Yes, the ATP database is the best for photos!

I just buy what I like as long as it is not to much. Not much into spiders or UF,love big flowers and doubles.

Some things that I look for in daylilies are fixed, but I also have yearly variances in colors or other traits that interest me. (Last year, for example, I went on a Huben dip buying binge, even though I had previously expunged most of the dips from my garden.) I can sometimes also be swayed (er, inspired) by a pretty picture accompanied by high praise.

The "Need" List:

polymerous tets (I started out with poly dips years and years ago, but nowadays I do my pollen dabbling with the tets)
scape height at least 30" (there is a little flexibility here, depending on the "whole package", but I also have a lower limit)
rust resistance (I refuse to spray fungicides; unfortunately there is still not a whole lot of reliable info available on this, especially for new intros)
other disease resistance
emo and cmo
respectable bud count
large (or larger) flower
opens flat to recurved
good substance
sunfastness (in reds and the rare purple)

Even if a plant exhibits all of the above, I won't take it if something about the flower face turns me off, or if I feel that I already have too many similar ones. There are certain color combinations which I cannot abide, regardless of whether or not the plant has every single one of my "Need" and "Want" traits. ("Want" includes things like fragrance and diamond dusting... I really want them, but it can be hard to find plants with such traits, and the plant must have (at least some of) the "Need" traits first.)

On the other hand, if the plant exhibits only SOME of the above "Need" traits, it may get purchased - especially if I think I can cross it against something with the missing traits, and/or it has some of the "Want" traits - so long as there are no "Deal Killer" traits.

Color-wise, what I buy varies year from year, with the only consistent colors being polychrome, near-white, clear pink, clear lavender. (Yet some years I add more melons, or go on a red binge, even though reds are not usually sunfast here. A few years ago I added several large yellow daylilies; they are always cheerful in the garden, but especially ML and Late.) I am not a big fan of eyes (and especially not eyed-and-edged), but I can be swayed, IF the colors are "right".

I don't much care regarding foliage habit (dormant or not), so long as the foliage is not upright, and the plant trait is not hard dormant. (I have to say, though, that I have a growing fondness for dormants, or SEv daylilies that act dormant, with bluer-toned foliage.)

The "Want" List:

rebloom (I like it when I can get it, but the rebloom has to be when the weather is still good, and other traits are more important to me than rebloom, due to shade)
shade tolerant * (my garden has a LOT of shade, and thus many daylilies that rebloomed at an older home of mine, do not in their current home)
diamond dusting
fragrance
arching foliage
blue-toned (blue-green) foliage

(* In that vein, it would be great if the database had info on shade tolerance - i.e. does the daylily bloom, rebloom, perform well in the shade?)

The "Deal Killers" (but some of this info you generally won't find in catalogues...):

mud
upright foliage
rust (and other disease) susceptibility
hated color combos (that, at least, you can generally determine from pics)
short scapes (I MIGHT go a bit shorter than 30" if most of the other traits look good and/or there is something compelling about the plant, but I will not go below 26", period)

Despite all of the "Need" and "Want" lists that I make, I can still be seduced into purchasing. I really have to step away from the Lily Auction (which for some reason I find harder to say "No" to, than hybridizer catalogs and websites).

Nice lists, Polymerous. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I am getting to where I want only the ones taller than 30 inches also. I never thought about how the foliage lays before. I couldn't even tell you if mine arch or not.

Blooms down in the foliage are getting to be one of my least desirable plants.

Polymerous,
That was excellent, a well thought out reply with lots of food for thought. So many things to consider, yet they are all important.

Just curious, because I have a few very short daylilies, and I was thinking they would come in handy for hiding the often raggedy lower parts of zinnias. Is it the general habit of the shorter varieties to not hold the blooms up out of the foliage. I was hoping the shorter plants might just have shorter foliage and yet still have a scape high enough to hold the bloom up a bit.

Seedfork said:Just curious, because I have a few very short daylilies, and I was thinking they would come in handy for hiding the often raggedy lower parts of zinnias. Is it the general habit of the shorter varieties to not hold the blooms up out of the foliage. I was hoping the shorter plants might just have shorter foliage and yet still have a scape high enough to hold the bloom up a bit.

