Regarding hardiness, some years ago I heard about an experience with seedlings of a woody plant (I don't recall the name) that were accidentally left outdoors over a cold Eastern winter. The surprise was that the survivors were the smallest, weakest looking plants; the largest and most robust members of the group perished. Similarly, clones with the most appealing flowers (for us) are often weak growers and a plant that seems to lack vigor may have the best resistance to certain diseases. Variation in hardiness and other attributes can be expected over the geographic range of a species. Edaphic aspects-- individuals in a deep shaded canyon versus a sunny ridge top within a very small area-- and other results of interactions between the organism and its environment can also be significant for horticulture. As we all know, a 'sport' or variant can occur even in a genetically narrow sample that has been cultivated and reproduced from seed for many years: all of a sudden there is a different flower color or dwarf individual, etc. The more growers cultivating a given species from different latitudes or elevations the better, since any one grower is not likely to have a species from more than one or two origins. If those origins are known and passed along, so much the better. Dylan Hannon