Welllll....there is an economic benefit to buying an expensive, newer daylily. Many of them (such as the ones on the link above, from Nicole) are in short supply the first few years they are out. The genetics on the new ones are so beautiful and different that hybridizers want them. If you buy a $150 daylily, most hybridizers will send you 2 fans. You can split them, usually, and sell off a single fan for, say, $80-100. Or you can let the daylily grow, and multiply, and sell off divisions. If you cross that daylily with another really good new one, the seeds can be sold for a good bit of change. What i'm saying is, you can make your money back on those expensive ones. They also usually have a higher bud count, meaning more blooms, and most will rebloom unless you live way north with a short season. Creating a new daylily using 2 good new daylily parents is exciting. The new forms are nothing like the old. I don't know of any other plant that has such a wide range of colors, forms, and size. They are incredibly easy to grow, get very few diseases, and they are tolerant of both drought and flooding.
