You are so right about how difficult it is to get a good shot of a daylily when the sun is brightly shining. But I'm here to tell you that you did an admirable job....A wonderful picture of Polar Vortex. For near whites the sun can be an asset......Resist makes a statement. I looked it up and yup, it's a Hanson......I was this close to buying A Heart Apart. Nice color and fulsome petals. How are the scapes? Do you have to stake them?..................Maryl

A Heart has sturdy scapes (it's a tet). Huge gorgeous flowers, but plant is not tall. Near 30 this year. People ignore some of JD's regular forms.

Nice grouping of blooms. Roses For Dallas and Resist would be my picks. I typically try to get out very early to take photos or hope for a passing cloud to get accurate colors. Doesn't always work out as planned. We have rain predicted for every day this week. Hope your getting a lot of rain but no flooding.Deer problem resolved?

Julia

It's too bad your blooms are so faded at peak. Breaking News seems to be the worst faded of all. However, Resist seems to resist fading in the hot sun. That one would be my favorite. Animals in the Attic doesn't seem to have much color at all, but I looked it up and, being a cream pink, it wouldn't. It is very difficult to photograph daylilies in the bright sun. I find reds are the easiest to photograph in that light. Polar Vortex is attractive.

Debra

I just give you a high five for getting out in the sun and heat to take photos!! Mine are all done in early early morning and I may get out in the afternoon to take a quick ride through just to see which ones do hold up better in the heat. When you look at them from afar, they still look colorful!!

Like others, Resist caught my eye. A Heart Apart is a pretty one and I like the color on Crintonic Crown Jewels. Victoria Josephine has that graceful curling I like.

Julia, early photos, of course, mean photos that are more grainy. Phil Korth takes his DSLR photos very early, but has to process them to match reality since there is not enough light for accuracy. (He is very straightforward in describing this.) In general, his final products are quite accurate (with a few exceptions). Since the sensor of a cell phone camera is small, in low-light situations it employs computational photography that interprets what the image would be in greater light. The result can be a pretty good rendering of the flower and certainly a convenient rendering. However, sometimes, the color is off as a result of the computation software, and the effect can be a puffed-up image bathed in light, which as K Emmerich notes, is great for people parties (that make everyone look good).

Yes, waiting for those clouds. It can be a long wait. And, sometimes the best images are just faint sun as the cloud comes into play.

Debra, I have never seen Breaking News other than with my image, but haven't had it that long. I like it, as well as Animals in the Attic, a lot. Jimmy is also an eye catcher and quite sturdy for such a big and tall flower. Resist has over 20 buds, but it does not have the ideal candelabra branching that Curt prizes; the buds are a bit too compressed, which happens a lot with highly budded plants.

I was out this morning, and everything looked so vibrant and richer than the blooms had been for days. Then it started to rain, and then pour, and then a heavy thunderstorm. Victoria Josephine was lovely, but it has many more buds.

Sometimes (maybe most of the time), the bloom never looks like the hybridizer's image. That can be true both in regard to color and size. The daylily world is filled with picture deception, both in initial and secondary marketing. "Human beings cannot bear much reality." "Burnt Norton"

To be honest I only use my cell phone for taking photos. It started out as a time saver over using my digital and having to edit and upload when I just did not have the time to do that. I have an older model cell phone that I love and will not give up until it dies. Coworkers and family tease me mercilessly about my dinosaur phone but I find my photos to be much more to my liking than when I use my husband’s latest phone or even my digital camera. I am honest when the color is not what I see but almost all photos are representative of what I see in my garden. The only editing I do is cropping or adding names to my photos (again using my phone).

Years ago Nikki Schmidt wrote on her then garden blog about using her iPhone 7 for taking pictures in daylily gardens, primarily in portrait mode. Although she noted she had always used digital cameras, the portrait mode on her phone was a revelation and game changer for her. I think most people have a preference for taking photos; I certainly don’t try to ”doctor” my photos and I sometimes have difficulty capturing correct colors but I think the majority of my photos accurately portray my garden blooms as I see them.

I think that is a great picture of Resist, wonderful red color. Of course, I have never seen it in person, but I love it. I am a fan of most of Davisson's daylilies of course. My Roses for Dallas is short this year too.

Resist is not much more than 5 inches, as it is registered. I hate it when hybridizers round up by as much as .9 an inch in registration; we do, after all, have fractions. I can even recall purchasing an expensive intro registered at 6 and it barely blooms 5.

As for the deer (which Julia asked about), I have never seen them worse. However, after devastating one place, they suddenly retreated. I think that fawns are part of the reason that repellent is not working. At a "friend's" place, where I do some (paid) gardening, the owner refuses to pay because the repellent was not very effective. The town is filled with deer, and everywhere one sees people trying to grow things in cages. I recently saw tomato plants in a zipped-up camper sleeper (designed to protect from insects).

Again, my home daylily garden is completely enclosed on all sides, including a fence of netting, my neighbor's wooden fence, and my neighbor's shed. It is a lot of work to put up in the spring, but I am accustomed to it. There is no alternative with such a smorgasbord of deer food. Daylilies are no longer the Perfect Perennial. Indeed, on a garden tour, some people would not even stop at my place because they had no interest in daylilies. The prevalence of deer has destroyed the place of daylilies in the perennial garden. Now, only a lunatic group of collectors in daylily clubs are excited about them. A prominent hybridizer I know says that AHS membership and participation is in decline. But one could collect worse things.

At a pool party last Saturday, one fellow participant told me that daylilies are "hardly any work." She was a corporate manager. I begged to differ with her.

Mantis, I fear it is more than just daylilies people are losing interest in growing. A friend and I were recently discussing the trend we are seeing of people preferring a cookie cutter landscaping of their houses to actually growing gardens of flowers. I have even known some people who had landscapers come in and destroy their lovely flowers beds to replace them with grass and ”statement” shrubs whatever that is supposed to mean. I put this theory to a test when driving to one of my school districts which is over an hour from my home. I looked at all the houses on the way and saw ONE house that had flower beds other than standard Stella d’ Oro blooms. Some may have had beds behind their homes that I could not see but most flower lovers like color in front of their homes as well!! My favorite nursery is a wholesale/retail business with open public greenhouses numbering around 25. All annuals. The perennials are located ”down the hill” in two greenhouses. One of the owners told me he has noticed for some years a trend toward annual plant sales over perennials and attributed that to people not wanting to care for gardens.

Sorry, that was a long response but I hope we don’t see a book come out any time soon titled ”The Death of the Hobby Gardener”!!

Resist and Roses for Dallas are my favorite of these. Great colors. I also like a Heart Apart.

Brad

I feel for you with the gorgeous colors being killed by rain. that is the problem with it We need it, but it comes at the wrong time and peak time is certainly the wrong time. Nonetheless, your lilies are beautiful as always. I love the Davissons and have no favorite.

kay