Betty you had every right to be very disappointed with Talladega , that photo sure does look like a different dl. I do like the way it looks in your garden though, it's very pretty.

Wow, that looks very different than photos I have seen of it. I know plants may look very different in different soils. I have sold some of my plants to different states and have actually seen a picture of what it looked like in other gardens and I was totally surprised. They can look so different. Yours, however, looks extremely different. I would wonder if I had the right plant myself.

I was disheartened too as won several seed crosses of it the first year people made seeds with it and then later realized it was not that striking red they showed. I have had no bloom yet and I am hoping this year will be a good bloom season for them. The plant is still pretty so hope some of these are too.

I too just loved, loved, loved the striking red of the picture on the website of TALLEDEGA. I didn't buy it because I really did not believe it would look like that in most gardens, especially not in mine. I want my reds to be really vibrant and red, red just like Betty does. That washed out color is very disappointing.

If Talledega is described as rose red- then that is what I would consider that picture to be. But I also agree, that what they are posting is a RED color, not rose red by a long shot. I too have loved that red flower, but it is always too expensive for me. I don't believe I would spend as much on a rose red flower, as on a red one, because I just love the stronger colors better. Red, orange, yellow, purple - and not the pastel shades of those colors.~Jan

Yes, but here again we go with a hybridizer picture probably taken on the best day the flower has ever had and certainly not about to look like that in most gardens. It is just not fair.

As we have moved daylilies around here, the colors and size of bloom can change.

One thing I noticed was using epsom salt on purples and red enhanced the colors, but putting it on
pinks and lighter ones made them muddy or peachy. We must have enough magnesium in the soil already.

It took two years for the pastels to look normal again after adding epsom salt. But, of course that is just here.
There are so many variables, and I certainly didn't use a scientific method, just observation.

That is very very interesting. I will make note on some this year with the Epsom salt and see what mine do.

I find it very interesting also because after using it the first time I found a lot of my daylilies were very peachy looking. I didn't use it this past spring and I saw an improvement in color, way less peachy.

Learn something everyday on here, Very Interesting. Something else I wont have to buy.

We know reds are often tricky to photograph, but checking other sellers' sites for this one shows all the rest of the images to be that rose color. Would have been glorious if it were that lovely, lovely, red as shown in the one photo and I'd be very disappointed, too.

I will be interested to see how true the dozens and dozens of new ones I got this summer and fall will bloom. Most came from one seller. A few did bloom this year and were close or even better than his photos. But one was a pale, washed out can-only-see-faintly-where-it-might-have-maybe-been-the-one-photographed. I am confident he sent the correct one and that it is simply the differences in location (and it's in a container right now, too). But I think this type of situation illustrates a danger to a seller who uses someone else's photos without crediting. Kinda of hard to defend discrepancies if you don't actually KNOW if the flower bloomed just like that. For those that use their own and "enhance" them to the point of creating a false image...well, shame on them and I'll spend my money elsewhere.

Betty: I saw a photo of Talladega that was taken at the Trimmers and it is pretty much the same color as yours. James Hall gave it to me so it will be interesting to see what color it is for me. I may have to redo my hybridizing area next season. I put my reds together, my purples together, and my pinks, and so on. I'll probably have to rearrange them to better suit the true colors. :rofl:


I have read on other forums about the use of epsom salt to enhance colors. There are varying opinions on this. Some say that it makes pinks more vibrant and less peachy but others say it makes pinks more peachy. Some say it's the morning sun and not the salt. Someone had moved a non impressive peachy daylily to the back yard along the fence then the next season it bloomed the truest pink they've seen. Then they moved it to the front so they could see it better and it went back to being peachy (they say it's the morning sun).
Epsom salt (as well as sewage sludge--milorganite) is said to enhance the blue in daylilies, could be why some photos are more blue than they really are (other than the obvious photoshop ones). It is supposed to make the reds and purples more vibrant.
Some say it makes yellows and whites and pastels more vibrant, but again others say it makes whites peachy or dirty looking. Someone said that it can clear up muddy colors somewhat as well. I wish I had all the sites from my old computer I saved. There was one place that had photo differences of the same daylily with and without epsom salt. I can't find it now.

If you read on the various hybridizers blogs and such, a lot of them add epsom salt to their soil mixtures. Now, if they do foliar sprays also I do not know. So this could be a reason why their reds or purples are much deeper colors than in a normal garden. Also, some of the photos are taken in the greenhouse, this makes a difference in the look of a bloom. Sometimes the hybridizer will tell you in the description it was taken in the greenhouse.

I have some seedlings that are far from the color they were for the hybridizer. You wouldn't think they were the same daylily, but I know they are. Soil plays a big role into the colors as well. Sort of like the hydrangeas. You can by a gorgeous pink one, but if your soil isn't the correct ph it will just turn back blue or a blue will turn purple. The big hybridizers use the best of the best when it comes to soil, fertilizers, and such so of course they will have a lot better color, and growth, and bud count, and height, and............... you get the picture.

This is all just my humble opinion once again.

But like Rita said, the pictures are probably taken on the best day the flower has ever had. I know the hybridizer's want to show the very best photo they have sort of like all the magazines we read with the photos of all the gorgeous people. Well, all those people have been photoshopped as well. I saw a photo of one celebrity with no makeup or airbrushing (as I've heard it called) and sort of like that daylily, you wouldn't think it was the same person. But when there is such a big difference in color from the bright red to whatever you want to call that purplish, lavenderish color it makes you wonder what they were thinking.

The magazines airbrush everyone. I don't really mind as I would rather look at beautiful people than ugly ones. But I know that's not real, I don't expect it to be. When I buy a daylily that is very different. I do expect it to look like the hybridizers picture even in garden conditions. When I first started out, before I smartened up, I had some that just never looked like they were supposed to. Those are no longer here, having been kicked out of the garden.

that is so true!!!

Now on the other end of the spectrum, I have seen hybridizers use some awful looking photos. They have them with water splotches, thrip damage, and what have you. I would rather wait another year to sell them when I had a chance to get a good photo than to use ugly photos.

And then there are some sellers whose sites do not have any photos, just descriptions.

That is when we go searching to see what it looks like trying to decide whether to buy or not.

AANNNDDD on the other hand, it is such a wonderful surprise then they look so much better for you than the Hybridizers picture. That can make your day.

Yep Stephanie,
That has certainly made my day a few times.

I will admit that everything I purchased from Maryotts this year looked exactly like the photo. That is one of the (many) reasons I will order from them in the future. I did have some reds this year that were not as pretty as last year .

Butbthis thread is also a good example of how we all have to ' do our homework' when it comes to flowers, and why these databases are so important

Exactly! I've certainly learned to carefully read the description before going nuts over a picture and impulse buying! But of course I still do waaaay too much impulse buying -- but that's me... it's become my signature move!

I am just an onlooker here but spend lots of time sitting at the computer. As pictures come up on random pictures I frequently click on them, usually iris, roses, and daylilies. I am amazed at the wide variations in the color of many of the pictures. Some don't resemble others at all when it comes to color and there is often wide variation in form. .