Gleni said:Mine blazes across a garden and demands the involuntary use of your retina.

• Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Old Tangiers')
• Uploaded by Gleni

Oranges and yellows tend to get yawns from a lot of people, but I also notice that the good ones are always in high demand, and remain popular for years.

Mine would be Strange Magic -

If I could choose only one, it would probably be Ruby Spider: Of all my daylilies, it has the biggest flowers and the greatest wow factor.



But if I were being more practical, I would probably choose Green Flutter. Its flowers are much smaller but its good branching, lovely green/yellow flowers and excellent foliage make up for that. Although rust resistance is not currently important in my zone 6b garden, gardeners in warmer zones may like Green Flutter's rust resistance score, which is 1.0 (i.e., meaning that it is completely rust resitant, if my understanding of this score is correct). It also blooms late, and that is a big plus for me.

Larry, you might consider looking into 'Nancy Billingslea', if you are open to blooms that are not UFs or spidery. The (re) bloom on it yesterday was quite large, and I have yet to see rust on the plant. (My half-baked rust score prediction based on parentage is about 1.9, meaning having some resistance.)

Ken, I agree with you on the yellows. I simply don't understand why some people look down on them, and won't have them in the garden. They are cheerful, they perform, they go well in the landscape. What's not to like? So long as I can grow at least a few (not just ONE! ) daylilies, there will always be at least one yellow in my garden.

I like the idea of screaming oranges and brilliant saturated golds, too, but I have yet to find one in either color bucket that comes close to my idea of "ideal". (Like Larry, I want rust resistance and large flowers, but I also want somewhat modern bloom faces - no ultra chicken fat edges or multi colored eyes or anything like that, but at least some nice ruffling (unless, I suppose, it is a UF). And the blooms must open well on "tall enough" scapes, and the color must be clear, not muddy.)

I've heard Green Flutter mentioned a couple of times recently as being a good one to have. An oldie but goodie

I don't have a lot choose from, so this might be an easier decision for me (I'm still defining my "ultimate" daylily). My one keeper would be
Chosen Love (I still don't know how to do the clickable link thingy) (yes, I know there's a tutorial- I'm too impatient to go look it up right now)

My experience with this plant has been very rewarding. It bloomed for over 5 weeks this year, with a lovely fragrance. The blooms were of good size in comparison to scape and foliage (a medium sized DL- five fans make a pretty clump). The sun-fade was still an attractive shade and it proved to be pollen fertile for me. From a distance it looked rather pink- close up it contains more lavender. To my eye anyhow...

I've enjoyed seeing/reading about everyone's ideas of "one and only"...

Very easy Diana. Go to the daylily database, call up the cultivar, click on the photo you want, copy the BB code on the bottom line and paste into your post (Control C and Control V) - or even copy and paste the URL when the photo is up on your screen



Love Chosen Love.

Deryll, to NGA and the forums!

Deryll said:Blue 23, if you like Fooled Me, I have a seedling that will persuade you to change your mind. I composted mine!
I also agree with edible, Undefinable would be very nice.

I thought I understood what you were saying, but after re-reading, I'm not sure. Did you mean that you composted the seedling or Fooled Me? Why? I would sure love to see the seedling if you have a picture.

I just checked out all of Fooled Me's children. I believe Ken is right about Foolish Dragon, it looks very nice!! There are quite a few children that closely resemble Fooled Me. I think I'd get confused if I had some of them in my garden

I would have to pick Lavender Reflections. It is such a nice all around plant. It increases well, blooms well and is of course a lovely looking flower.

LAVENDER REFLECTIONS

Blue23- I composted Fooled Me years ago! May as well tell you, I compost literally truck loads of plants every year. Some are named, some seedlings, and some of them were quite expensive. I
think I replaced Fooled with Calico Jack, and then composted it as well. I try to "trade up". I'm not a business, and often find that nobody wants the plants, so they go in a big pile! The reason for
this site is to get ideas for new plants that I wouldn't know about otherwise. The seedling I mentioned is very nice, and I can send you a nice clump if you would like one. Let me know.

Thanks for the offer, Deryll, but I can't take any right now. I have gotten the fever to start some of my own seedlings, but absolutely have to make room somewhere for a new bed... where I have no idea just yet. I appreciate the offer though!

Vickie

@Deryll

Instead of composting your daylilies, you should sell them here! Several people have daylily sales here, and I think they do okay. I know I've spent a small fortune on them.

ediblelandscapingsc said:I don't own it yet but mine would be Undefinable

OMG, yes, this would probably be mine, too. Daniel, I forgot that you were the other person in that discussion awhile back that was talking about Undefinable. Some day...

