Purple is not one of my favorite colors, but everyone needs a few of every color for a nice display imo. It's hard in our heat to get a purple that doesn't slick, fade, of melt, and the only purple I have now that holds up to those 95 plus temperatures is Mary's Baby. So here she is on a hot summers day:

MARY'S BABY

How in the world do I pick 3-5 purples? It and Lavender are my favorites. The first 2 would always be on my list of favorites. The other 3 might rotate in and out, depending on my mood.

Vintage Wine, my first ever purple. It is reliable, holds up well, blooms and increases well.

Belle Isle Sentry. Both extra early, then reblooms extra late, reliable, sunfast.

Peacock Maiden.

Indian Giver Old reliable, sunfast. Often reblooms.

Wilson Spider. Reliable late, great bloomer, increases well.

Maryl - Mary's Baby sounds like a winner in every respect! What about your fancy edged purple, When Royals Dream?

Brad - I especially like your photo of Belle Isle Sentry, and Indian Giver is such a classic beauty.

Here are mine:

Midnight Castle - Huge blooms with super white edge. It was so cool it lost its watermark but set some seed. This one fades some on days in the high 90s, but this past summer looked good on most evenings.

Skin of My Teeth - This one was less splotchy than last year and set some seed for me. So I'm happy, since I bought it for the seeds. It does tend to spot on mornings with heavy dew, but it's pretty sunfast for such a dark one. Good multiplier.

Jeanne Deaver's Dream made a pretty clump this year. It does fade some where I have it planted in all day sun.

Buddy's Victoria Jade was tall, well-budded, set lots of seed and rebloomed.

Grape Twizzler is always a good one. Sunfast. It used to be a terrific rebloomer but has been in too much shade the past few years.

Debra

Purples, my favorites! Celeste is probably still trying to decide what to post :)

Born to REign was really splotchy its first year, cleared up somewhat its 2nd year but every bloom was perfect this year. The photos just don't capture how it looks in person, was much darker/purple in person

Lounge Lizard-again, looking much lighter than in person

Storm over Toledo-another that was splotchy the first couple of years, but rarely since then though. You can see it still gets a bit, but I do like it despite that. It needs to be divided, but I am afraid if I divide it will be splotchy again for a while. If it ain't broke, don't fix it is my motto, & it still blooms good.

Catherine Neal

Well, it won't let me post a couple more, Evening Enchantment & Strutters Ball, & I didn't take a pic of T-Bone Walker, it is a great purple too, don't know how I missed that one. And since Maryl Showed Mary's Baby I don't have to use my count for that one. A great one by the way. All mine seem to be showing more red than purple, I don't know if it is my camera or just the lighting, more likely the fault of the one operating the camera. But mine are all so much darker & richer in color than seen. I do love dark daylilies with watermarks. Ashwood Still Night, Catherine Neal, Tooth, Bela Lugosi, don't have photos of those, but great ones too. Purples just seem to be the better, most consistent performers in my garden. Can you tell I love'em?

Brad: Indian Giver was one of my first daylilies. I don't remember what happened to it, but it sure is pretty in your garden.......Debra: In all honesty I can't call When Royals Dream a purple. It's more of a maroon, or if you want to give it more cache, Burgandy. If you have a maroon/burgancy header I can offer it then.....I like Skin of My Teeth in particular. It looks more towards the purple side then maroon to me. I think I confused Castle Rock with Midnight Castle once at a daylily show long ago and not in Midnight Castle's favor as Castle Rock didn't look good to me at the show. Anyway, your Midnight Castle is gorgeous. I know most of the Florida ones are early or early mids, and that's great for better color retention, but I'm looking more for later bloomers such as Mary's Baby for my collection at this point in the game........Maryl

Garry Bewcyk --reputedly northern hardy

Rogue Wave

Royal Girls

Deep Dark Secret --after several years of languishing

Malmaison Plum --doesn't always look this good, but one morning, I was floored by this group.

Nancy - Born to Reign looks fabulous. I just won it recently on the Lily Auction. I hope mine will look as pretty as yours.

Mantis - Gary Bewcyk looks fabulous! I hope it is really hardy. Did Dan Hansen have Curt Hanson test it out for him?

Maryl - Most daylily purples are really maroon or burgundy. When Royals Dream was registered as royal purple, so I think you could post it here.

Debra

All of My Love to You is wonderful here. Good sun tolerance, good multiplication, good eye appeal. Yes, Curt Hanson tested Garry Bewcyk through some severe winters. We'll see.

I left one out that should have been in my favorite five. Guess it will have to be a runner up to the title. It bloomed so early I forgot about it. It also had really short scapes, but the blooms were divine.

Razor Sharp

I really like Razor Sharp and Garry Bewyck.

Nancy

Darn you Debra. I'd almost forgotten my love affair with Razor Sharp. It's on my list again, AND I don't need any new additions to my list. You are soooooo bad-lol....Tell me the skinny on it again please. You know what I like.............Maryl

I have narrowed my purple list down to 10 from 18....lol. I won't be able to post until I figure out which five I would bring with me if I ever had to move. You were right NancyG! And by the way, you guys aren't helping with my purple addiction with all these beauties!

