Because there are so many, I don't pick off the spent flowers unless company is coming. When I don't, the dead stuff just hangs there (sometimes for several days) before they fall off. It really takes away from the beauty of the blooms when they are surrounded by death! When I do clean them up, I 'live head' the evening before so everything is beautiful the next morning. Because I was having company, I did that and it took almost two hours.

What a waste of my life -- someone needs to come up with a self-cleaning daylily and maybe I would come to like them again.

I'll trim ratty foliage from time to time and deadhead roses and day lilies or whatnot every once in a while but it does not seem to have a huge negative impact on me when it is not done.

The worst ones IMO are the ones that take forever to dry-up and just kind of melt all over the other un-opened buds. Hate those!

Kevin

The hybridizing sound like an interesting hobby and an achievement.

I got talked into using daylilies in mixed perennial beds 5 or 6 years ago and I'm glad I was.

On the other hand, I like neat flower beds and keep up with deadheading (also to prevent seeding).

I also find some of our daylilies get too large too quickly.

Personally, I happen to like orange and burnt orange doubles, though 'Forty Second Street', below, which just started blooming yesterday, is my favourite.

Why keep none? If you have favourites keep those.

Other than developing self-cleaning daylilies, perhaps they could develop weeklilies. Wouldn't need so many buds if each flower lasted a week.