For me, variety is definitely key. I am most attracted to purple varieties but I try to have a good mix. Sometimes, I do buy something just for its name! But I have to like the plant too...I try to buy a range of sizes, so I can tier them. And, sadly, price matters. Much as I would love to drop $150 on a new cv, that is just not going to happen. Maybe when my yard totally fills, and I can only buy a few plants a season, I will consider it. But this year was about volume, as well as moving my collection into the 21st century. The latest and greatest will mostly have to wait.

Covid caused my daylily acquisitions to soar last year. Cancelled events caused the sale of so many plants at bargain prices, and I could not resist. Hopefully this year I will be more selective in what I buy, I think that will be mandated by the decrease in supply of cheap plants.
Plus, now that I am quickly approaching 400 cultivars that I grow I am getting much more selective. Also having a few hundred of my own seedlings each year keeps me pretty busy and takes up a lot of room, time and energy that I would normally spend on purchased plants. So this year I hope to make an even more concentrated effort to buy fewer plants but to try and buy just a little bit later intros than I have in the past, with that mainly keyed to a few sculpted relief plants that I think will help my amateurish hybridizing program along. I am still amazed when I do a search for sculpted relief plants with the qualities I want and come up with "0".

@janwax I'm glad you joined our crazy family of daylily addicts!!

When I first started out, I knew nothing about daylilies, so I had no idea what I was doing. I became mesmerized by the beauty of daylilies, and then the names captivated me. I don't hybridize. I'm just a back yard gardener, so that's still my M.O. After joining the NGA, I learned a lot and discovered even more pretty faces, thanks to all the enablers here! These days, I still choose them the same way, but with more discretion on their bloom time and height, etc. I also choose them based on recommendations from threads here on the NGA. Especially the bloom season threads, but I will choose a daylily from a thread about a specific characteristic, like favorite dwarf mini's or best performers, etc.

One daylily I have wanted for some time is Miss Demeanor and much to my surprise, I actually got it on the Lily Auction. Here is the picture from the data base, and this is the seller that I bought from:

Addicted to big green/yellow throats, with contrasting border color.
Cliffjumper (Gossard, 2017) is the elusive jewel I wish I had. Cannot be found for love nor money.
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Cliffjumper')
I have seeds on the way with Cliffjumper as pod-parent. That will have to do. I just hope the kids look like mom.
I even considered trying to make a version of Cliffjumper myself by buying and crossing its parents. But I am saving that as a desperate backup plan.
Another backup plan is to buy Money Maker (Gossard, 2015) instead (or perhaps I will get it anyway). Nice dark border to contrast the bright red border of Cliffjumper.
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Money Maker')
That one was going pretty cheap on LA, but I managed to resist it.....this time. Have so many seedlings on the go I honestly do not know where to put them. Have to stop buying.....or just keep on removing the lawn.
I did get myself Lawdy Lawdy and Starburst Galaxy and RFK (dip) as consolation prizes. Hope they give me a flower this year.
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Lawdy Lawdy')
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Starburst Galaxy')
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Rose F. Kennedy')

Avedon

The photo you have posted from the database is MEAN GREEN rather than MISS DEMEANOR. I've asked to have the image moved. Since the seller grows MISS DEMEANOR, and many of my other oranges, she will likely send you the correct plant. Happy to see my plants being distributed by other sellers on the Lily Auction as my inventory is quite low.

Zoia said:For me, variety is definitely key. I am most attracted to purple varieties but I try to have a good mix. Sometimes, I do buy something just for its name! But I have to like the plant too...I try to buy a range of sizes, so I can tier them. And, sadly, price matters. Much as I would love to drop $150 on a new cv, that is just not going to happen. Maybe when my yard totally fills, and I can only buy a few plants a season, I will consider it. But this year was about volume, as well as moving my collection into the 21st century. The latest and greatest will mostly have to wait.

My first order (in-state, so for pick up, placed way back in early February) included two for $45 and one for $60. It took a lot to go through with the order.

