to buy it from, I discovered that the photo of Ocean Spirit on Breck's web site is identical to the photo of Ocean Spirit on Schreiner's web site. So it looks like Breck's gets its daylilies from Schreiner's. hmmmm

I think the problem with Breck's and G Wild and Son is mostly labeling. They seem amazingly unconcerned about sending the wrong plants ( not to mention tiny and shriveled to boot).

Ok, don't think for a minute that I'm out of ugly flowers! Here come some more!


July 2, Snaggletooth, what IS it with this flower? Only early on, it threw tons of beautiful flowers for the rest of July



Weirdly Wired, blotch fest



July 3, PB 18-019, Rip Van Winkle, a blotchy poly



Kingdom Bound, FFO, showing signs of that first flower struggle

LoriMT said: So it looks like Breck's gets its daylilies from Schreiner's. hmmmm

More like, Breck's gets its pictures from Schreiner's.

You are smart to buy only from reputable vendors. I learned that lesson as well when I used Tulip World to buy When My Sweetheart Returns. The daylily I got was not what I ordered--my guess is it was not even registered.

@Zoia,
A lot of what I see on your "ugliest blooms" seems to be thrips damage. An easy organic remedy if you don't want to spray insecticides is to mix 1 Tablespoon of Murphy's Oil Soap with water and spray it on the buds beginning about two weeks before bloom. Thrips gravitate to the reds and purples mostly, and here, if I see any damage, it will be early in the season. Once bloom starts, if you see a particular cultivar with affected blooms, hit the buds again with the Murphy's Oil soap mixture. It's really easy. I switched to an insecticide/ fungicide rotation some years ago and don't have to use this now, but it works for those who want an easy and organic fix.

Forgot to mention that the Murphy's Oil Soap treatment for thrips came from Bob Schwarz when he was actively gardening on Long Island. He used to be active on the spider Robin back in the day, and when he recommended this, a bunch of us all went right out and used it, and everyone reported success.

Ok! I'll give that a go…

So you want ugly? I've got your ugly! Last year I had more ugly flowers than good ones. Shall we begin?

Butterscotch Ruffles-this one is usually perfect. Not last year.


What I think is Tanzanite. Last year was the best flowers since I got it and they were all tiny & awful. At least all the scapes didn't die like they typically do in the Spring.


Griffin Miller-first few/several flowers always hang. Might be temperature related since it blooms early.


House of Orange-another one that always has perfect flowers but not last year.


Annie Welch with her consistently odd forms.


Lastly, Tani. I've had her for years & she hardly ever looks bad but did last year.

Aww! What great bad flowers!

July 6, another thrippy Snaggle Tooth



Another thrippy Rip Van Winkle poly



Ed Brown, FFE…yeesh!



PB 20-215- Storm Dennis


Whale Tails…

Love it!

I forgot my seedlings last time.

Fairly new seedling that bloomed well in the past. Had issues with hanging last year.



One of my oldest seedlings. I go back & forth debating to toss it every year. Some years all the flowers look like this.


Other years they get their act together eventually & look lovely to me.

Yeah, that could just be an age problem. It needs to be old enough to throw consistently good flowers.

More fun! I just have too many not to keep going as I photo them all, no matter how ugly.

Two more from July 6, Untamed Heart, FFO, struggling…



and Barcode, wrinkling


July 9, Spacecoast Francis Busby, thrips and hung up petals!



Greywoods Cyber Steed…hmmm


July 10, Siloam Baby Talk, crumply

Found a couple. Looney Tunes can be pretty awful when it's not busy being gorgeous.


Same may be said for Primal Scream.