I'll throw in my two cents:
Destine to See because it smells good
Rainbow's Glory because I love all its colors and
Moonlight Madness because it spreads like kudzu in my yard and just fills the place up.
Renee

JUST THREE!!!!! Dan, you gotta be kidding....no way could I narrow my 1000+ cultivars to only three. But I'll watch this thread to see which dl's other posters can't live without!! :)
Jan

No way!!! But I'll try. How about we just limit to three hydridizers,??? but that's not what you asked.
I would have to say "Always Afternoon" its early, I've had it a long time, it's beautiful and I love the name. Malaysian Monarch because I'm always drawn to the lavender colors. And then there's good old Pumpkin Kid,but then I can't leave out Spacecoast Cranberry Kid, Oh, that's four. See, it is too difficult. I better stop I keep thinking of others. It will be interesting to see what others think. ( Just more to add to a wishlist, here we go again!!!) Geez, Jan 1000+ that is wonderful. I would be in heaven. Cindy

OK... I was almost thinking that three was easier than ten as there are a handful that I know that I wouldn't be without....but as I start counting, a handful is way more than three!!!

Here is my list that I might be able to be talked into paring down to if the world would end otherwise.........

#1 Tuscawilla Tigress... would never do without this one. Early, late, flashy full of blooms........I love it!

#2 By Myself .... Not as flashy or as long a bloom period, but full of color and the perfect compliment for fancier blooms.

#3 Black Plush.... This one is to add the dramatic burgandy color with the same bloom generosity to the pair above.

I figure I could fill an area with these three and it would be an eye popper.

But then I would be leaving out all of my pinks and purples and whites and creams and.........

Glad that the world isn't going to end tomorrow and I don't have to choose!!!

Julie

I have a few new ones that I may come to love even more than these, but of the ones that I have seen bloom my three would be:

Heavenly Angel Ice - I am a sucker for white and this is a glorious white spider.

Joan Derifield - Big, beautiful, raspberry rose. It has the most impact of any clump I have seen so far.

Belle Cook - A ruffly pink. I have a lot of those but Belle Cook is my favorite.

Honorable Mention goes to Enduring Freedom ad North Wind Dancer.

My three favoite daylilies would be:
American Revolution- Dark color and stands out.
Joleyene nichole-A wonderful!pink color and pretty!
Grey Witch- A nice greyish-purple color spider daylily.
I done some crossing this year of American Revolution
and Grey witch.I cllected the seeds and stratified the seeds and have a few seedlings growing indoors under grow lights.I purchased at least 33 varities of daylilies over the summer.I can't wait until summer to see all the new blooms.

Blue Pink Beauty, Francis of Assisi & Sea of Cortez.
Today.
Could be a different list tomorrow.
But I doubt I could go in life with just 3 daylilies.
lol ~ marea

Hey Dan..

I noticed that you threw the idea out there but didn't list your three!?! Not fair!

My favorite three(it's almost cruel to ask us to live with only 3 but here goes :-) ) would be :

Sergeant Major It's just too cool-11"blooms of Deep red!!!
Evening Enchantment great deep almost black and vigorous
Silver Circus great yellow and grows like a weed

If i could have a fourth it would probably be Krakatoa Lava for it's glowing orange color.

Kimkats

If I only got to keep three, they would all have to be pretty ones that rebloomed well so I could enjoy them for a long time. With that criterion, my picks would be:

LAST SNOWFLAKE
GILDED KNIGHT
MOONLIT MASQUERADE

Debra

It's too tough....as soon as I post 3 I'll find 3 others I should have mentioned instead.
1. Pure and Simple......I love the color and I always get sad to see the last day it blooms
2. El Desperado......very vigorous and brightens the garden
3. April LaQuinta......new this year; but so gorgeous I'd like this in every bed I have.

I am on a much more modest daylily planet than many of the regulars on this forum (thank you for letting me eavesdrop!). So, I was pleased and surprised to see some of the cultivars I have on this thread. Right now I could be happy with Silver Circus, Sunday Morning, and Heron.

No way could I decide that until I have seen all of the new additions bloom!

Meet Joe Black- what a performer, and what a breeder.
Gavin Petit- makes me smile everytime I see it.
Key To My Heart- I just love it, love it, love it.

What a question, all my seedlings will probably curl up and die since I left them out.
freezing in PA--Nina

Okay okay,
The reason I didn't include "my list" is simple and as hard as it is to believe, innocent! I have three unknowns. A mildly ruffled medium pink, a knockout red with an extended yellow throat and an old fashioned looking narrow petal and finally, my favorite mis-named unknown that's a dark red with a minute yellow throat. In case you're wondering the answer is yes, I posted the last one as a "do you know this flower" on the forum but didn't get very far, it was labeled "Raspberry Ripple" which was the wrong name, but the flower picture on the label was correct.

I have enjoyed reading the responses so far. Hopefully some others found this fun and informative. Personally, as my user name suggests, my main interest is poultry. I use to raise them as many on this forum raise daylilies... in the hundreds. Mostly due to my genetic interests, but at one point in time I had more than 500 birds representing almost 200 breeds of chickens and turkeys. Now days things are much more modest and that's because I learned what I needed to and am now in the refinement stages with most of my projects. But, there was a time when I was forced to choose which to keep and which to let go of. You learn a "lot" about yourself when you look at your hobbies and other interests this way. I had one 12' trailer and the back of a small pickup with which to take my plants and poultry, the trailer got the animals, lol. So, after packing the pickup with irises and others, there was only room for one daylily... the other two I have I inherited with the new house!

