So, no takers on the 'Martini's Arruebarrena' daylily name? LOL. This was one of the oddest names I'd seen for a daylily. Some might remember Kevin Walek, who served AHS in many capacities. He was a mentor and friend for years, had encouraged me to become a garden judge, then an instructor, then an Exhibition Judge. We judged on many panels together as well as instructed together in Region 3, and he was a fount of knowledge. So when he became AHS President, he pushed me to become Awards Chair. Just before I became AHS President, Kevin became Registrar for AHS and worked diligently to correct many problems that had plagued registration for years. He subsequently wrote several interesting and informative articles about the history of daylily names that people just raved about. ( articles were in Daylily Journal)
So, knowing Kevin's talent for digging out the history of weird daylily names, when I saw this one, I thought, " He will never figure this crazy name out! ".
First, I photographed this at the Baton Rouge National ( 2011) and saw it in the garden of Ronnie Rossie, the hybridizer. So going through pictures afterwards, I sent Kevin the names and asked if he knew where the name came from. I thought I had him over a barrel, he grew up in NY state. When he emailed me back just a couple of minutes later, I realize I'd severely underestimated him!! Had forgotten that Kevin had a relative ( grandfather) who lived in the LA Cajun country and that he'd spent several summers there as a kid.
So, the response was, " That's easy. Martini's Arruebarrena is the name of a famous high end hair salon in New Orleans." He even named the street. I gave up on trying to fool him!!! Here is Martini's Arruebarrena.'
