Deryll,
A lot of people agree with your view that five daylilies for $100 is a better investment than one daylily for $100 (or, for that matter, $250). After all, daylilies always decrease in value. For people who take a pragmatic view of growing daylilies, there are a number of online retailers who serve the $10 daylily market. But that's not the market Curt serves. There are legitimate business reasons for someone like Curt to abstain from the $10 daylily market. First, it's time consuming. Cataloging, weeding, digging, and shipping daylilies takes the same amount of time whether the daylilies sell for $5 or $150. Second, if you're marketing a premium product, whether it's a $2,000 purse, a $100,000 car, or a $250 daylily, you don't want your "premium" product associated with cheaper, less exclusive goods, like $10 seedling rejects. Third, hybridizers are focused on the future, not the past, and $10 daylilies, no matter how beautiful, are typically not on the cutting edge. I'm not suggesting that Curt has the best business model, or even the right business model, only that there are plausible reasons for him to try to maintain higher prices on his newer intros, while composting his rejects.
