Just curious, to me if I like the plant and it does great in the garden. I am ok without knowing. What is your opinion?

I agree if you like the bloom and the plant does great in the garden, I too am okay with that.

If you are using it in a hybridizing program, then it's helpful to back track into its pedigree. I'm just a "backyard" hybridizer doing it for fun. To me it's more exciting to anticipate what the bloom will look like if you know the parents.

Sue, I also make crosses that I keep up with both parents but I also have some bee pods that make nice plants too.
I have noticed that some of the big hybridizers also have a few unknown x unknown. Is this the same as a seedling x unknown? I thought you would know the pod parent.

For the longest time after I started growing daylilies, it never occurred to me to check the parents of any of the plants I had. Heck, I was just thrilled to be able to ID the plant. If I already have a named daylily that performs well, not knowing the parents does not bother me in the least. If I have a seedling that I do not know the parents of (I have lots of them due to critters digging up plants and tags) it annoys me to no end. I almost feel the seedling is not worth fooling with if I don't know the parents.
Now if I am ordering a new plant, I much prefer to know both parents, and it will sometimes make or break the order. But some plants are so coveted for their particular traits, I would not let not knowing the parentage interfere with the order.

Larry, my son is also making crosses and he does a much better job of record keeping than I do. I just get dab happy sometimes and put pollen on my favs without tagging.
I do look at stats when ordering or purchasing dls. Parents are not a deal breaker for me. I look for awards, height and bud counts lately.

Parentage doesn't really matter to me even though I hybridize. I have lots of older plants where the parents aren't listed but I still use them in my program because they do well in my garden. I'm far more concerned about where geographically a plant comes from. I have seedlings from plants that were hybridized in the South (and died quickly in my yard) that do just fine in my garden because only their hardy offspring survive in my area. I may still buy a southern hybridized plant to get the genetics but I will make sure to set as many pods on it as possible and use a ton of the pollen in crosses because I know it most likely won't bloom and/or survive more than a year or two.

For me, it adds tremendously to the excitement, anticipation, and over all satisfaction. So, it's well worth the effort.

Mary, I do like to keep records of my newest plant crosses. Yes, it is exciting to think about the possibilities. I just like to make a lot of seeds.

I am in zone 6 but still have problems with some Evergreens being very vigorous. I have been adding several of Carol Emmerich plants.

Looking at parentage is just fun for me. For instance look at the Keith Keppel iris Baltimore and look at its parents. This is one of the things I appreciate on NGA.

I have tried ones before that didn't do well for me, and if I see those as parents, I won't order the offspring.

I dont generally buy new daylilies and generally prefer to breed as its fairly easy, so lineage is important when buying in estimating how fixed certain traits are.

Hello, I am glad that you posted too, Protoavis. What type of daylilies are you working with?

Nothing too exciting, just descendants of older tet types like Francis of Assisi and Betty Warren Woods. I dont really like the newer types with the frilly/tooth borders. New Paradigm was added into the mix due to reported fragrance but I dont detect any from it.

Did pick up some diploid species that are reportedly fragrant but awaiting blooms, if no scent they'll be passed on. If scented will likely work with those and pick up some diploids to expand colour range.

Fragrance is the main thing at the moment since it reportedly exists in the genus but Ive yet to smell any of it.

@Protoavis if you are trying to tell if a daylily is fragrant you have to try smelling the blooms at different times. I have some that are only fragrant when the bloom first opens, others by mid-morning, some pretty much all day long and others that only have scent in the late afternoon/evening. I have some seedlings I swore were unscented (from a very fragrant parent) but I typically only smelled them early in the morning or early in the evening. When I was able to give them a sniff at other times I found them to be fragrant. Most you have to stick your nose way in to smell them. I only have a couple that you can smell from a few feet away and then only on hot, humid days.

I could seldom ever smell the daylilies, but by planting Gardenias in the daylily beds it seems like they are all fragrant.

Many of the species daylilies are fragrant. I have some fragrant daylilies that you can smell walking the beds, but you will have to sniff out which ones. I grow all types of diploids and have a couple of rows of species crosses. They are still blooming now when most are done.

I like knowing the parents and I do research plants where data is available. I try to keep track of my crosses but don't always get it done. I don't always have time to tag all the flowers before having to leave for work. Sometimes I make notes to tag when I get off work, but there are always ones missed or tags dropped. I make some unusual crosses where you cannot determine parents by looking at the bloom.
Some hybridizers don't keep track of parents and even say it is not worth the efforts. I don't keep track for anyone other than myself. I like to be sure of at least some of the results. I have made crosses where I was confident I would make something, but nothing special resulted. Then I have made crosses for experiment where every seedling was nice.
Also, it is good to know the parents to help make hybridizing decisions. There can always be some trait hiding that may lead you to a certain cross just by knowing the genetics. We made so many seeds this year that if we plant them, there will be lots just marked seedling x seedling. I did not take the time to check all the tags in the ground at seed harvest.
Until we started hybridizing, we had very few to re-bloom. Now we get quite a few seedlings to re-bloom. If I had not marked my crosses, I may not realize that I have 2 seedling lines that re-bloom at a high percentage.

I love fragrant daylilies!! An old one,Jersey Spider is reblooming and it is very fragrant. What are some that you grow?

Teresa there is a definite psychological difference in my mind when the cross is properly tagged. There are lots that I know that was pollinated by me, but it doesn't carry the same weight.

Mike, I guess what I like is, if a plant does well in my garden, it doesn't matter what the parents might have been. I have so many that do pretty poorly and the parents are listed

Teresa plants are like kids. You can't always have the perfect plant