This might be something worth breeding for. As my collection grows I do much less deadheading than I used to; this makes me very aware of how DLs wind down their blooms. Three that make very large messy blobs are: Wild One / Chicago Arnie's Choice / Jerusalem. Jerusalem is especially bad as the blooms (bright and beautiful as they may be) are in a tight clump at the top, and it is very hard to deadhead without knocking off a few buds. On the other hand, I just noticed that when Aabachee closes it twists the bloom in a tight spiral and dries to just a line. Very neat and tidy. This is probably a characteristic of spiders vs fat blooms?
Peanut Butter Frenzy makes a lovely bouquet with blooms in all states of ending and beginning. The colors of all stages together are really captivating.

I haven't taken any kind of survey but most of the spent daylilies here make a mess, purples and other dark colors are the worse. Even the dark UFs and spiders will bleed all over anything below them. We now have daylilies with a lot more substance, they can no longer twist in a tight spiral. We also have lots more buds than a few years ago, so we have a lot more mess.

I think I have heard this called "self-cleaning"

Wish mine did it!

I love hearing that with time a garden can be filled with DLs that not only bloom nicely but also fade nicely! I'm okay with blooms not dropping off quickly by themselves (self-cleaning?) as long as they stay tidy and aesthetically pleasing while they linger. So, I'm trying to include more spent flower photos in those that get uploaded to the database, too. Here are some of my picks for best spent blooms, though they are golden-oldies:

Dixie Land Band - it does "bleed" a couple of drops as it winds down, but the spent blooms always seem to curl neatly, never tangle, and darken into a purple-red that is still pleasing to my eye.


Fanciful Finery - has an interesting habit of drying with a "puff" of tissue where the petals doubled. the first time I saw it I thought it pretty well mirrored the pod it was attached to:


Ladybug's Two Moons - though not the most vigorous of plants in my garden, LTM does close up blooms quickly and doesn't hang on to them long:


Little Liza Jane - does a great job of making me think that 2nd and even 3rd day spent blooms are newly opening buds, until, on further inspection, I see they are spent:


Lullaby Baby and Rose Emily both wind down very prettily! Here they are side by side with spent blooms (Rose on the left, Emily on the right):


Seductor - does a pretty good job of staying tidy:


Uninhibited - a favorite; I enjoy the spent blooms almost as much as the fresh blooms, and they go through their stages over the span of days, as is shown here:
2nd and 3rd day after bloom:

4th day and beyond:


Would love to see other's best DLs for spent blooms doing their "closing acts"!