For the most part I actually don't pay too much attention to the shape of the foliage, although now this thread is food for thought, and I suppose that will be another thing to look at.

Apart from that...

I prefer rust resistant, leaf streak resistant, dark green or blue green in color.

Absolutely positively no upright standing foliage - major flaw. (That's about as much attention as I have been giving to foliage form; upright foliage really is an egregious fault.)

Of your examples, I would say G and even maybe C in some circumstances would be my preference. Flower scapes and blooms must absolutely be presented well above the top of the foliage, though, regardless of how the foliage presents itself. Blooms sitting right atop the foliage or down in it are another major flaw, imho.

This is MASSIVE DYNAMIC the largest foliage of any daylily I grow, the lower and mid leaves are 2 3/4 inch's wide.

Becky I would agree with what most have chosen as I too prefer the look of G. Of course at this point, I will have most daylily foliage as long as they are not yellow or brown.

I like that foliage on Massive Dynamic, Fred. Very nice.

I would think it would be very easy to distinguish how many fans you have of this when it is in a clump.

My first preference is G, followed by B. I think C would look good with the mini-flowers.
Fred, that is massive foliage - beautiful.

Daylilies with G foilage are a lot easier to separate in a clump for sure.

I think my Kwanzo's foliage has the shape of G....

Why is upright foliage a flaw, Polymerous? I think leaves erect and saltant - quite pleasing.

Anyone have a photo example of erect upright standing foliage on a daylily? I can't find anything in my garden that seems to meet that description.

I have one that "may" qualify to some degree as upright foliage. It does tend to spike upward and reminds me of an Indian Chief headdress. It is also quite rust resistant. The foliage on this cultivar always looks great! It has large fans, but I've only had it since July 2015 (so I've not seen it bloom yet) and it is still just a double fan (no increase at this time). The foliage towers over just about all my other registered daylilies.



Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Jedi Brenda Spann')

I have 'Jedi Brenda Spann', I will check it this afternoon and see what mine looks like.

Seedfork said:Anyone have a photo example of erect upright standing foliage on a daylily? I can't find anything in my garden that seems to meet that description.

This is 'Parade of Peacocks' and it's what I consider the most upright foliage of the daylilies I'm growing. That yellow plastic is a cattle protein tub. If you're familiar with those, it will give you some scale to the photo. It will be a dl container in a few days .

Donald - I have a number of large daylilies that look like that (which I like the look a lot).

I thought perhaps Larry was referring to the leaves standing straight up, instead of bending over and cascading downward towards the ground. The JBS plant photo I posted above has foliage that actually seems to stand erect right to the tip of the leaf. It always strikes me as a bit funny because it makes me think it is in competition with the other daylilies as to which of them has foliage that can reach the highest in the air.

OMG, Becky, you have Jedi Brenda Spann????? She is BEAUTIFUL!! That is one plant that will never leave my garden. Last year she started blooming on 4/19/15 (blooms in the foliage). She soon grew out of that and she continued blooming until 9/12/15. It's a big clump, but she puts on a great show! The most lovely pink blooms you can imagine. No rust either!!!!

No buds on her yet this year. Maybe it will be a more normal year. I hope.

Arlene - Would please you take a photo of your clump of JBS and share on this thread? This plant has impressive foliage. I wasn't sure if it was a fluke or that is her foliage habit. Can't wait to see her bloom.

I have some interesting rust resistant cultivars which I hope I can cross with each other as well as some pretty faces this year.

needrain,
I thought your photo was an example of the "G" type foliage so many people liked, I really like that look, and as Hemlady said, they are so easy to separate when in a clump. I just planted one with that type foliage and one fan just separated on it's on. I like that so much better than some of those that you just cannot separate and have to cut though.

Here you go, upright foliage that looks like pineapple foliage.
Something I don't like, and try to avoid when crossing.
This plant is a very old dip dormant seedling.



This plant has the widest leaf on any foliage that I have.
These plants have not been out of the ground very long, so
they are showing some minor damage from a few cold nights.



And this one has what I call arching foliage, something I do try to obtain in crosses.
The arching effect is more visible when the foliage has grown more.

Gleni said:Why is upright foliage a flaw, Polymerous? I think leaves erect and saltant quite pleasing.

That was what I was taught at a garden judges' workshop years ago, and I agree with the sentiment. Daylily foliage is supposed to gracefully arch, not stand starkly upright. And when it arches, it should gracefully arch, not kink.

(...pleased with myself for finally figuring out how that quote box thing works...)

Of the images shown, 'Parade of Peacocks' is not that bad; the foliage - all of it - does actually arch over, although it grows tall first. 'Jedi Brenda Spann', on the other hand, still has the center leaves sticking straight up, and one leaf frankly kinks; the plant looks like it is having a bad hair day.

Glen's question made me go out and look at the daylily foliage here for uprightness. A surprising (and dismaying) number of plants were having bad hair days, some plants being worse than others. Among the worst ones (for my taste) were 'Arctic Lace' and 'Victorian Lace'.

Getting back to foliage shapes, I was looking at some of my "selected" seedlings (on the patio) the other day, and I realized that most of them were "G" shaped, but I think there was at least one "C" shape. Of course all of these seedlings (kept for a 2nd, 3rd look or because I just liked them) were chosen primarily on the basis of the blooms (looks, opening ability) and health of the foliage.

Then today, while I was off in the side yard to look at 'Victorian Lace' (whose foliage I knew I didn't like), I also went to look at three other seedlings (two of them, I believe, have 'Hip to Be Square' in the background; the third might, but I'm not sure (very long story there on these seedlings)). Two of the plants had nice (but lowly arching) "G" type foliage; the third also was "G" type, but it was somewhat upright as opposed to the other two. It is funny that the foliage on that hadn't fully struck me before (despite images clearly pointing out the uprightness), but I'm keeping it because of the flower traits, and have recently started a few seeds from it crossed with the other two. (Maybe the crosses will improve the foliage? Though I seem to recall reading somewhere that some hybridizer felt that bad foliage was dominant. )

All of this goes to show, I think, that too often we pay too much attention to the flowers, and not enough to the foliage.

Thanks for starting this interesting and thought-provoking thread, Becky!

Almost forgot this one that I like as well.

I haven't ever seen a daylily with completely upright leaves except in the early spring growth. Wouldn't they sort of look like an Agave in a clump? My only preference is for healthy foliage and scapes that get above it. In the latter case it would be that the foliage is too tall or the scapes too short and I'd probably be more inclined to criticize the scape. Otherwise green and healthy does it for me. Some seem a bit more difficult about getting a nice green color and I figure that's something that's a deficiency in their food supply. A puzzle to work out and correct.