I am interested in getting a list of the most fragrant daylilies that grow in your gardens. I know that they don't have a strong fragrance, but I happened to be at my mother-in-laws home over the weekend and walked by a clump of MONSTER and was caught off guard by its fragrance. I had to check it out and got closer and sure enough, MONSTER had a strong fragrance. I wound up with pollen on the tip of my nose. I managed to get a piece of it from her. I would like to add more with a strong fragrance in one area of my garden. I am sure that there are many factors which affect the strength of fragrance (humidity, the breeze, etc...), but I am interested in adding the strongest fragrant daylilies. I will have to check the AHS website, as they used to give an award for the most fragrant daylilies.

David

OSTERIZED, at least in the evening (I don't recall off hand earlier in the day)
SEARS TOWER
EARLY SHIFT (out of OSTERIZED)
LEAN GREEN FRAGRANCE MACHINE

Oh gosh, I wish I had written down the ones that I could really smell this year. Does it seem like yellow daylilies have a tendency to be fragrant as opposed to other colors?

Maybe someone can confirm, but I just got Hudson Valley last year, and this year when it bloomed I thought it had a nice fragrance. However, it is not registered as fragrant.


The other one that I think smells like honeysuckle is Spanish Fandango.


Fragrant daylilies is in my list of desirable traits, so I am very interested in seeing what others have to say. This doesn't help in your search for fragrant daylilies, but here is a picture of one area of my garden that has a mix of seedlings and named cultivars in it. When I walk by, it smells so good and I believe it is mostly the seedlings from a cross of Emerald Toucanet x Malachite Sunbird on the left side of the picture that are fragrant.

I think back in the day when the AHS had a fragrance award, Hudson Valley was one of the winners. There are four Hudson Valleys here and I love them. Naturally, when there is a mass planting, there is a better chance of detecting fragrance. Also, Hyperion and Lexington are very fragrant. I do have Spanish Fandango, but the poor plant seems to be so damaged by moles every year, there is no chance to determine fragrance, for we only get a few blooms and they are on very short scapes. Oh, yes, our mass planting of Northfield is definitely fragrant and so is Miss Amelia. Must not forget the Imperial Lemon three plant row, definitely fragrant. Notice these are all shades of yellow.


Lexington


Spanish Fandango


Hudson Valley


Southside Yellow Border--Hyperion, Lexington, and NOID fragrant small flowered yellow.


Imperial Lemon


Northfield--as a poly which it does very often.

I would agree that yellow daylilies tend to be more fragrant but I have few pinks like and spiders of various shades that are fragrant also.
I had one daylily in the garden this year that did not have a pleasant fragrance at all and reminded me of moth balls. I even called my wife over to give it a whiff and for some reason I can not remember the name of that daylily. I wish I would have wrote the name down or something but you know how busy it is during hybridizing season. Has anyone else ever noticed a funky smelling daylily in the garden or am I the only one with daylilies that smell like moth balls?

I have some fragrant daylilies. I'll try to post them later. I wanted to try to note this year which ones had fragrance but with all the rain I was wearing so much insect repellent that I just couldn't smell anything but that!

Just wanted to add that some cultivars give off scent at different times of the day. Some of my daylilies are more fragrant in the morning and others have no scent at all until later in the day.

I haven't come across any daylilies that I thought smelled bad. I have come across some horrible smelling peonies though.

I have an iris that smelled like sugared cat-box...

now that's bad Diana

Diana! I don't even know what 'sugared cat-box' would smell like, but I can guess... and it ain't sweet!

It's bad... Starts out sweet, but wow... the ending... *gag*
Nice looking iris too...
Closest to what it looks like in my garden

Olfactory Evidence, fragrant and very late - has always been the last or one of the last two to start blooming in my garden each year.

Precious Beginnings is VERY fragrant, and smells similar to gardenia. I keep this one for that reason.

Looking back over my notes from last year I have a lot of daylilies that I marked as fragrant. I'm guessing most I had to really stick my nose in to smell anything.

The most fragrant were Ebony Circle and Gold Helmet.

Others listed as fragrant were:
Alice Faye
Becky Lynn
Boagie
Bridgeton Eyecatcher
Buffy
Center Event
Doc Branch
Double Gardenia
Double Sunset Glow
Easter Pastel
Empress of China
Forsyth White Clouds
Fruit Loops
Glittering Gown
Gordon Biggs
Gossamer Parasol
Griffin Miller
House of Orange
Jim's Pick
Jo Barbre
Passion for Red
Pearl Hammond
Petticoat Leader
Quit Fussing
Raspberry Bouquet
Roman Cohort
Sanibel Coral
Shaka Zulu
Siloam Mama

I had several others listed as slightly fragrant.

I'm hoping for a good bloom season this year so hopefully I'll be able to double check. But it is true in my garden that you have to check at different times of the day to be able to say for sure. And hot, humid still days are best.

I will have to check out Shaka Zulu this year. I have not noticed a fragrance on it before.