Due to a recent post by Kenny Shively asking for a description of one of his seedlings blooms, https://garden.org/thread/view...
I realized that the subject of bloom descriptions might need to be posted separately.
I have so much trouble with the descriptions of blooms, and reading some of them on the AHS site a lot of hybridizers do also.
So if anyone other than me finds the subject interesting I am posting this as a place to list questions about bloom descriptions. This is not to make fun of the descriptions listed for registered plants but to help educate us all on how better to describe our blooms.
The AHS does put out a lot of info about bloom forms,shapes, definitions of throats, eyes, bands, edges, etc. but I think a lot more needs to be done in those areas, and I would love to see a chart made up of the most common colors found in daylily blooms. Any artists out there or people with a keen eye for color willing to make a stab at a list of say the top 20 colors found in daylilies? That would be great!!!!..in my opinion.
Here is an example of a description:
"Color: Dark pink with small violet pink band under yellow to green throat, light midribs on petals and sepals."
So this to me brings into question, should we base our descriptions of blooms going from the center of the bloom outward, or toward the edge of the bloom going inward. It just threw me in the above description of a band being "under" a throat.
I have like a million other questions, but hope others will post first to see if there is any interest in such a thread.

It is a fascinating area. But I hope the rules are not so stringent, and allow for leeway in descriptions. One person's hot pink might be another person's magenta. Plus we all know how colors change with temperatures.

I have to say, I generally never access the "official" information on daylilies anyhow as the hybridizer website descriptions are usually much more informed. Under exceptional circumstances I do take a peep.

Such as when a posted photo does not match the description as with this one:


The description calls it red, fitting the photo. But then later on calls it rose-red. All the photos on our database go with the latter pinkier description.
Turns out the official info also goes with that rose-red, too:


So, the official photo is garbage, but the official textual description is correct. While the sellers initial description is way off "GOOD LUCK gets its name from the fortunate circumstance of color shifting into red from two non-red parents..."
Just as an FYI, here is the color in our database:

Color is such an ephemeral thing which depends as much on climate, and soil as time of day. I found this out when I was a Rosarian. Purple roses for me were always maroon, not purple. There was even a polite discussion about some people needing to visit their local Optometrists (all in fun of course). In the end it turns out that all the factors I mentioned above did mean that purple roses do indeed exist - in some regions....For me that purple problem has translated over into daylilies. Again, very few daylilies have exhibited a purple shade for me. Most are on the maroon side. Having learned about color perception from my roses, I know it's no easy task to describe universally what a given color may be in the flower kingdom. This is why adding pictures to the data base at all stages of bloom is such a good thing, not just the daybreak glamour shots. Those may include when the colors fade or change during the day.............Maryl

I do think that "color" will be the hardest part of being able to provide consensus descriptions. I did find this fairly simple color chart which will be about all the colors I will ever be able to describe. I admit to even being slightly color blind, so true color is illusive. But at least maybe with the aide of such a chart I won't be limited to just
basic color wheel colors in my descriptions.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals...

I like your color chart, but their sample of chocolate (and I know it too well) is not what I think of as I finish my Milky Way-lol......I've bought several types of color wheels and looked at paint charts etc. and still it's hard for me sometimes. At least you have given us something else to guide us........Maryl

Lavender in the chart actually looks white to me, need a better chart.
I think I like this chart better:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals...

the "lavender" appears white on my phone in the 1st chart. for finding these descriptives.

I found out recently that the colors I see on my laptop are different to my desktop computer. The desktop has more powerful backlighting and so the colors are way more intense. So, even for the same person using different gadgets I would describe colors differently.

Now I worry about photos I have posted on the database. No idea what other people are seeing

I have sympathy for the hybridizer in Larry's example of the picture not matching the description. I've uploaded multiple pictures to this database where the colors on the site look nothing like what I uploaded. Typically the colors are much more muted and shifted darker. It doesn't happen every time so I'm not sure what causes it. All I can do is upload a different picture and hope that the color is correct for that one.

@bxncbx,
I was actually just referring to the use of the words in the description 'band UNDER the yellow to green throat. It was the only description I had ever seen that did not use the descriptive words such as "at the top of the throat", or "above the throat".
But I do agree with what you say about colors.

I am using a laptop to look at the first chart of colours. With the display of my laptop in its normal upright position I see practically no difference in the different whites. Only the last four whites at the bottom of the list look different. In the yellows only the first and the last two look different. I asked my wife what she saw and she agreed.

Then I tilted the screen back to about a 30 degree angle. No one would ever use the laptop with the screen in that position, I think. With the screen tilted back the different colours in the whites and the yellows appeared. That suggests that not only does the monitor change colours but the lighting in the room changes the colours.

Great test, Maurice.

Most paint companies have large intense lists of very tiny gradations of color, all named. Obviously Daylilies don't participate in every color range but I bet you could pull some really creative ones from there.

For years, I have asked visitors what color they would call specific seedlings with varying answers for the same flower. I've come to the conclusion that men and women see color differently with men favoring magenta and women favoring rose! And color descriptions sometimes depends on whether they have had cataracts removed or not. It isn't just monitors that affects color perception.

So, I downloaded a free app called What a Color, that enables you to analyze any photo in your library, more or less pixel by pixel, with a matching paint color that they will help you buy. Many of the names are silly but there are literally hundreds of color names per photograph. It would be easy to pick out a few useful ones to use in a description.

For instance, I analyzed Vampire Slayer and got something like this from this photo.


Tangerine throat, blending out to saffron, with a light coral watermark. Petals are a blend of light coral and raspberry. Prominent teeth on the edge are a peachy yellow with ivory tips.

DaviJK said: For years, I have asked visitors what color they would call specific seedlings with varying answers for the same flower. I've come to the conclusion that men and women see color differently with men favoring magenta and women favoring rose! And color descriptions sometimes depends on whether they have had cataracts removed or not. It isn't just monitors that affects color perception.

Oh thank God! I thought it was just me.

I have a freind and his wife both tell me green traffic lights are blue. Not to me. Look green to me. Year's ago I realized I saw color differently, and just kind of accepted it. And it's probably pretty common that there are different views of colors, depening on whose eyes are looking. I have a shirt that is teal blue to me, and people tell me they like my green shirt all the time. To the point where it's my go-to shirt to wear on St. Patrick's Day.

Most of us started with the same box of eight extra thick crayons, but I think the deeper we go into the box of 64, the more we see those colors differently.

And I definitely like magenta more than rose. It's my new hot color that I seem to be adding and crossing more than any other right now.

for the , Larry! I really think if you are color name challenged, an approach like using an app can really help.

OK, Mr. Lyshack….I can tolerate your calling my ROSE seedlings MAGENTA….but seriously, if you call any of my seedlings MAROON, heads are gonna roll.

Well first, if this is rose:
Rambunctious Rosie


Then this isn't rose, I think, unless rose is just a catch all. So maybe it's not magenta, but I truly don't know what it is. I don't even understand why toner comes in magenta instead of red. Why did we need that confustion?
Steve's Magic x Grand Daddy


Off topic... This one bloomed again today. So while I have your attention, I feel the need to say thanks once again, for those great late seeds.
Sdlg 17-52 (Curts Gift x Farm Girls) x Grand Daddy

Actually, I don't know what color that is either, so I'm back on topic. No wonder I never register seedlings. I can't even explain the color. I'm pretty sure it's not pale maroon.