That makes sense, Gerry
Having a name certainly lends a formalized order to all the tens of thousands of daylilies out there.
Jan, I never thought about the expense of registering. I have about 25 NOIDs and love them just as much as my named daylilies. I'm thinking about using your idea and giving them garden names. I would really like to put tags on them, but didn't want 25 name tags with NOID on them!
Glen, I'm learning a lot too. I didn't know that a named daylily being sold (aka garden name) could be unregistered. I am wondering... in the case of two daylilies with the same name, if the person who sold the unregistered named one just didn't know that there was a registered daylily with the same name? Could it have been purely accidental that the two daylilies looked similar? I can see how, after many changes of hands, one daylily could be mistaken for another.
I guess it's also possible that many years ago someone may have given a garden name to a daylily, sells it as such, and off it goes into the masses. Then a hybridizer comes along and registers one of their daylilies with the same name. Interesting (and confusing) scenario.