Ultra Modern Daylilies

[Michelle]

[Michelle]

I like the last one they are very pretty

[Michelle]

Here Here I agree Cheers

[Michelle]

[Michelle]

[Volfie]

I actually like the daylillies but for $200 they better come into my house, clean it, mop the floors and do windows.

Giselle (I like the daylillies I dig up free in the ditches)

[paghat]

I felt the same way about the Grant Mitchell daffodil catalog. I mean, is there even a slightly lowered chance of getting some variety that tips over if you pay a fortune for one bulb? Not bloody likely. Are these pricy bulbs REALLY two-hundred times more beautiful than affordable daffodils? If they were we'd go blind at the very sight of 'em. If I was rich instead of poor would I not think twice about the price? I'd hope if I was in a money-blowing mood I'd think more about the needy (I mean, for the price of one bulb for my selfish self, I could buy a couple dozen really nice big perennials to give to destitute gardeners).

-paghat the ratgirl

[Ann]

Cheryl Isaak expounded:

That is a sweet one! I want veitchii. I had it, and lost it this past winter.....and had paid $45 for it (ouch!)

[Warren]

Personally, I like to get a lot for my money. My friends aren't impressed by expensive varieties, and people driving by can't tell from the street, so what would be the purpose?

But I probably have some stuff in my beds that at one time would have been outlandishly expensive. It's the same as the DVD player I own. I paid a couple hundred for it, but at one time, people paid a couple thousands for a DVD player, even though there weren't many DVD's to play in it. Their money helped pay the R&D costs of the new product, eventually allowing DVD players to almost become a commodity, and thus subject to price competition.

The people paying $200 a bulb are paying for the time spent developing them. As time goes on, the price will go down as new customers are needed. Eventually the R&D costs will be paid for, and the price will drop sharply. And someday we may be buying these bulbs by the bagful, and not put a significant dent in our wallets.

So we can look at this as a tree, and say that we, ourselves, would never dream of paying that kind of money, or we can look at the forest, and understand that it's not such an outlandish thing for single bulbs to cost that much.

(BTW... It's a good thing so many of us are shocked by these prices, and would never dream of paying them. It's important to have a few people in the world who will, but if there are too many of them, the price will never come down.)

[Cheryl Isaak]

Ouch! I did lose stuff this winter, only one of them a pricy ($20) daylily.

Cheryl

[Wil]

Wil

[Cheryl Isaak]

Well said.

I sell daylilies from my garden to word of mouth customers (friends of friends, typically) - very few things for more than $10 for a triple fan for a newer intro.

I refuse to buy anything that is a first year intro that is more than $50; sometimes even I just HAVE TO have it.

Cheryl

[Wil]

Oh don't i know that "have to have" feeling. In my breeding program I buy ones I once thought were so out of reach for me. The turn over the first few years of the expensive ones are to other growers/hybridizers looking for a bargain price for a new daylily. The hybridizer keeps his price higher than I do for many years after I am trying to sell the increase that is too much for my garden space. :-)

I am about to intro a few new varieties. I am wrestling with what to charge for a single fan of the new cultivars. I agree many of the new things are way over priced, mostly by the top hybridizers located in Florida, Texas and the Carolinas. I am way up north where many of the new southern intros just are not hardy for me the first year or so. They may survive but perform here like a wal mart tissue culture [laughing].

There is a mindset among the buyers of new intros that if one charges too little for the new daylily it must be third rate. Far from it. I would love to get plugged into the backyard hybridizers whose work is under rated because they are new to daylily breeding. A few well known hybridizers get all the attention, but many are producing lousy cultivars for northern growers. Don't get me wrong, they sure have a pretty face but there are problems with hardiness, flower opening, color saturation or foliage that gets raggy mid season. In early summer we still may have 60 degree nights. That can make a beauty look ugly real fast.

Wil

[Cheryl Isaak]

I have a few times - once for support a buddy who was just starting to release to the public and it is still doing great things for me. And another was only $35 and had "personality".

Do you need a test site? :) Do post your website or send me some pictures!

One of the formerly local hybridizers from my local club would go down to Florida and buy the unregistered siblings (same cross) of the keepers and so called bridge plants (used to hopefully pass on certain qualities).

BTW - where are you! Cheryl

[Andrew Ostrander]

From a local magazine, Manitoba Gardener, Summer 2004, p. 28:

...a new introduction by daylily hybridizer Ted Petit - recently sold for whopping $6,000 at a Canadian Hemerocallis Society auction in Niagara Falls to Dr. Larry Gooden and his wife Pat Keisel. Obviously thrilled with the plant, the couple promptly named it "Larry's Obsession".

The photo show a beautiful flower, purple with white ruffled edge.

Andrew

[Cheryl Isaak]

Oh yes - I have seen "naming rights" go for obscene amounts of money. Those funds tend to go to clubs not the hybridizer. Cheryl

[Doug Kanter]

That has got to be the stupidest $6000 investment I've ever heard of. I know some chumps who still think they're going to retire on the massive fortunes they'll make when they sell their Beanie Baby collections, but even that doesn't come close.

mostrosities

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[Cheryl Isaak]

It was naming rights and a charitable contribution. Cheryl

[Wil]

One small correction. It was not "sold" for $6,000. They buyer only gets to name the daylily. My opinion is that Ted Petit should "give" a fan of that cultivar to the winner who will name it. The in question by Ted Petit is a trend setter. It is a near black [probably a very dark red or grape] with a white toothy edge. The tooth edge looks something like the old pinking scissors cut. Teeth are a new trend in daylilies. Everyone is trying to get a toothed edge that will be reliable and will show itself in all weather conditions. Since I am a cold climate grower I know the frustrations of buying a toothy edged daylily that shows its edge under the hot sun of Florida but rarely shows up here, even in the best of weather. Time and experience with that cultivar will tell if the edge will show up in every climate.

Wil

[Cheryl Isaak]

I've had the pleasure of meeting Ted Petit several times and hoisting a few beers with him. I suspect Ted gave the winner several fans.

If you are looking for teeth Wil, have you seen Rogue from Melanie Mason? Cheryl