Black Plush I've seen and would like to buy! There's another one, Infernal Optimist, that I'd "really like" to have. A friend is working on getting me hooked on daylilies btw so I'm sure my list will end up being longer than three in the end, lol.

Dan

um, pictures please?

Dan, Dan, Dan....now that's not fair at all!!! :) Asking those of us with hundreds of dl's to choose just 3 favs when you only have 3 to choose from...oh you just wait!! I'll bet in a couple of years you'll be just like the rest of us with so many dl's you couldn't possibly choose just 3 favs. LOL
BTW...have you discovered the Lily Auction yet? LOL
Jan

PS: Just in case you need a link to the LA, I've added it below. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: The Lily Auction

There ya go,
You went and did it! Lol. Talk about not being fair Jan... it's a good thing I've honed my self control skills working in nurseries for the last 18 years! ;)

I'm following the advice a nice Hemerocallis breeder who recommended that I stick with two, then play around with their genepool for a few years before I do anything else. You think 3 is hard? Try whittling it down to 2! Hems are complicated... Ed Murray, Black Plush and Bamboo Blackie are three strong candidates that I'm looking at right now. If I only ever added these to my place, I'd have myself buried for the next 20 years.

My list of irises is pretty long already, I need to get to work on hybridizing them before I forget why I bought them, lol. I also have been working with hardy Hibiscus a bit to. So you see, I'm already a plant nut.

Sue... who are you wanting photos from? I only have pics of one of mine and it's undoubtedly not the most spectacular that any of you have seen...

Dan
{{gwi:987061}}

Jan, the LA link was a low blow to toss out at to someone with so few DL's at the start of winter when there is so little to do but spend time on the puter!! :)

These are pics of the three I had listed, and although I really couldn't ever limit myself to three, looking through my pics to find these reinforced how much I love the three that I chose!

BY MYSELF

TUSCAWILLA TIGRESS

BLACK PLUSH

The real thing that I love about these is that they are tried and true and affordable as well as being stunning in the garden.

Julie

CROWN OF CREATION
BASS GIBBSON WOW just a KNOCKOUT
SEEDLING SPIDER that is a GIFT plant that I'm growing for a breeder--it's tied dyed!! Unreal 38 tall 9 ins bloom last at least 24 hours in the sun.

be posting some pic this summer

co

LOL, well Julie, it was the least I could do, and besides Dan wasn't playing fair to ask us "major" addicts to choose just 3 favs either!!! :)
Love your photos, BTW!!

Cole...that seedling sounds fascinating, can't wait to see photos of it.
Jan

You want unfair?
My wife and I were fortunate (or was that unfortunate?) enough to walk Roris Iris Garden in it's last year of business. It was the peak of bloom season in the Sacramento valley (California) and they were having a "restructuring" sale. Uhhh! We came home with 25 irises, many of which you couldn't find in a catalog at the time. We were looking forward to going back the following year, only to find out that their Japanese founders had pulled the plug completely and went back to focusing on their Japanese growing grounds. Disheartening to say the least...

I make a point of not roaming hybridizer's growing grounds any more. It's just to tempting!

Dan

I think I would keep TOTAL ECLIPSE - a lovely, nearly black
red. AUGUST FLAME - a brilliant red. GRAMMIE GLADYS - a
charming lavendar with a rosy eye ring, blooms and blooms and blooms.

Now if only I could have a couple hundred more----

kay-phal

I want pictures of everyones favorites, preferably in their garden setting! I am only a beginner dayliller and when someone says my favorite is...bla bla bla...I won't know how stunning bla bla bla is untill I see its lovely face...otherwise you will all have me crazy with a pad and pen going back and forth to tinkers daylily database to see what they all look like....but let me see if I have 3 favorites from my garden:
hush little baby

beautiful edgings

nanuq
{{gwi:662687}}

sue, here is always afternoon. I too am constantly going to tinkers or just googling the daylily name to see a picture. so I understand. Your pictures are very nice, what is the white one? nanuq? I'll google it.
Thanks cindy

Yes, last white one is Nanuq...Your always afternoon is pretty and you have it labled and everything...I never know who`s who till their up and blooming and then its like ``oh yeah I remember now"

Hi Sue, here are some pictures for you.

Heavenly Angel Ice

{{gwi:647660}}

Belle Cook

{{gwi:649917}}

And a picture that I swiped from Coral Kincaid. My Joan Derifield hasn't bloomed yet.

{{gwi:648396}}

oh those are lovely, I especially like Belle Cook! I would like to go see Corals gardens she has quite a few listed on her website.

Nope, not playing this game. No way choosing three daylilies. Chossing ALL my way over 300 daylilies. Well, ok, I do have some clunkers here that have until next bloom season to shape up or they are outta here. So I guess I could take some off that over 300 list. But thats it!

Oh Geeze.

For my mini selection, it would be Blue Elf:
{{gwi:650021}}

For my large flower, Hi Ho Silver:

For UF, Lucid Moment:

This is impossible...

For toothy edge, Create Your Dream:
{{gwi:698718}}

Most prolific bloomer, tied with Come See and Navy Blues:
{{gwi:647250}}

Cutest ever, Party Pinafore:
{{gwi:663798}}

And most unique eyezone, Neusa Gergemann:
{{gwi:655989}}

ok, ok, I have to stop!! But I didn't get to red, or best bubbly edge or most diamond dusted.... :o) See, I just can't DO it.