I didn't have a mentor. I started seriously gardening in 2004 following Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne. We had damage to our home. Yard was a disaster, too. I was unable to do any repairs indoors, so we had to fight it out with the insurance company while trying to find a contractor/sub-contractors to repair the inside. In frustration, I started working on the outside in the yard. We lost our entire privacy fence, two large Palm trees in our front yard, and the yard had debris all over the place. After a new fence was installed, I realized that the yard was the only place I could fix, so I started several garden beds. Butterfly and Hummingbird garden areas were my first goals. I was hooked after that! The garden areas seem to have expanded year after year since 2004! Most of those first plants came from seed trades from other gardeners from on-line forums! I could get a lot more plants that way and a much greater selection to grow. And so I got hooked on seed sowing ....
As far as Daylilies go .... I'd have to say one of our own here on ATP got me interested in growing them. Sandy (Seedsower) shared some truly wonderful seed crosses with me created by her own hand from her own daylily collection. I found out that daylily seeds germinate and do quite well for me here in FL. She had all these names (parent pod/pollen) on each of the baggies she sent me. I didn't even know daylilies were named!
So I started looking up all the names and photos. I was amazed! Not the usual plain yellow daylilies that I see here in FL. Well even those beautiful photos could NOT compare to the blooms in real life! Even my hubby, who has no interest whatsoever in plants, was quite taken by the blooms. He broke out his his cell phone, took photos, and showed some of the people at work what his wife was growing in our yard!
That's a big step for him as he really has no inclination for plants. So that speaks volumes about those daylily blooms! Sandy's hybrids were breathtaking in both my husband's eyes and in mine. I wanted more! You can never have just a few .... So I started experimenting with hand-pollinating her hybrids to make my own. No turning back from there .... I still only grow hybrids. No named cultivars. For me, it's not so much the name as it is the blooms! They are the perfect plant, IMHO!!!
THANK YOU SANDY!!!!
