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I found a brochure about Emily's Garden when I was in Florida at the American Hemerocallis Society Convention. While the apricot and pink colors are what I specialize in, my husband has a propensity to select red daylilies. It wasn't exactly the color of Emily's lilies that caught my eye, but the names were so unusual that I had to call this lady and find out the story about how she created the names for her new lilies. About Emily She has been married to Bob Olson (an Engineer) for 20 years. Bob is her chief seedling-bed refurbisher and is a native of upstate New York -- around Rochester. Emily has been hybridizing since the 70's. Her first success was named VELVET BEADS. It appeared on the Daylily Journal cover in November of 1995. When she first saw VELVET BEADS bloom, its beauty overwhelmed her. It is the convergence of her three dormant red-tet breeding lines. It grows well in Zone 4, Zone 9 and performs even better farther south, which is unusual for a dormant. Her mother, Eloise Vail Pitkin, was her inspiration for the daylily named GRAM'S DREAM in 1995. It seems her mother had a propensity for the toothy barbs. A cross of GRAM'S DREAM with a dormant red just gave its last bloom on Christmas Day. It was in the seventies here in Zone 9. She has three children, but only her son John, of Bridgeton, N. J,. is in daylilies. It seems that she got serious about daylilies when he divided some of his plants with Emily during his college years. This was also the time that she was an AHS Award and Honor Garden judge. Her earlier friends started the Rochester Area Daylily Society with Dick Bennett, Region 4 RVP as a most generous and kind supporter. The daylily, DICK BENNETT in 1995 was named after him. It has a light edged and ruffled border and rose red coloring. It is a favorite in Oregon. Angels in the Garden Since there seemed to be edges everywhere in the daylily "patch," and time was short with the heat in Zone 9, she realized she could use extra help. Both she and her husband had heard a talk by a Presbyterian minister who had a Ph.D. in "Angels." He was explaining God's creative powers in very technical program, which was over our heads. He personally believes that there is an angel for every flower. In short, she decided to pray and ask the Lord, if it was His will, to put her in touch with the "Angel of Hemerocallis." Now, she prays for the inspirational names for her new Daylilies.
The copyright of the article Emily's Daylily Garden in Daylilies is owned by Ellen Roddy. Permission to republish Emily's Daylily Garden in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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