How do you start (the process) daylily seeds? What is the survival percentage? How long is it before they bloom?

1. Acquire some seed: either from plants you have grown or seed purchased. If you already have some plants the bees may help you by pollinating some blooms and you might get some "bee pods", actually seed pods that were pollinated by bees. If you want to make sure you get some seed pods you need to determine first if your plants or tetraploids or diploids, they don't normally cross with each other very well. Then you can take pollen from one plant place it on the pistil of the other plant and wait till seed pods form. Let the pods mature then harvest them. That can take several weeks to happen. A lot of your crosses may not take, so don't expect a pod every time you pollinate a flower. Check each plant in the database and see if it is fertile before wasting a lot of time.
2. The survival rate can vary considerably, I have no figures, and it is such a variable it will just depend. Still I would think maybe at least 50 per cent on the low side and much higher on the high end.
3. I was just reading a post and people on this forum have actually gotten bloom in as little as 3 months, but that is not normal at all. In your zone I would think more like two years would be the norm from seed to bloom, others can respond to that better.

I have planted seeds from "bee pods" and from a cross I made. I planted them during the winter months then potted them up and put them outdoors when the weather permitted. (Let's call that year #1.) My first attempt was with bee pods and I used a seed stater kit I got off the Web which included a growing medium; I learned from experience that the growing medium was an inferior product. My second attempt was with a cross I made and I used a growing medium called Espoma Seed Starter Mix. The difference was dramatic! In both cases I got blooms in year #2, but only a couple from the bee pods. The seedlings from my cross (germinated in the Espoma product) produced a bunch of blooms in year #2 - all but one of the seedlings bloomed. A few more seedlings from the bee pods bloomed in year #3. Out of 90+ seeds, about eight seedlings have bloomed so far (year #3). I blame that on the poor start they got in that crappy growing medium.

Everyone will have a different tale to tell about how they germinated their seeds and how they planted them, etc. Read and choose for yourself how to proceed.

@Etophoj and @Daverme !

There are several threads about this topic.
The most current is this one:

The thread "How do you grow daylily seeds/crosses" in Daylilies forum

Good luck with your seeds!
Mayo