Dave Mussar teeth seedling
I spoke with John Benz today and we talked about the demand for his BLACK HORNS. John sold the “collection only” daylily on Mike Longo’s Lily Auction at a closing price of $780.00. He was very pleased that BLACK HORNS commanded such a price. John stated that he thought it was a record price paid for an introduced daylily on the Lily Auction. I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve used BLACK HORNS for several years. The daylily passes on monster teeth in a narrow form. Other hot items that it also gives up are tall scapes and dormancy. If BLACK HORNS has a weakness, it would only be in my view, color. It has been very difficult to break out of the burnt orange gritty look. However, those hybridizers with line bred purples,oranges and reds or color cleaners probably won’t mind using it as there has been successes with other hard to improve upon daylilies such as BASS GIBSON. A closing “good note” to all hybridizers is that in speaking to many club members over the past year , a percentage of them still like the burnt orange look. So what I may view as bad color others view as desirable color. I guess that is why the saying “Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder” is alive and well.
FYI, our 2012 Riverbend daylily introductions are now online at www.daylily.ws and also Paul Lewis daylilies are now online at www.47daylilies.com
Image provided by Dave Mussar illustrating a daylily that I’d call an “atypical horned daylily” Dave tells me that there isn’t any Tet. Spindazzle in the background. Thanks Dave.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Mike from the Daylily Teeth Blog
© 2011, Mike. All rights reserved. Copyright extended to images.