Okay, we've had 'favorite daylily' threads before, but here's one with a couple of rules. This thread is to be more 'fair' to people with larger numbers of daylilies. (Yes, there is an intentional irony to the title that makes it oddly appropriate...)

Rules:
1) You should post your FAVORITE daylily(/ies) from YOUR own garden.
2) You get to post 1 extra daylily for every up-to-a-hundred daylilies you have. So, it breaks down sort of like this...
If you own...
0-100 daylilies: post your 1 favorite
101-200 daylilies: post your top 2 favorites
201-300 daylilies: post your top 3 favorites
etc...

Make sense? (Yes, I realize that 2/101 isn't 1%, nor are some of the other break-downs, but it's close enough and I wanted a catchy title. )

3) Try not to edit/repost your favorites more than once every few months. It's okay if your favorites change over time, but posting too often is sort of cheating on #2, wouldn't you say?


Okay, folks, let's see 'em! Show us your favorites!...

I think we all know that just picking one favorite is impossible. So I will fall back on "my best garden performer recently" as being my favorite. Even that is not just a cut and dried answer. There could be several that rank very close. I am going with what was a NOID for some time, but one that was finally identified last year as 'Carlotta'.
It is not my most beautiful bloom, it is not the very earliest to open, it is not the tallest, it does not have the most attractive foliage, etc. the list could go on and on about the things 'Carlotta' is not my favorite of. However, its overall performance earn it "selective" first place last year in my garden. Now I did have a lot of new additions the year before, last year, and will have many more this year that I have yet to see bloom, so the race is on to see how long 'Carlotta' will remain "top DogsNDaylily" in my Garden.

South Seas

Oh, I just realized that the rules did not state named cultivars, only daylilies.
So that easily puts me over the 200 mark, so my second choice even though not completely decisive in my choice would be 'Gypsy Rose Lee', it was close but I am not a big doubles fan so that knocked out 'Royal Eventide' and 'Irish Envy' was certainly in the running, but to keep with the rules of the game, I will stick with 'Gypsy Rose Lee'. But give them all a big

Chosen Love... It's been planted here since 2011 and each fan has formed a nice tidy clump. From a distance the flowers take a peach/pink cast and close up the lavender comes out. It also goes through a nice color change throughout the day and has a lovely fragrance. I seem to recall about 3-4 weeks of bloom, it's pollen fertile, and I like the open shape of the bloom.
** I may change this later this season as I chose a dl that I have seen bloom in my garden. I added a bunch of new ones fall/spring, so this may be a temporary fave! **

Ruby Spider

and
Green Flutter

Carol - Ruby Spider is a good one! She is probably in my top 5, but I have between 100-200 daylilies, and I don't think she is in my top two...

Since I haven't received my 2017 orders yet, I can't include them, which means my favorites are:
1) Becky Hutchinson seedling she didn't want (deep red UFO with a giant bloom and crispate, cascading petals) that I nick-named 'Becky's Curls'...
https://garden.org/pics/2016-0...

2) Probably this one, which is lightly fragrant, often has a coppery sheen to it, is my most fertile pod AND most fertile pollen parent, and has sentimental value, too...

DND,
I have 74 different daylily cultivars and hundreds of plants, hence two favorites. Twelve of these cultivars, mostly purples or deep red/blacks, with yellow or yellow/green eyes, were planted in August or September 2016, due to a new obsession, so perhaps my top two will change once the new cultivars get going.

I don't do any hybridizing myself, so a daylily's parenting potential hasn't been on the radar for me. But I do stand in awe of the beauty and improved performance you hybridizers have added to daylilies through your hybridizing efforts.

Roman Cohort



All American Chief


Ram

My favorite is Wild Horses. I just love everything about it - the color, the sharp triangular eye, the form, the scape height, and the name. A cluster of flowers blooming would bring me a vision of wild horses galloping on the prairie. WH is very nice daylily.

SEXY SALLY



BRUSHED BY BLUEBIRDS



LAVENDER REFLECTIONS

It was very hard to pick three. So, my criteria was ... is it a good grower, does the foliage look good all of the time, but the biggest factor was does it just delight me when I look at it. Also, ones just bought last year were excluded. I think they need at least one year here in my garden to be in the running.

So, first choice is Clouds of Kisses. I love this little daylily. Its blooms are always perfect and the pink is so pure. I have it planted beside the walkway to my door, and I stop and admire it every time I go by it.


Second would be Peggy Jeffcoat. Every bloom is so subtly beautiful, it takes my breath away. It reminds me of a beautiful bisque porcelain sculpture.


Since my noids and almost 100 seedlings push my daylily count to around 300, my third choice is Carolyn Criswell. This one is solely based on performance. The blooms are always perfect, the foliage is excellent, and it blooms on and on in my garden. It may not give me a 'take my breath away' moment, but it is a workhorse. It blooms early, blooms heavily, and is one of my last daylilies to finish blooming.

Lordy, this is difficult. And, as you say, favorite daylilies change over the years (or when you discover they are prone to rust ).

Right now, I would say that my 2 plants (my total daylily count excluding seedlings is in the 100-200 bucket) are 'December Wedding' and 'Osterized'.

I have 240 labelled clumps and another several hundred seedlings I have bred.
This is difficult. I have changed in taste over the last year. I feel fickle.

Glorious Autumn is a splendid flower to look upon. I shouldn't really pick it because it is a difficult plant for me being deciduous. I have always expected it to stop appearing each spring but still it comes. The colour goes from light orange lower down on the tepals to burnt orange on their edges giving it a toasted, crisp look.


Bilinga's blooms are bold and strong. Even more, the plants throw polys and sculpteds at you with such regularity you can hardly wait to visit them each morning.


Large overlapping petals form the big face of Cool Runnings. Its wide, yellow and white ruffles are reflected in the white and yellow watermark, all enclosing rose. Each bloom appears substantial and beckoning.

Nice choices, Glen! Glorious Autumn just recently made its way in my want list, and now Bilinga might, too!

Beautiful choices, Glen! Love the double form on your Glorious Autumn -looks like a camellia.

Cool Runnings has been on my radar ever since I saw it on your other forum Glen! Really want that one

I feel the same way, Ginny. Cool Runnings, is just . . really cool looking. Such rich colors. Glorious Autumn is also very nice, Gleni.

All beautiful choices everyone! Oh dear! My "want list" is growing!!
Gotta find a twelve step program for my addiction, and fast!!

I do have a named cultivar favorite (well, a few ) in my collection, but, since my "postage stamp size" piece of the globe can only allow for a small daylily collection, I've chosen to post a wonderful seedling, by Kim Klarner, aka Spuria. Flycatcher x Heavenly Curls was among my first five LA purchases, after falling head over heels in love with daylilies, in 2014. The name first caught my eye (At the time I had no idea about names and crosses, etc.), and her photo was stunning!!

Kim's description on LA:
"FLYCATCHER X HEAVENLY CURLS - 39 x 7 1/2" 4 way 26 buds dor dip GREAT plant. Very showy!"

I'd say that it's EM, with extended blooming. It's hardy in Zone 6a, has very sturdy scapes, and increases exponentially, as well!! This daylily does not disappoint! Kudos to Kim!!

I'm really not qualified, nor can I even pretend, to accurately describe color or form, so I'll let the photos speak for themselves!









One additional note....The name caught my eye bc it immediately reminded me of our, now young adult, DD#2. The colors are perfect. It's a happy bloom, and she just lights up any room she enters! She has beautiful naturally curly hair, and she was practically born holding a fly swatter! It was simply meant to be, right?!

Beautiful photo and plant, looks like one that should be registered.