Im in a warm zone as are you, so..
1 - colorfastness....I get so so tired of getting about an hour of a daylily looking good, and then the sun turns it into munge.
2 - rust resistance ( In your zone, your gunna get rust, its really not that major if you just keep it under control, but if a plant is resistant, that is a real plus. I find, the healthier the plant, less rust, plants in the ground seem to get far less than pots. Most of mine happen to be in pots)
3 - good plant habit... leaves behaving and look like nice clumps. Flowers that open without having to pry them open. I dont like the real ruffly ones anyway, so thats not a big problem.
I personally dont like flowers that have the bottom of the petal turning in. So many do. I want a flower that opens the same on all petals.
This doesnt fit what I look for in the plant, but I think anybody who buys a plant without seeing a GARDEN picture of the flower/plant, not a catalog picture, are going to be sorely disappointed.
