Clay Higgins

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In addition to being avid gardeners, Fran and I are crazy about daffodils. We garden outside the I-495 beltway that circles the metro Washington DC area in the town of Gaithersburg, Maryland; red clay soil, zone 6b. We have untold thousands of daffodils planted in our gardens.

As for me, I graduated from Boston University, Operations Management (industrial engineer) and graduate degree from Northeastern University in the Sociology of Criminal Justice, both in Boston, Massachusetts. I've held a number of professional positions from a senior field-grade military officer to a manager of projects for a major multi-national engineering firm. I have writtten a number of published books, articles and stories. However gardening is where I have the most years of experience. I have gardened since I was a toddler helping my mother pull weeds from the vegetable garden down on the family farm (Arkansas).

We moved to our new home in the late fall of 1999 and have spent a lot of time and money trying to convert 3 + acres of hard packed clay soil that was formerly pastureland, now grown over with weeds and brush, into garden. We've discovered that the only way you can do that is the hard way, from soil improvement to land clearing. Top soil has to be hauled in, as there is none here. To create our daffodil beds we had to first clear brush and weeds, and add copius amounts of topsoil to amend the soil. The task at hand is a big one that we approached as a long range project to be completed somewhere in the "not-so-near" future.

Our Aprils are taken in a frenzy of daffodil showing. On an average, we exhibit in six shows a year during that short one month. We are very proud of winning the American Daffodil National Show's 1999 Gold Medal for the Carey Quinn Award, in Pittsburgh, PA. That award consists of a collection of the best 24 standard daffodils exhibited, and is Daffodil's most difficult quest. Also, we have won at least one "Best in Show" each year since 1996, including 2001.

To put food on the table, I am a Project Manager in the intranet world. For fun, I work in my gardens, which are much more than just daffodils.

My interests other than daffodils are our beach cottage on the outer banks, OBX in North Carolina, writing (five published books), and puttering around in my gardens. I spend a lot of time in the gardens, as I prefer them to the indoors. (Even in the winter.)