Shirlee - You are so right on everything you wrote! Find what appeals to you personally and go with it!
Before I even read your post this morning, I was outside looking at the limited blooms I have today. Not many at all. Since there are so few blooming currently, it gives me time to pause and really look at them and see what I like about each one. One that stood out was CCC67 (and it did last year, too!). It's the foliage ... beautiful green foliage with never a sign of rust on it after 3 years! (Rusty plants all around it!) It also multiplies and blooms constantly during mid-season. It is just a lovely all-around plant. I decided at that moment that I wanted to direct some focus on that one and what I could do with it as far as using it in my hybridizing program. So that one is going to be used in my rust-resistant goal. I have several others that show little or no rust also, so this one won't be the only one I use. Unfortunately, it's parentage is unknown. Though I do feel confident it has Trahlyta in it's parentage. I like it's blooms, too. I know Trahlyta may be an over-used and older daylily cultivar, but it works very well here in hot, rust-prone Florida! What is interesting about it is that Trahlyta is a dormant. This one is NOT! So whatever it was crossed with, made it ever-green. The blooms are smaller (5") with a scape (13") that is above the foliage. The foliage is short and clumpy. These are qualities that would make it a good border plant in a high visibility area like the border in my front garden. I really, really like it's habit, tolerance for heat, rust-resistance, and blooms!
I tried crossing it with another dip seedling. It formed a small pod that aborted early on. So now I must determine if it is pod and/or pollen fertile. Hopefully that won't be an issue. About 1/5 of my seedlings are showing rust resistance. So I have some genes to work with that are both dips and tets.
CCC67 (unknown parentage but I suspect Trahlyta is one of the parents):
And look at the foliage clump. For central FL this is beautiful!:
