This week we travel to Jasper, Alabama and the hybridizing programs of Jessie and Terah George.
Jesse and Terah George attended the same high school in Alabama where they dated and later married. After moving to Auburn, Alabama both Jesse and Terah graduated from Auburn University and accepted teaching positions. Terah taught home economics while Jesse taught agri-business and English. Jesse also coached track, basketball, football and baseball and was the principle of an elementary school for several years. They became interested in daylilies while on vacation in 1990 returning home with a carload of daylilies instead of the roses they had intended to purchase.
T & M Garden was started and named after Terah and her mother when they decided to raise daylilies as a hobby. After Terah and her mother became interested in hybridizing Jesse joined in and the garden was renamed JTM Garden. Jesse’s main hybridizing interest was for pinks, unusual forms, spiders and doubles while Jesse chose to work with eyes and edges. They both concentrate on working for large flowers, good plant habits, rebloom and consistency of form. The first introductions were in 2000 when Jesse introduced ‘Mama Mae’ a gold edged pink named for Terah’s mother. Others introduced by Jesse in 2000 were ‘Camera Shy’ an eyed ivory bloom and ‘Coach’s Edge’, ‘Coach’s Fast Break’ and ‘Coach’s Pride’ the beginning of his “Coach’s” series named for his time spent as a sports coach. Terah’s first four introductions also in 2000 were ‘First Horizon’ a burnt sienna double form, ‘Pink and Proud’, ‘Key Lime Special’ and ‘Primetime Red’. With the 2001 introductions Terah started “Smith Lake” series name for her pink lines with ‘Smith Lake Charmer’ and ‘Raspberry Twizzler’ started the “Twizzler” series for the spiders and unusual forms.
With goals focusing not only on beautiful flowers, but also on the plant underneath it was not long before their introductions were noticed by garden judges. Both Jesse and Terah received 2005 Honorable Mentions, Jesse for ‘Coach’s Fast Break’ and Terah for ‘Key Lime Special’. Three other’s from Jesse’s “Coach’s” series have also received Honorable Mentions, ‘Coach’s Pride’ in 2006, ‘ Coach’s Class Act’ in 2007 and ‘Coach’s Winning Edge’ in 2008. Terah’s double forms have been equally recognized with Honorable Mentions for ‘Alabama Wildfire’ in 2008, ‘Double Blue Blood’ in 2009 and ‘Double Dog Dare You’ in 2010. From her unusual form lines both ‘Banana Smoothie’, a beautiful tall, 10” yellow and ‘Loose Reins’ a 9” pink have both received Honorable Mentions.
To find more of the George’s introductions you can do a search of the ATP Database or visit their website.
http://www.jtmgardens.com/
Key Lime Special (George-T 2000)
Coach’s Class Act (George-J 2004)
Double Dog Dare You (George-T 2006)
Banana Smoothie (George-T 2006)
Coach's Bag of Bones (George-J 2007)
