I'm really curious as to why those of you who hybridize, decided to give it a try. Was there one particular daylily that made you want to give it a try? Was it just a love of the flower and you wanted to experiment? Had you gotten bored and needed a new obsession?
For me, it was the fact that I had a bunch of ditch lilies and thought there must be something else out there that was more interesting. Not that they aren't interesting, but I had so many of them, and had seen others while driving around. Most of those were Stella D'oro, but there was also an occasional red or tall yellow one that caught my eye. I also had (still have!) some beautiful pale yellow ones, but I never really paid much attention to them. They filled a nice spot in the flower bed, and got along well with the other plants, but I never really appreciated them like I do now.
One day I decided that I actually loved daylilies, thanks to the pale yellow one that I have, and I needed more in other colors. Really, it hit me like a ton of bricks! I went from them being okay, to needing to fill my yard with them! I went online and did a Google search for daylilies. Lot and lots of pages listed them, which surprised me! The first site I visited was that of James Gossard. Well, after about 3 seconds, I was drooling, and I was hooked! I had NO idea that there was so many amazing daylilies!
I scrolled down the list of names on his site, and the name Blue Beetle caught my eye. I clicked on the link, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing! Seriously! I just about fell off of my chair!
I spent at least 2 hours on his site, just looking at pictures, and was amazed at what I was seeing! I had never seen such beautiful flowers - ever! The next thing I knew, I was running to every nursery in the area, searching for daylilies to use for hybridizing!
I spent the next two weeks looking at many of the other sites, with all those other amazing daylilies on them! I couldn't sleep because I had daylilies running through my head! It was awful, and wonderful, all rolled into one!
My obsession is all because of Blue Beetle, which I don't even own! I still visit the Heavenly Gardens site from time to time, just to look at Blue Beetle.
