Hybridizers (and daylily enthusiasts), please finish the title prompt with a single sentence (or atleast as succinctly as possible).

I'm curious to know what goals other hybridizers are working on, but not generalities. This isn't a list of all types of daylilies you like, this is what features your favorite daylily would have... What would your most prized daylily look like?

So, what would a perfect daylily look like to you? What specific features are you working on in your program(s)? Use this thread to help you clarify and simplify your own visions if you haven't already.

I'll start...

"...a super-fragrant, 5-7 branch, large bud count, deep red or purple, possibly with stripes, poly or double (most likely), UFO with a HUGE bloom but with blooms that sit just above the foliage or a bit above."

(I might amend this later )

Spent flowers that shrivel up and fall off neatly (no-deadheading needed), foliage that stays healthy and green until killed by cold weather, continuous repeat flowering. Too general I guess but couldn't resist

Continuous flowering, color stays bright all day, blooms have a form that changes over 3 days time and only get more beautiful with each passing day. Guess that would be a Triday Lily?

Very Fragrant, spider-ish, extended bloom, extended throat, pronounced/contrasting ribs, bitone/bicolor, scapes above the foliage- but not towering over the green, umm...

Colors?- Not looking to breed for bright pink, or deep purple (unless that magical "one" just happens to be a complete stunner).

My perfect daylily has large ruffled, fragrant, diamond dusted, clear colored flowers with good substance that always open early and well, proportionately displayed on tall, well branched and budded scapes, on a plant which has beautiful blue-green rust (and other disease) resistant foliage (rock solid resistance), which also reblooms.

(Since dark colors generally don't do well in my climate, I'd add (except that it is too hard to put all into one sentence!) that the blooms would generally be light colored (near-white, yellows of various sorts, golds, oranges, pinks, peaches, lavenders, polychromes, etc.) that also sport a narrow colored edge, metallic edges being preferred. Eyes are optional. UFs, doubles, and polymerous daylilies are welcome. The amount of ruffling desired depends on the form of the flower, but in no case should cause opening problems in the flower.)

Hmmmmm...

Let me try this one after this,
I do not generally try to hybridize anything in specific, and by all means am small potatoes only dabbing as a hobby and the excitement of what if.

Characteristics in my perfect Daylily would be a very, very fragrant large Crispate UF like,


With heavy substance and diamond dusting like what is found here,
The thread "Diamond Dust" in Daylilies forum

A minimum 4 way branching on scape that is at least 12" but not more than 18" taller than its heavy blue green foliage, and it must stand up tall and proud.

That foliage mentioned should be like what is here in Fred's @Spunky1 Post,
http://garden.org/thread/view_...

Edit to add Rebloom a must...

I would agree with everything you said Stan on a desired daylily but.....my scape would have to be tall. I love seeing a large ufo bloom on a tall scape. I love scapes that are 32 to 40". The scape, of course, would have to be very sturdy to hold that large bloom and I would prefer a plant that reblooms.

Sturdy scapes, yes!

I'm going to combine a couple:
sooby: Spent flowers that shrivel up and fall off neatly (no-deadheading needed), foliage that stays healthy and green until killed by cold weather, continuous repeat flowering.
stilldew: Continuous flowering, color stays bright all day, blooms have a form that changes over 3 days time and only get more beautiful with each passing day.
Plus no rust or disease, large ruffled blooms, fragrant, darker colors with green throats, I like lots of different colors so I'd have to have a variety of colors with the same specifications as shown above. But I'm not picky

My #1 daylily would be something with broken colors like Undefinable but with variegated foliage, although it's highly unlikely.

I checked the database for 'Undefinable.' Amazing! It's on my absolutely must have list now!!

Barbalee, Undefinable is on my must-have list also. If you like that one, I recommend that you check out Clown Pants (I think it's called Clown Pants, anyway?) and Explosion in the Paint Factory. I think you'll also like Pink Stripe. I'm hoping to get my hands on a TET version of Pink Stripe some day, but I think they're still working with it to stabalize it.

I think it's the number 1 wanted daylily followed by mayor of munchkinland by many of us daylily growers

WOW, DND and Daniel! 'Explosion in the Paint Factory' is a new major want...has the cool colors AND a big bloom! Bloom size is the only problem (for me) with 'Mayor Munchkinland' and 'Pink Stripe.' Those are both a lot smaller than EPF. I'm impressed!!

Undefinable and Explosion in the Paint Factory are both awesome

I'd just love continuos flowering daylilies as Stella de Oro is. All shapes, all colors, in all mixes, but I'd like to see flowers for months.

The perfect daylily is kinda like naming the next integer after say X. You can always name one higher, say X + 1.

I have seen a ton of beautiful daylilies over these many years, but I have never seen one and said "ah, no need to go any farther!" Or, it's so perfect that nothing could be added or improved.

In fact, the better the daylily, the more I want to cross it! Perfect would mean the end of the line, which is against every hybridizer's nature...lol.

A fun concept, and I have enjoyed the discussion. To these ole eyes, as far as near perfect, the closest thing in dipland is STAR OF KRYPTONITE, Polston and in tetville would be CONFESSIONS OF A HEMAHOLIC, Davisson.

My goal in this thread was to find out what primary target hybridizers are working toward, what 'perfect' daylily non-hybridizers would want, and also to help 'force' hybridizers to think about their own goals if they haven't already done so. I agree, there's never a daylily so perfect that you can just throw down the shovel and say 'there, I did it; I'm done!"

Now...on the other hand, I have seen daylilies so bad that their lineage should be stopped ( not asking for names...that would be cruel...lol).

No, I understood the topic, and it is a fun one. I would love to create a daylily that would kill all the weeds around it....lol.

Hybridizing goals at the moment would be create multiple colored ( including green and blue) watermarks and figure out where the heck to go with CLOWN PANTS...lol.