Believe it or not...I went to an hour long lecture on the hydridization of day lilies. This is an industry in my town. Apparently the day lilies we raise in this area are unique and win contests and are like patented. They are cross breeding them now so they are all kinds of colors and have what I call trendils. It was amazing.
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And anyone who lives downwind of these plots might, just might "get" some new varieties from pollen driven by the wind. Some of the big plant propagators who actually allowed others of that group to tour their places were the kind who went out each morning and I'll swear checked their plants, each one, with a magnifying glass. That's the way they find new ones, and after a few years might make a bundle selling them to WalMart or other big box stores. My FIL "found" one different plant in his plot of thousands of seedlings, (in a windy valley that had thousands of acres of other stone fruits) and I think he got the first patent for a seedling (the S37) every won in the US. It was nematode resistant where all the others around it were more or less sick with curling leaves, etc.
So watch your plants, they might make you a lot of money some day. Go and get that book of Jill Churchill's, Mulch Ado About Nothing, which will give you a very good layman's idea of what this process depends on.