Maryl - It was cool when Razor Sharp bloomed this year, so it didn't get the high temperature test. Last year it didn't bloom until late August and September. I can't remember whether it faded then or not. A Nicole DeVito daylily, it had 16-18 buds per scape last year. This year only 8 or 9 and the scapes were short.

Debra

Thank You Debra...Maryl

This (and, secondly, the whites) is what I've been waiting for. I am in awe; no possible way to choose favorites here; I'll just sit back and enjoy - and dream...

Alex

It took me all weekend to whittle my list of favorite purples down. I could list over 20 that I love dearly. These are the ones I can't ever live without, ever.

JERRY HYATT

OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE

RUNNER-ups are:

purple NOID (which many here say is TOOTH)

Bela Lugosi

Cameroons

Ledgewood's Silver Lining

Celeste - Your purple are all gorgeous! I added Olly Olly Oxen Free this spring but wasn't here when it bloomed. I look forward to seeing it next year. Claudine's Charm is a charmer indeed. I grew it for seven years in a pot before it died one bad winter. I replaced it this summer. I'm glad to see those two would make your top 5 because you have so many nice purples.

akopp - Bela Lugosi is a wonderful purple. Mine is growing in too much shade now to do well. I love your Ledgewood's Silver Lining.

Debra

Celeste, your purples are beautiful as always. I can see how hard it would be to try to narrow your numbers down. If purple gave me that kind of color, I would not have so many yellow!!! I am not posting mine because they pale in comparison. :) But there are some other lovelies on here from others that really stand out, too-love many of them and they actually look purple in some of the photos! And I do love the edges so many of them have.

Kate

Great selection of purples everyone. I can't begin to pick favorites; I'd have to name too many!

I like that Violet Becomes you. Pretty. I grew Jay Farquarh and Laura Harwood, but neither one liked me so I gifted them on. Our summers are just so hard on purples..... I had a new one bloom today. New to me anyway. It's not a true test of how it will survive as it's only 85 out, but boy am I a happy camper with it right now. Will see what it does next year in 100 degree heat.

STORM PRINCE - FFO

Dragon Fang and Storm Prince are looking good!

Was away for a few days so some catching up is in order.

Sherry

Sherry - OK, that does it. Next year I have got to find and buy Indian Giver!

Alex

Sherry your noid looks alot like Siloam Plum Tree

Thanks, Debbie, I will have to do some research on SPT!

Alex, it's a great purple here and should be easy to find.

Debbie, I think Siloam Plum Tree is a match! I know it's an oldie, the stats all match. I like it because it's colorfast here and the scapes are always a good distance above the foliage, I noticed the scape height in the pictures looks like what I see here. Thanks!

Sherry

Sherry,

Does your NOID occasionally rebloom. I grow SPT and it will rebloom for me in my Zone 5 garden.

Here are my top 5 purples:

IMPERIAL DECREE: Fantastic sunfast purple. Many buds and even sent up a couple of rebloom scapes.

MARY'S BABY: Also fantastic. The picture does not capture the richness of its color.

TAKE MY BREATH AWAY received it as a wrong plant. Starts off splotchy, but that soon clears up. Has never hung up.

29 Flags Over Conway: Not the best picture, Big and flat with a patterned eye. I love this one.

JERRY HYATT: Unusual and fantastic performer.

VOODOO DANCER: I can't keep enough of this in the garden. Everyone who sees it wants it.

There are many more purples that I like, but I limited my list to 6. Others worth mentioning are PURPLE STARFISH, SILOAM SAMBO, BARNEY, and NIGHT SHIFT.

David

David, great purples. The first 2 are my favorites.

David, no rebloom on my newly identified SPT. rebloom on any is rare here

Sherry

Sherry My SPT never rebloomed here either.

So many great purples, hard to choose a favorite!

NIGHT OF KNIGHTS - new this summer.

PLUMTOPIA - received as a bonus plant last fall. Bloomed well this summer.

CLAUDINE's CHARM - added summer 2016. One of my favorites.

Lori

Lori - You got lucky getting Plumtopia as a bonus. What a great purple!

I suspect I'm being a little strict on my interpretation of color here. I've seen photos of pinks and purples here that I would classify as Rose. Maybe time for me to loosen up a bit : )

Sherry

Sherry, I'm the same way. When I get a daylily, I will see what the official color is, but don't necessarily go by that. It is not just a daylily in a different area [like Celeste's purples, for example] but on the official AHS site there will be a photo submitted by the hybridizer along with their description, and they don't match at all.

Sherri and Brad - Most purples photographed in the sun show the red in them. My photos are taken in the early morning shade when the light reflects less red. There are very few true purples. Most are actually maroon or burgundy. Also, many newer cameras photograph purples more blue than they should be.

Debra

I agree Debra, there are no true purples most likely because there are no blue in the genetics to make purple. I'm not even quite sure how they are as purple as they are without blue.

I love all of the pinks and purples I've seen here, just wish I was thinking the same way everyone else was ; )

Sherry