It prob. comes from growing roses and orchids for years, but every time I see a broken random streak or splotch (as opposed to a striped flower) I think "infected with virus". In tulips too -- the broken patterning that brought on the collapse of "tulipmania" market in the mid-1600s was caused by a virus, one that weakens the plant. The virus is easily spread. The viruses that cause this patterning live in the plant's tissues, and so is in all divisions of the plant, weakening it over time until it slowly succumbs.
How sure are we that the blotching we are seeing in daylilies is purely genetic and not viral?
Or even trickier, what if some of the patterning we are seeing is genetic (Purple Leopard looks genetic to me for some reason) and some is viral (Pitter Patter, Wacky Wednesday) ?
Has anyone ever done the ELISA test (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) on their broken patterned daylilies to find out?
It has me wondering what we would find!
