It amazes me because when I first started in daylilies, hybridizers would sometimes see these what we call "broken colors" in their seedling beds. They were considered an aberration , ugly, undesirable, etc. and yanked out and put in the compost pile. Who knew people would pay big bucks for them years later?
For years, I was stuck on the fact that a very well known hybridizer (who was one of a small group hybridizing for smalls and minis back in the day ) bred for height , and it was her top requirement before the plants made it to the next level. She wanted them "in proportion" to the blooms. Seedlings considered too tall were quickly yanked out and tossed BEFORE they even bloomed. Once, a mutual friend was visiting when this hybridizer was selecting, and he brought car full of her rejected seedlings home. I just couldn't get past the fact that someone would reject a seedling before it bloomed! This was a grower who had a large program and could afford to be this selective. Still, this sort of blew my mind.
You just never know! You go, Rich! he put a picture of this on FB recently.
