Jumping The Shark¹

by A.W. Shucks, Cornatzer, NC

Gulp! Tastes like chicken!

The term "jumping the shark" was coined by Sean Connolly in Ann Arbor, Michigan back in 1985. For those who get out of the garden now and then to view television, the term was originated to describe a moment — a defining moment in time when you realize that your favorite television show is no longer on the sunny side of life. Specifically, the phrase refers to that moment in a 1977 Happy Days episode when Fonzie, sans motorcycle, jumped a shark while water skiing. Supposedly the show was never the same after that point. Check out the web site at www.jumptheshark.com for more information.

More importantly to us, the web site author says that the phrase can also be used to define moments in other, every day events. For example, I personally feel that pop music "jumped" when Elvis went into the Army. How about political campaigns since the advent of negative TV ads! Do we even have to mention automobile styling and the 1959 Edsel station wagon in the same breath! Could this phrase apply to the daylily, also? That answer lies in the words of two of our Society's most influential hybridizers.

Back in 1934 Dr. A.B. Stout wrote in his classic, Daylilies, "Insect pests and diseases of a serious or even troublesome nature have never been reported for daylilies." He went on to write, "The experience with daylilies wherever they are grown seems to indicate that they possess a freedom from disease and insects that is surpassed by no other garden plant."

Yet, a mere 55 years later, Bill Munson wrote in his book, Hemerocallis — The Daylily, "In the early years, daylilies were what I would describe as plain, but consistent, dependable, and hardy — hardy in the sense of being tough! Over the past 25-30 years, the daylily has become greatly refined and can now certainly be described as unique, beautiful, and varied. But regrettably it is not as dependable as it once was and is indeed beginning to be fraught with infirmities ... We must accept the fact that our plant may be on the verge of being quite sick."

Did Munson overstate the situation in 1989 when he wrote, "I see the increased desire (almost at a frenzy now) to convert the very latest and most exotic diploid regardless of any latent tendencies toward infirmities or lack of stamina." Have things improved since Munson wrote that! Today that remark could arguably be classified as a gross "understatement" — today's feeding frenzy would make a shark blush!

So, what happened in that 55-year span? Obviously something caused, or is causing the daylily to "jump the shark". But, what? In his book, Bill says it was the "advent of daylily shows". That was when emphasis or focus moved from garden effect to beauty at all cost, according to Munson. He wrote, "A plant's ability to grow, increase and sustain itself became of secondary and almost minimal interest."

If you visit the referenced web site, you will notice many opinions as to what constitutes the "jump" point for any given TV show. Clearly there are no "Pat Answers". That would surely suggest that there could also be numerous "jump" points for the daylily other than the advent of beauty pageants, I mean flower shows! Let's look at some potential "jump" points of the past century, consider obvious trends already developing at the turn of the new millennium, and even predict a few that might yet transpire. Thus, we will some day be able to look back and say, "Yeah! That's when the daylily joined the iris, the rose, and the rain forest." However, in closing, I will also take a more positive, proactive approach and suggest some defining moments which just might forestall this worst-case scenario. But first, the potential "jump" points:

1) Barbee Doll Delight (a.k.a. Tit for Tet): The rise of tet conversions in the early 1960's turns the daylily from a soft, graceful, wholesome creature into a gaudy, over-painted — some will say "sexy"— plastic one with big buds.

2) Emmy-phobia: The obsession with awards and the desire to define even more becomes an all-consuming goal, but none are ever proposed for vigor or disease resistance. (Many hybridizers continue to raise a stink over the lack of a fragrance award for evergreen daylilies, but we could stand to have a phew less of those kind!)

3) The Weekendlily: Daylilies are genetically bred, through use of protein synthesis inhibitors, not just for extended bloom life, but to open only on mid-season weekends when judges can best travel and vote on awards.

4) Washed Up: Instead of using seedlings as "works-in-process" until they get them right, hybridizers release them all upon first bloom. We learned this "new and improved" technique by watching soap (but not Safer's) commercials, right! The soap fades our jeans while diluting our genes.

5) Something Fishy Is Going On: Some of those crazy, hybrid goldfish cannot swim upright or even see their own food supply — easy prey for sharks! The analogy to the daylily — it has to do with breeding for immoral porpoises.

6) More or Less: After one too many "dips" in the gene pool, plants become too weak-stemmed to support six or more tepals. Conversion to monoploids becomes a necessity — three-petalled "molytepals" become the "single" daylily of the future. Doubles are then redefined as "two or more blooms open simultaneously, providing neither lies on the ground."

7) Self-less: The concept of a sweeping bed of a single color daylily is viewed as heresy — all daylilies thus become eyed and edged. "Selfs" are bred out of the gene pool.

9) The Magnificent Seven: After-dinner "infomercials" are limited to just seven hybridizers — all future registrations are derived from their plants.

10) The Mickey Mouse Effect: Daylilies eventually will only grow within a 50-mile radius of Disney World.

11) Don't Squeeze the Charmin: Daylily prices go down the toilet with introduction of the Whipple do-it-your-self home tissue-culture kit, which replaces B-A-P paste.

12) Singing The Blues: The first electric-blue daylily is achieved through gene splicing — it is a monoploid which is sterile both ways.

As Bill Munson wrote in 1989, "It is now time to reverse the trend we have seen developing over the years, that of beauty at all costs and health will take care of itself." We have it within our means to counter any "jump" points and I hope we do. Heck! Cars made a comeback after the Edsel (which is now a collector's item)!

Not long ago, an AHS Scientific Committee member reported that a university study on daylily genetics showed a large drop in genetic diversity had already occurred in Dr. Stout's day. Clearly the way to prevent the daylily from "jumping the shark" is to slow the dilution of the gene pool. Here are some thoughts on three potential defining moments which might at least slow the feeding frenzy:

What's In A Name: The International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants authorizes names of unlimited length. Cost of plant markers thus exceeds the value of plants and demand for daylilies subsides.

Hem-squatting: Individuals discover just how lucrative it is to buy up pre-registration names, not unlike the cybersquatting being done with Internet domain names. They also copyright garden prefixes. Thus, hybridizers are forced to pay big royalties to retrieve the rights to the names of their own gardens, grandmothers, wives, and kids, so that they can assign those names to their own plants. Daylilies thus become even more expensive than plant markers. Buyers can afford neither markers nor plants and demand for both plummets.

Bleep!: Daylily names become so offensive under the current, liberal naming rules that everyone boycotts daylily gardening and finds solace in watching reruns of Eddie Murphy's old HBO comedy specials (where they are merely confronted by one offensive word).

¹The term "jump the shark" is copyrighted and trademarked by Jump The Shark, Inc.

—published in the AHS Region 15 Hem-alina, Vol. 31, No. 3, Fall/Winter 2000