An Interview with Melanie Mason
I heard Melanie give a talk at one of the daylily conventions. It was so informative and full of humor that I knew those of you who read my column would enjoy an interview with her.
Ellen: Did you have a role model such as a grandmother, friend, AHS member, or any other hybridizer? In my case, it was my grandmother and mother.
Melanie:
I came to daylilies in a very round-about way. I always thought I was going to be an artist, and started out as a fine arts major at William and Mary. After a couple studio courses, I realized I just didn't have the talent, so transferred to art history. Ah, but jobs in art history were not to be found in Atlanta, Georgia, so teaching elementary art became my lot for the next three years.
Bob and I lived in Kodiak, Alaska while Bob served his time in the Navy. It was there that I became interested in plants.
Kodiak has a very abreviated growing season; plants have to get up, produce flowers, pollinate and set seed, and do it all ASAP. The variety and beauty of the flowers is beyond compare. Because of the cold weather, the alpines are on a delicate scale, but we had an incredible variety of plants that thrived in that short season.
When we returned to the "lower 48," I briefly worked in the High Museum of Art, but the plant-bug had taken over. I began with vegetables and annuals, but by the time we moved to New York, I was reading everything I could on plants. . I went back to school on Long Island and got a degree in Ornamental Horticulture. From there I began a landscaping company dealing primarily with residential landscapes, but always integrating shrubs, trees, and perennials. I realize now that the main problem I had with my art focus was that I had the wrong medium. I needed to paint with plants.
Here came the "Eureka" moment. I discovered daylilies were the one perennial none of my clients seem to be able to kill, and noticed that someone was selling them out of a field opposite our son's elementary school. Guess who? It was Pat and Grace Stamile! It was all down-hill from there. I acquired eight daylilies for the job and one for me then it was 4 daylilies for the client and four for me. Finally, it was all the daylilies for me and I closed down the landscaping business and went into daylilies full time. By the time we moved to upstate New York, I had over 86 cultivars. I now have over 1000 plus another 6,000
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