Hello there, Sherry. You don't have to go for the pricey ones to have some beauties. Look at Marietta Gardens, CT Daylilies, Blueridge Daylilies, Maryotts. Paul Owens Slightly Different Nursery also has general cultivars that are reasonable. They all have some very expensive intros, but look at the general cultivars, and you will find reasonable prices too. And they all send nice bonus plants.
The Lily Auction has a section for $7 and under. Some of the ones there were very pricy at one time, and now are not since they aren't new, but they are just as pretty as ever. Don't give up, you can expand without spending a fortune.

kay

Sherry
I just looked on the auction, and Selman of Blueridge has a lot of "instant buy" in the 7-20 category. If you want to take a look at them, he has always been generous with bonus plants. And he is not a southern grower, so his should do okay for you.
kay

Desperado is a great one, and it puts on a great late clump show for most of us who have it. There are lots of truly fantastic daylilies out there for $5-20. Only the most insane of us will spend $250 on a daylily. I will tell your from experience that most of those pricey new intros never live up to the hype. But a daylily that is still being sold 10-20 years after its intro is one that performs.

Debra

Listen to Debra. She's got it nailed. I was surprised when I first started out that years after the initial price tag of a new introduction I'd see someone's recent picture of it and in many cases things that had wow'd me in the hybridizers picture were minimal or nonexistant. And of course the big disappointment was watching them bleach out and/or melt out by coming home from work time. All that for $200.00. I think not..... Your picture of Desparado is a good one btw, and I hope you will be happy with it.....Maryl

Very very nice

Dave