Your Garden: Daylily didn't meet expectations
Dear Roger: I bought one of your registered daylilies from Lowe's. I had seen it in your garden about five years ago but couldn't afford the $85 price you had on it. So I found it at Lowe's two springs ago for $18.99 and bought it.
The problem is the plant does not look at all like it did in your garden. I have enclosed a photo. Is this the correct plant? It's the right color but not as bright. And the ruffling I liked so much is completely absent. The flower count seems much lower than it should be and the flower stalks are much shorter. I am growing this with plenty of water and fertilizer and the plant looks very healthy.
Your opinion would be much appreciated.- Joan
Dear Joan: Your growing abilities are not the problem. I have been hearing an increasing number of similar complaints in recent years about daylilies that don't look right. "That isn't the daylily I paid for," is the usual complaint. And the complaints are completely justified.
The plant you have, while it was produced from mine, is not genetically identical to mine.
How could that happen? Chances are, the plant you bought is tissue-cultured. This is a process by which daylilies are sliced into thousands of tiny pieces, and the pieces are grown in test tubes. This allows a grower to produce thousands of daylilies from a single original plant or two. This helps meet the incredible demand for increasingly fantastical-looking newer daylilies. There is a problem, however.
Daylilies are extremely variable when tissue cultured, however. Daylily breeding is highly complex and most tetraploid daylilies are first-or second-generation offspring of clonal conversions, meaning they may not be genetically consistent and may contain chimeric material of variable genetics.
The technique works well with orchids and hostas, which are easily sorted and variant forms discarded. Hostas don't seem to be exceedingly variable when tissue cultured. So not many discards are required.
Daylilies produced from tiny bits of such variable material will have differences in appearance ranging from small and subtle to great and startling. Most daylilies sold in chain stores are tissue-cultured and so are greatly variable. It is best to buy such daylilies only when they are in bloom so that you'll know what the flower will look like. Just because it has the same name as its parent doesn't mean it will be identical to its parent when tissue cultured.
It would be nice if all daylily sellers listed tissue-cultured material as such. But many sellers, such as chain store outlets, may not know what tissue culture is. It would also be nice if people asked the breeder's permission to tissue culture his plants. That will never happen. Daylily breeders almost never patent or even trademark their daylilies. So we have no residual rights to control how our varieties are increased or sold.
If you will arrange to come by my garden, I will be glad to replace the daylily you have with one that will be true to appearance and growth habit because it has not been tissue cultured.
I should also point out that some of the best, most successful daylily breeders tissue culture their own cultivars. However, such breeders carefully check each plant for conformity to the qualities of the original. They rigorously discard all plants that differ from the original in any apparent way. So, when you buy from the breeder, or from daylily growers who buy only from breeders, you are assured of getting the correct plant, unless there has been a labeling mistake, of course.
The problem is the plant does not look at all like it did in your garden. I have enclosed a photo. Is this the correct plant? It's the right color but not as bright. And the ruffling I liked so much is completely absent. The flower count seems much lower than it should be and the flower stalks are much shorter. I am growing this with plenty of water and fertilizer and the plant looks very healthy.
Your opinion would be much appreciated.- Joan
Dear Joan: Your growing abilities are not the problem. I have been hearing an increasing number of similar complaints in recent years about daylilies that don't look right. "That isn't the daylily I paid for," is the usual complaint. And the complaints are completely justified.
The plant you have, while it was produced from mine, is not genetically identical to mine.
How could that happen? Chances are, the plant you bought is tissue-cultured. This is a process by which daylilies are sliced into thousands of tiny pieces, and the pieces are grown in test tubes. This allows a grower to produce thousands of daylilies from a single original plant or two. This helps meet the incredible demand for increasingly fantastical-looking newer daylilies. There is a problem, however.
Daylilies are extremely variable when tissue cultured, however. Daylily breeding is highly complex and most tetraploid daylilies are first-or second-generation offspring of clonal conversions, meaning they may not be genetically consistent and may contain chimeric material of variable genetics.
The technique works well with orchids and hostas, which are easily sorted and variant forms discarded. Hostas don't seem to be exceedingly variable when tissue cultured. So not many discards are required.
Daylilies produced from tiny bits of such variable material will have differences in appearance ranging from small and subtle to great and startling. Most daylilies sold in chain stores are tissue-cultured and so are greatly variable. It is best to buy such daylilies only when they are in bloom so that you'll know what the flower will look like. Just because it has the same name as its parent doesn't mean it will be identical to its parent when tissue cultured.
It would be nice if all daylily sellers listed tissue-cultured material as such. But many sellers, such as chain store outlets, may not know what tissue culture is. It would also be nice if people asked the breeder's permission to tissue culture his plants. That will never happen. Daylily breeders almost never patent or even trademark their daylilies. So we have no residual rights to control how our varieties are increased or sold.
If you will arrange to come by my garden, I will be glad to replace the daylily you have with one that will be true to appearance and growth habit because it has not been tissue cultured.
I should also point out that some of the best, most successful daylily breeders tissue culture their own cultivars. However, such breeders carefully check each plant for conformity to the qualities of the original. They rigorously discard all plants that differ from the original in any apparent way. So, when you buy from the breeder, or from daylily growers who buy only from breeders, you are assured of getting the correct plant, unless there has been a labeling mistake, of course.
