Maurice, everything you say is very true for a test of 'equal variability' among seedlings, yet I still think it is somewhat reasonable to wonder about the general results and tendencies.
I cannot control all factors, but I hope to plant some of my A x B and B x A crosses in the garden beds I have at some point in the future and simply see if there is a strong favoring toward plant characteristics of one parent or the other based on pre-determined attributes (Height of foliage, branch count, etc...)
It might not be possible to account for all variables, but if there is a strong enough leaning toward one or the other in the seedlings then it might make it worth ensuring that I don't even bother with pod parents that have poor plant habits. ...Before you argue that I should already have this philosophy, though, please note that some of my plants were purchased before I had established exactly which plant characteristics I thought were most important
and some were purchased because they had other great traits that I hoped to cross with cultivars that had better plant habits.
I feel like it should be easy enough for one of the databases (AHS, ATP, PlantStep, etc...) to compile data on scape height, branching, etc...and use that to determine the liklihood of certain traits being passed down from one parent or the other, but this would only be partially useful because not all seedlings are recorded/measured and many times the taller plants are favored and the results would be skewed toward the taller daylily parents.
Anyway, though, I feel like this would make a good, informal experiment in my own garden and I'm curious to see what the result is should I pursue it myself.
