How did this get in here?!

Lily of the Nile had previously been exclusively blue at work. Many from undoubtedly several different sources had been added to the landscapes for the past century or so, but, until recently, none were white. Even within a large and likely original colony, where genetic variability is evident among specimens that were added from different sources, or that grew from seed over the years, all bloomed monochromatically blue. I added the first white lily of the Nile only a few years ago. They are a significant herd of the same cultivar that I grew from only seven original pups that I acquired in the early 1990s. They are separate from the other lily of the Nile, in a neat row in front of the White Garden of el Catedral de Santa Clara de Los Gatos. They are not as fancy as they sound of course, and bloom with only a few flowers in the partial shade there, but they were supposedly the only white lily of the Nile. However, I recently found this other white lily of the Nile within the large and very established colony that provided many lily of the Nile for other landscapes. It could have grown from seed, and finally matured enough to bloom. I suspect that it merely reverted, as lily of the Nile sometimes does. I suppose that I should be pleased with it, but I am not so certain. It is almost intrusive, both to the exclusivity of the single white cultivar, and also to the exclusivity of the monochromatically blue colony. I have noticed within other old landscapes that, once one pup blooms white, others can follow its example. The same applies to a pup that blooms blue within a white colony. I may tag this particular pup for removal after bloom.

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