The bloom color of a daylily can vary a great deal. The height of the plant may vary from one garden to another. As your seedlings show, the blooms can vary drastically. So when we try to ID a plant, we have to consider all the different variables. I am not saying to base the ID of any plant on any one characteristic. But it would certainly help to be able to add bud traits along with all the other things we consider when trying to ID a plant. I have no knowledge of the reliability of bud traits as far as consistency is concerned, but I have seen no one dispute that Mary Todd has a consistent pattern of having dark tips on the buds. It might be that bud traits are more consistent than bloom color (I don't know). Looking at the buds on daylilies in my garden I see that some have small round looking buds, some have elongated buds, some have color tinted buds, all those things could help in the determination of which daylily it will turn out to be. I assume that being buds are part of nature they will also vary considerably, still I think there can be useable patterns found among them. I am not that familiar the huge number of daylily varieties available, but I am willing to bet there are hybridizers who when walking though a large field of daylilies could spot some buds and Id the plant fairly reliably. Any how, it is just something I find that makes me pay more attention to my plants and I find it interesting. At this moment I am leaning toward my plant not being Mary Todd, but if it ends up with buds with dark tips, I may be changing my mind. Then the next thing I will look for will be the curling back of the sepals. Then the next thing...., I may just buy a Mary Todd and plant next to it. That might take all the fun out of it though.
