A few 2013 seedlings...

Next year I have to remember to get the camera out!  Here are a few of the first bloom seedlings that we have kept over for further evaluation.

 

Some of the parents of our new seedlings...

 

Check out a few of the parents of our 2013 seedling crop.

 

 

We look for great plant habit, vivid, clean colors and beautiful form.

 

 

 

 

 

Fast forward!

The winter of 2011 brought a personal crisis, with my husband Hadley being diagnosed with cancer.  As a result, my blog and daylilies took a back seat.  He is now doing great and I wanted to get back on track with the updates....

We bloomed some exciting crosses this spring and are holding (probably too many!) over for evaluation in Spring 2014.  We will have grand opening celebration and daylily sale in May of 2014 - featuring over 50 named hybrids as well as 1st and 2nd year seedlings....Got to make room for the future releases!!

Getting ready...the summer of 2011

The Grading and fabric is down.  No weeds!

 

Beds are under construction...

 

Day 2 - almost done!

 

Ready for the breeding stock..

 

Our first crop of seedlings...
love these deep planting cells!

 

 

What a difference a few months make!
Fall of 2011

 

A trip to the daylily farm...

To be perfectly honest, it actually all started with a trip to the orchid nursery....  My husband is the owner of Marriott Orchids (www.marriottorchids.com) and has been hybridizing slipper orchids (Paphiopedilums) for over 25 years.  He has known Frank Smith for a number of years and we decided to get in a visit at Frank's place while we were on vacation in Florida this past spring.   While I find the orchids lovely, I have never felt compelled to follow in my husband's footsteps for one simple reason - it takes about 7 years to go from pod to bloom.  I know my limitations - I am just not THAT patient! 

From previous conversations, I knew that Frank also hybridized daylilies and, as an avid gardener, I was looking forward to seeing that side of the business.  I had no idea what I was getting into,,,   While my husband and Frank went off to discuss all things orchid, I was introduced to Pete Harry.  I soon discovered that Pete was the proud new owner of Frank's daylily business.  Meeting Pete was very much like getting back in touch with an old college friend, you just pick up where you left off years earlier.  Although we had never met before, we were both 'plant people' and soon we were chatting like the best of friends.  Over the next 3 hours I learned more about daylilies and daylily hybridizing than I could have ever imagined possible.  There is something more than a bit awe inspiring about seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of these amazingly beautiful flowers that have been created.  They were stunning, and I was hooked.  Not surprisingly, before leaving we had another visit already on the calendar - we would be back in 2 days to pick up plants to take home to North Carolina. 

Our second visit was as inspiring and educational as the first.  My husband even got into the fun and picked out a few daylilies to bring back.  Perhaps the most amusing part of our entire vacation was packing the car before leaving Frank's place.  We had driven our Toyota Prius to Florida to save on gas... (had I known about daylilies before our vacation, the mini van would have been my vehicle of choice).  Somehow we managed to squeeze, tweak and squish seven 3 gallon pots of daylilies (in bloom, of course), two weeks worth of luggage AND our 12 year old son into the Prius for the ride home.  It is a good thing that our son is slender, or he might not have fit!  (I'm sure other daylily folks can appreciate our dilemma!)  I only wish I had taken a picture  - foliage was literally sticking out if the closed doors.

My husband knew we were in deep when I asked if we could stop by the pharmacy before getting on the highway.... Pete had given us a few blooms for pollen and I had to pick up some match boxes to store the pollen in while it was still fresh.  After arriving home, my interest only picked up momentum.  I started to research everything I could find about daylily hybridizing on the internet, I called nationally known hybridizers and asked a myriad of questions and then visited local daylily farms on the weekends.  I spent countless hours (and still do) looking at both new releases and older cultivators, reviewing genealogy and coming up with a list of plants I wanted to start with.  I joined the AHS, and the 'Robin' and then finally decided to take the leap and launch CreativEdge Dayliles.

It is all still very much a work in process.  I continue to be in intensive learning mode - spending 20-30 hours a week on various aspects of daylily care and research.   I learn new things every day and am having a blast!  The daylily community is an incredible group of people and I am excited to be a part of it.  I owe a debt of gratitude to Pete for spending so much time with me on our visit to Florida and for continuing to be a mentor and answer many of the questions that continue to come up as I make my way through this adventure.  The photos above, in the slide show, are all shots my mother took while at Frank's place this past spring...it is easy to see why I was inspired to start hybridizing. 

We are fortunate to have 2 acres of property and have cleared a 30' x 70' area for the first of our raised beds.  These will be our breeder and select seedling beds.  I have over 800 seedlings started and will be potting them out in early 2012 - I am hoping that a number will be large enough to bloom next year.  The keepers will be grown out in our select seedling beds and the others will be sold on the weekends at our local Farmer's Market in Colfax.  I am hoping that we can produce enough from our Farmer's Market sales to break even for the next few years and then we will begin to offer a limited selection of our top hybrids in 3-4 years.

I hope you enjoy our blog and website.  Daylilies are a passion for me and I am excited to share the experience with others!