Thanks for the kind remarks!
Perhaps he didn't want this publicly mentioned, I hope it's OK. Sadly, his wife Jan developed a progressive, incurable disease and Richard shut down the business to take care of her. She passed away in January. I saw a pic of Richard at one of the winter symposia, I hope that means he is recovering from his grief, which of course goes back to the first diagnosis. She was a sweet lovely person and they always seemed happy together. We were very sad for both of them. π’ I haven't tried calling him yet.
We ordered the daylily Joe Burrow as soon as he announced it. The price was higher than usual but so is the daylily ! And all the proceeds are going to food pantries in the poverty stricken areas where he lives in SE Ohio. Joe is 61" high with an 8" flower of vivid yellow with a red eye. The most amazing aspect to me is that this giant is diploid!
If we ever sell it, we plan to continue practicing donating the proceeds to the food pantries.
We grow almost all the ones Juli
@daylily mentioned in her first post. Each is beautiful and unique. I agree with Rita
@newyorkrita, images don't seem able to capture how lovely Clarification is. It's the purest lavender in our garden. It's better off without yellow bubbly spiky edges. Sometimes the latest trends are not meant to be universal!
As Marilyn
@polymerous noted with some regret, daylilies that don't fit his main objectives sometimes pop up, like the 2 polymerous yellows she showed. If they're good, he introduces them with the intention that others can use them.
Some ambitious hybridizers would take these breaks to start new lines of introductions. They'd aim to have a dozen or more new intros a year in a variety of looks. Richard seems content to pursue his main interests. It's not for lack of good material. He probably could easily find a dozen "good enough" ones every year. But that's not his ambition. He only wants to introduce his best. At his rate so far I doubt he will ever recoup the initial investment but money is clearly not what it's about.
This year I was able to track down a DF of 'Sunshine On My Shoulders' which I was pleased to get. I've never set out to hybridize toward a certain a goal but now I want to breed a yellow tet that will rebloom in 5b, to be named for my daughter. This daylily promises to be the foundation! I trust it will be as good as he described. ππ»
He has been pleased with the awards his daylilies have won but I think he would have continued without recognition because what he creates is deeply satisfying to him. Visiting his garden and being invited to see his latest innovations is like seeing a happy kid! π And the excitement is always well-deserved. We would all be fortunate to find a source of that kind of joy!
Pat