Again, trial and error. Some of the shorter ones do have shorter foliage proportionately and do fine. Others have the big tall heavy foliage with the bloom too low to look right. I have had a few favorites that I liked the bloom well enough, I took time to trim the foliage back around the scapes. This looked ok (trimmed the different lenghts-staggered, rather than cut off all one length) and did not seem to adversely affect the plant. But it's a lot of trouble to do that if you have do very many.

Frillylily,
After a little research if I don't find anything, I might start a separate thread asking for favorite short varieties that hold their blooms up. I don't think I have seen that before, if someone remembers one steer me that way.

That would be a great topic. It is also sometimes assumed that a small flower size equals short scapes, but then we all know that isn't true. There are plenty of dl with tall scapes that have small blooms. I guess it is a matter of opinion what a person fancies. I don't mind them. but to see the rather large blooms down short, kind of bugs me some.

I am surprised that no one has responded with "I pick my daylilies by Name". I know there are a lot of people out there who do that, nothing wrong with that. But I am sure even those people would love to also see certain traits in those plants. I have to admit sometimes just the name of a daylily really gets my attention, but I am going to keep that way down near the bottom for my list of attributes for now.

Well, this is funny because I was just jumping to say that very thing.

I don't have many but half of them were pretty faces and the other half name and face.
American Revolution, Alpha Centauri, Spanish Glow and Catalina have special meaning.

Lady Elizabeth, Lemonn Vista, Absolute Treasure just caught my eye. I have been given a couple others...Kwanso and a NOID red.

Seed I do pick some of my plants by name, but it has to be for One of my kitties or a family member. I have Crazy Miss Daisy for my Mom cause the kids @ work said I was always drivin' Miss Daisy, when I was taking her to appointments after her stroke. Miss Daisy kinda stuck as her nickname now. I also have a bunch of cat themed ones and ones that represent my kitties. For instance I have Mama's Pajamas for my little mama cat named PJ, and Jedi Fancypants for my Francis, His nickname is Fancypants I'm still after Got Milk for my girl Mishka, she is a tuxedo & has a milk mustache. I have Hello Helen for My Grandmother Helen as well.

Picking daylilies by name, ahem. That would be how War Eagle and Roll Tide made their way into my garden. Both are red, you would think that the hybridizer would at least have named an orange daylily War Eagle.

I do have a few I picked for the name, but then really they have to be good otherwise too. I wouldn't keep a poor performer for its name.

With that said, I have rejected dl because of their name. I know everytime I look at it, it will remember me of this or that
I do not have any name themed beds.

Blooms down in the foliage - I forgot about that! That's definitely a Deal Killer, but it's also something that you probably can't tell from a catalog. (I have deleted a few such daylilies from my garden.)

Buying daylilies for names alone... Hmm, I have come close to that, but I'm not sure if any of mine were bought solely for the name. I'd have to go through the list...

I do remember buying 'Sears Tower' both because of the name (it is a building in my hometown, so it is a sentimental sort of thing) and because of the tall scape height. (I had just started my search for daylilies with tall scapes, and at the time, 'Sears Tower' was maybe the tallest tet available; at least, it was the tallest one that I knew of.) I keep it because I like the flower (for a lot of reasons), the bloom season, and the foliage (even though, still in a pot, it never attained its registered scape height....though it is tall enough).

I guess you could say that the name can be a factor in my purchases, at least if it comes down to choosing between two similar daylilies.

Oh yes.... there are some names that I won't have....

Definitely some I won't have because of the name, and some that I had to have because of the name. One comes to mind... A Moose Fishing on a Pond on Monday is just long. It is a pretty daylily and I guess if it was a pink or peach then I might be tempted to buy it.

And who would name a lovely daylily Slug Buster??? I wouldn't want a daylily with that name.

I agree on some of the names. I've gone through lists, run across an awful name, said 'ew,' and continued passed it.

While 'Slug Buster' may be an unattractive name, it does beg the question as to the reason behind the name. Is it slug proof? That might be a good trait to incorporate into a hybridizing program...