Hello All,
I'm a very longtime daylily grower and hybridizer. I began helping my father with his daylilies in the early 1970's. He actually began daylily
hybridizing in the early 1950's. He died in 1988. In 1989 my wife and I decided to continue my father's daylilies. It was at that time that I began
daylily hybridizing. I'm currently hybridizing Barth Daylilies for O'Donal's Nursery in Gorham, Maine. O'Donal's is a premier plant nursery in
southern Maine which purchased the rights to Barth Daylilies in 2010. They have an excellent website, including separate links on Barth
Daylilies.
Daylily 'Gones' are both unfortunate and largely preventable. The basic problem is the lack of much responsible quality assurance (QA)
and quality control (QC) in the marketing of daylilies. At O'Donal's all new daylily registrations have undergone a lengthy period of close
observation before registration. A few varieties (continuous and repeat bloomers) have been held for up to three or more years before being
registered!
Unfortunately, far too many daylily growers and hybridizers are quick to rush daylilies with "pretty faces" into commerce. This was NOT the
situation in the early days of daylily development. My father often traded daylilies with other daylily hybridizers and compared notes on
there characteristics and performance. This kind of QA and QC is the exception today.
Nicholas Barth
Newcastle, Maine