My justification was that I REALLY wanted them (weak, I know) AND the grower is a great guy and a fellow North Carolinian. So...I felt less guilty. I was also supposed to be not buying so many this year, but I'm up to 48 additions, so...

I know of two cvs I lost over our warmer, wetter winter. That makes it okay in my book.

<nervously gnaws fingernails>

Just want to send a big thank you to Judy Davisson for setting the record straight about the right picture. I looked up Mean Green on the data base, and I know if there were a mix-up about Miss Demeanor and Mean Green, I still couldn't lose, for they are both awesome daylilies. They are very similar in lots of ways, just that Mean Green is 2008 and MD is 2011. When Judy gets her new website going, I hope to place an order for a couple more

We sure find ways to justify feeding our addiction, while our loved ones roll their eyes and shake their heads at us! (and my brothers tell me to get a life! )

I just happened to come upon Kathy's Daylilies when I was scrolling through the hybidizers lists on Charlotte's Daylily Diary. Wow, I was amazed at the intros for 2021, what patterns a number of these daylilies have. I would love to have the tets Amazing Kaleidoscope and Talquin's Hot Dang. I am also very much liking the dip Ojo de Cielo. Unfortunately, my budget says "you will have to wait awhile for these". Anyway, I think these are worth a look, see what you think. There are also videos, I like to see Kathy's Patterned Daylilies on YouTube, really nice.

Avedon, I have both AMAZING KALEIDOSCOPE and TALQUIN'S HOT DANG coming this spring, and hopefully I'll have pictures to post later in the spring or this summer. Can't wait!

Wow, Betty, we are on the same wavelength, I had thought of sending you a tree-mail and asking you to look at these and give an opinion of them. I am also wanting to know the quality of the plants you receive, doubt everybody will be sending out those huge plants like Floyd Cove does, but making sure the plants are in good shape, especially at the price. I seem to remember several years ago about one of the members saying she paid a couple of hundred dollars for a plant and it could fit into shot glass!! I know I would be very upset if that happened to me. So, I definitely hope to see pictures sometime this coming bloom season, it will be a treat for sure

The daylily club here took a trip over to Kathy's Daylilies, I bought several plants and they were all nice size plants, not leak sized but very nice.

Avedon-
Judy's new website has been up for a while - she posted that on the thread about the old one being down.

And I have heard good things about the plants Kathy's Daylilies sends. I recall reading the ones from Floyds Cove are so huge because of the sandy soil there.

robinjoy said:Avedon-
Judy's new website has been up for a while - she posted that on the thread about the old one being down.

And I have heard good things about the plants Kathy's Daylilies sends. I recall reading the ones from Floyds Cove are so huge because of the sandy soil there.

Judy's Plant Fans is definitely up, sadly for my checking acct lol.

I wish I had sandy soil like Floyd Cove! Even once I get mine in the ground, it'll be heavily-amended clay.

Floyd Cove grows their plants for sale in 3 gal. pots, not sandy soil. I think they water them everyday, and fertilize them about as often.

I just discovered Kathy's page after eavesdropping here.
As much as I would like to I can't budget one of her introductions but I'm eying several other offerings.
I have been lead into temptation.

It's true about Floyd Cove's growing in three gallon pots and what they do to get the plants so large, it is on their home page. When you have sandy soil as we do here, be careful what you wish for, you might be like us, with moles and gophers burrowing everywhere which can destroy your plants. We cannot put down poison, that is totally out, so not much else we can do. We tried some traps, but that didn't work, either. I have been hoping this extreme winter weather froze them out, but it's likely they are still out there, dug in deep waiting for warmer weather to appear. OUWill, Kathy has other daylilies not so expensive, so maybe you will find a goodie. I am considering another of hers from 2020, but it's still kind of up there in price. Larry, have we seen any of Kathy's intros that you bought? I would love to know which ones you have.

The plants I bought from Kathy's were not her intros.

So glad I have Hilliard Lawler's Rapture of Love coming! It was the daylily I most wanted to add this year.

Rapture of Love