Last week we visited Dan Bachman’s hybridizing program in Lebanon, Ohio. This week’s hybridizer is located a short drive away in Dayton, Ohio at Pleasant Valley Gardens, the home of hybridizer Joel Thomas Polston.
Joel Thomas Polston (he prefers “Tom”) started in daylilies much like the rest of us. Looking to fill some empty spots around the yard with color, he purchased a few daylilies. The ‘’yard” is 38 acres purchased in 1996 complete with an 1843 federal style farmhouse, outbuildings and barn. What started as a few daylilies has evolved into one of the premier hybridizing programs for daylilies with teeth earning Tom the nickname “the dentist”. Tom believes you should hybridize what you like while working for good plants, bud count and branching. He starts his seedlings indoors in February then hardens them off outside before planting in April/May. With several thousand new seedlings to plant and care for each year added to the thousands already in the garden, time spent weeding became a concern. The answer was developing a system of drilling holes with a doorknob drill into several layers of black plastic. This method has become a timesaver for other daylily hybridizers as Tom freely shares his creative idea to a centuries old problem of gardeners, weed control. Along with the thousands of seedlings are display beds containing over 2000 registered cultivars and summer pasture for the resident Clydesdales.
Deadliest Catch (Polston 2011)
With names like ‘Deadliest Catch’, ‘Born to Bite’,’ Interview with a Vampire’, ‘Riding a Chainsaw’, ‘Carnivore’ and ‘Swimming with Sharks’ it’s not hard to relate Tom’s main hybridizing goal of daylilies with teeth to his inspiration for names.
Carnivore (Polston 2010)
Interview with a Vampire (Polston 2008)
Riding a Chainsaw (Polston 2009)
Swimming with Sharks (Polston 2009)
Only in daylilies for around 16 years, Tom’s hybridizing is being noticed not only by growers and collectors but by others looking to work with teeth and with the AHS garden judges. As of 2012 his cultivars have received 18 Junior Citations and 5 Honorable Mentions (HM). The first HM’s were in 2010 for ‘Forever Blowing Bubbles’ and ‘Raspberry Goosebumps’.
Forever Blowing Bubbles (Polston 2005)
Raspberry Goosebumps ( Polston 2004)
In 2011 his ‘Bob Faulkner’ received an HM and in 2012 the cultivar’s ‘Interview with a Vampire’ and ‘Lady Stephanie Victoria Redding’ were awarded HM’s.
Bob Faulkner (Polston 2006)
Lady Stephanie Victoria Redding (Polston 2007)
In 2011 Joel Thomas Polston was awarded the AHS Region 2 Howard Hite Award, an award given yearly by Region 2 to a Region 2 hybridizer to honor a hybridizer’s continued efforts to improve daylilies.
While Tom’s main goal is teeth, he also works with sculpted and unusual forms and diploid patterns.
To see more of the daylilies from Pleasant Valley Gardens visit their website at....
http://pleasantvalleygardens.n...