Undefinable is on my list too, right at the top! Blue Beetle will still be my favorite forever, and thankfully someone was beyond generous and shared it with me. Otherwise it would be on my list right above Undefinable!

One. Just one? Oy...

Last year my top favorite was Titan of Ice:


Due to a bad windstorm and subsequent rot (i.e. I don't believe the plant or it's genetics were at fault), it died and I had to replace it and I planted it in a different spot. This year, it came out far more yellow than last year and it's blooms were shaped a little more triangularly (not my favorite shape)...so it got knocked down a peg. We'll see how it does next year, though. It's blooms were still HUGE and very fragrant this year, so if it's color lightens and it 'shapes up' (hah!) next year, it might be favorite again.

Soo....
This year it's hard to say. Ruby Spider is among my favorites, but I do wish it's bloom season was a little longer and it didn't set very many pods for me this year. Heavenly Angel Ice should have been poised to be a favorite, but it hasn't shown any signs of rebloom so far and it didn't set ANY pods this year. Symphony of Fire had a great bloom season and I got really excited about it every time it would bloom, although I don't typically think of it as one of my favorites, for some reason it was one of my most anticipated this year, so maybe it is among my favorites and I just don't realize it? ...same thing happened with Spider Man.

Hmm... I think my favorite depends on whether I'm looking at it from a beauty standpoint, in which case my favorite might be a seedling (unregistered) that I have from another hybridizer:


Or if it has to be a registered cultivar, then maybe, based on beauty, I would choose:
Night Embers:


...or Jim's Pick:


or maybe you meant from a hybridizing standpoint (most pod and pollen fertile)?.... which would probably be this one:

...this one I'm also partial to for other reasons, AND I love it's recurved shape, it's color (which changes depending on weather/time of the season), etc.


....so did you REALLY ask us to choose just one? Are you crazy??? Yeah, it's the Pringle effect...you can't stop at just one...

Hi Natalie. There isn't enough of me to go around! Keeping them separated and labeled.......I have been digging for two weeks now, and did send 70 or80 clumps to a friend this year, and 20 clumps
of seedlings to another lady. I wish you were here! I still have two whole rows to dig out, but they are mostly older or seedlings, and they are HUGE. My computer skills are horrific, and I wish I had
someone around who could do that. Most of the good ones are already in a pile, but I do this every year. First come ! Get with me next year and I'll try to send you some. And if there is something
you are looking for, I might accidentally have it. Don't be shy, ASK! As I said though, most of the good ones are already in a pile.

Deryll, that is so sweet of you! Have you ever thought of adding your daylilies to a list here? Maybe this winter when it's too frozen to dig? I have a few on my list that I'd love to have, but the odds of you having them are probably kind of slim, considering how many registered daylilies there are, so I won't bother you with that. But, it is a very nice thing to offer! Anyway, by adding yours to a list, you could put a note on the ones that you are composting, which would make it so much easier if you want to send them to someone instead.

Natalie, I just started on here like, yesterday, so I might consider it next year. I often buy fairly recent ones to use for pollen, but there are some older ones out there. With you being south of me,
you would probably do better with the evergreens than I do here. I have several from Floyd Cove that will be leaving next year, several Smith/Harry. I have to clear them out after I use them to
make room for the next batch. I have a really nice collection, but the seedlings are my entire life. Floyd Cove had several in their catalog this year that I want in the worst way! As for your wish
list, post it! If I don't have it, someone else might. You never know!!!

Deryll, you really are so nice! Seriously! I'll send you a tree mail later. If I even think about new daylilies this year though, I'll be in big trouble with myself! I'm working on drip lines at the moment, and moving half of my plants so that I can more easily see rattlesnakes where I'm stepping. I've made one trade this year, and that is it! I had to take the year off from hoarding, oops, I mean collecting, to get things safer for me. Next year is a different story!

I'm quite a bit further north than you are, but I'm in a warmer zone, which usually doesn't make a lot of sense. We live in a river canyon on the South facing side, and it's in a banana belt, plus we're only at 1,750 feet in elevation. I was in zone 5 at 4,500 feet in Utah before moving here, but I grew evergreens without any problems. We had a ton of snow there every winter, so it kept them insulated to some extent. They looked horrible in the Spring, but they pulled out of it okay. I don't have nearly as much snow here, but the evergreens don't seem to mind much. I don't grow many of them, but so far I haven't lost one.

Have you thought about just buying pollen? That seems like it would be way cheaper, and you wouldn't have to keep composting all of your plants.

Edited for my poor wordage!

My favorite South Seas.