You will find that as new forms arise from the genome in tetraploid daylilies that it does take some time for the form to stabilize. Stabilization seems to be easier in diploids. It is a mystery why something "new" suddenly appears. For instance, many tetraploid doubles first appeared in many gardens all at once from a single bloom x another single bloom cross. And the first tetraploid doubles bloomed double only part of the time. But then it was a straight forward path for hybridizers to take one of these double daylilies and cross it with a double that appeared in another hybridizer's garden or cross it with a converted diploid double which stabilized the form in tetraploids and produced the wonderful 100% tet doubles that we see today.
Hybridizing for polymerous daylilies has been a rockier road for the reasons you mention, Ms. Poly (Yes, I DO tend to give everyone a title....even my daylilies....DOCTOR HANDSOME, MISTER MAYOR, MISS DEMEANOR to name a few!!!
There seems to be not only a genetic component in hybridizing for polys, but also an environmental "trigger" that allows that genetic component to be expressed. So I'm not at all offended when someone tells me that OSTERIZED does not poly for them or polys less than registered as that is a problem that occurred regularly in early polymerous hybridizing and still exists in many registered as polymerous today. The form is still quite unstable but is really improving on the diploid level. The original purchase price on OSTERIZED was $75, which I refunded to someone who said it NEVER polyed. A year later that person sheepishly return the price of the plants saying it was polying like crazy and she would feel really guilty keeping the refund. So originally, I thought that OSTERIZED just needed to be clumped up to do it's poly thing. But that is not the case....there are apparently other factors.
It is a mystery what environmental factors affected the early polys. It has been speculated that it might be a micro-nutrient, the amount of water given, weather, or a combination of things, but there are environmental factors. It leads to a lot of frustration for those working with and registering polys as it increases the number of years that you have to evaluate a seedling dramatically.....the poly buds have to be counted every year for at least 5 years and then averaged....and that gets very tedious. I moved a high percentage poly that I've owned for years to the other side of my yard recently so that I would remember to count those buds and now the dang thing isn't throwing ANY poly buds. There is a Goldner daylily, CARRICK WILDEN, that mysteriously throws a LOT of poly blooms every 3rd year. I had a Goldner seedling at one time that also did that.....lots of poly blooms but only every 3rd year. Why not every year??? What's up with THAT???? There is so much to be learned yet about the nature of polymerous blooms and I am not a scientist who can adequately explain some of things I've noticed.
With the absence of any other tetraploid poly to use at the time, I crossed OSTERIZED with every daylily I was growing and a few tet conversions, such as Tet MOUNTAIN TOP EXPERIENCE that were known to poly occasionally. I did not get any high percentage polys from that effort. But I did find that OSTERIZED increased the size of every bloom I crossed it with and produced the extra large and extra tall unusual forms that I was also aiming at. It gave marvelously strong scapes and passed along its fragrance and a bit of motion to the dozen or so direct introductions that I got from it. IMHO, for a daylily that now sells for $8 to $10, it's worth using in a hybridizing program even if you can't give it ideal conditions, Larry. It passes along a lot of bells and whistles including that early morning opening habit that Ms. Poly likes, fragrance, great substance, and northern hardiness. The blooms on OSTERIZED open sometime during the night and go into their deadhead phase also sometime in the middle of the night (guessing around 3 am) which is becoming quite common in my line. I LIKE having my daylilies wide open and ready for viewing early in the morning and lasting all day rain or shine! Some of the OSTERIZED kids.....MEAN GREEN, CHICKEN DANCE, LEAN GREEN FRAGRANCE MACHINE, EARLY SHIFT, HEROES ON HORSEBACK, REDHEADED HUSSY, POLLY ESTHER, BETTY SPAGHETTI, BOY CRAZY....quite a diversified group. I'm now working with the grandchildren of OSTERIZED, but none of them are high percentage polys. OSTERIZED did tend to give a lot of yellows that were low percentage polys like POLLY ESTHER....I still grow some of those but threw most away.
Hybridizing for tet polys is indeed a very rocky road and I applaud anyone working on it! I may have missed on that high percentage poly tet UF I was dreaming of, but I have a yard full of extra large, extra tall daylilies now that smell wonderful thanks to using OSTERIZED in my early hybridizing career. And if anyone else produces a wonderful tet poly UF, I'll be the first to buy it to cross with the OSTERIZED grandkids!!!
