David Kirchhoff and Mort Morss
Mort Morss, Barbara Mandrell, and David Kirchhoff (Left to right)
I was trying to remember the first time I met David Kirchhoff and Mort Morss. It was probably back in the early 2000's, down at the original Daylily World location in Sanford, Florida. David would come up to visit my neighbor, Curt Hanson every summer, so I got to know him better during that time. I love red tetraploid daylilies, so I would pick David's brain about hybridizing them every chance I got. David has always been very nice to me, so I wanted to share some more about their history with the help of my friend, and David's friend, Mary Baker. Here's is a couple paragraphs from a nice piece Mary wrote in the AHS Winter Journal, 2005: (with permission from Mary)
HOW IT ALL BEGAN (Written by Mary Baker)
David's mother, the late Mary Helen Kirchhoff, told him his first word was "flower." From birth until he left home, never a week passed by when there weren't a dozen fresh gladioulus diplayed somewhere in the house. The horticultural influence originated with David's father, Edward's paternal family, although Mary Helen loved and appreciated daylilies and other flowers due to her maternal family's farming background
In 1890, David's great-grandfather William Kirchhoff, who was an engineer in Germany, immigrated to the United States. William and his family settled in Pembroke, New York, where they had greenhouses and sold cut flowers. William's son, William Kirchhoff Jr., became a gladiolus grower, supplying "Gladiolus of Unusual Merit" to wholesale markets throughout the United States. David's father Edward operated the gladiolus business together with William Jr. Their many farms encompassed Fort Meyers, Bradenton, and several hundred acres in the Sanford area. In addition to Florida, their farms stretched north to Foley, Alabama; Driver, Virginia; and Pembrooke, New York.
Edward and William Jr. grew gladiolus as well as continually experimenting in other cut flower sidelines, such as strawflowers, statice, Bells of Ireland, and gypsophila. David's great Aunt Ella Lee Kirchhoff, who was one of the first women at Cornell University in horticulture, taught David how to propagate everything from azaleas to ficus and hibiscus. The family branched into these other areas while continuing to ship hundreds of thousands of glads from Florida, New York, Alabama, and Virginia.
DAVID'S JOURNEY
One of the gladiolus farms consisted of the old Boley estate, which encompassed 20 acres and had previously been a packing house. In 1952, Edward decided to relocate the gladioulus growing operation from the old Boley estate, and David and his sister Valerie Kirchhoff Barnett into the house, where David currently resides. (Written when David resided at Daylily World in Sanford, Florida)
David attended the University of Montavallo (Alabama College), where he majored in music. During a stint with the Navy, David performed as a musician. From 1964, David lived in San Francisco, where he worked in the retail music industry and met Mort Morss. In 1969, David moved back to Florida, where Mort later joined him. Interestingly, although the gardening bug originated in David's father Edward's family, it was Mary Helen who first began to dabble with daylily hybridizing. When David was in high school, he and his mother experimented with hybridizing. Edward became interested as a result and subsequently began to hybridize daylilies during the late 1960's.
Some facts from David Kirchhoff himself: David's first cross was in 1958(though it could have been in 1956) David Kirchhoff has registered a little over 700 daylilies, (soon to be updated in the AHS site) and Mort Morss has registered 280. David Kirchhoff's first introduction was Jean Wooten in 1976.
David Kirchhoff speaking at the Region 10 convention in Lexington, Kentucky in 2014.(Picture by Susan Okranski)
Now here are some pictures of Daylily World when it was down in Sanford, Florida:
David and Mort moved their daylily program in 2007.
And now here are some pictures of the present location of Daylily World in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.
Daylily World pictures by Jacob Henry.
Daylily World (Photo by Paul K. Lewis)2008
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| David Kirchhoff and Jacob Henry, June 2018 |
David, Mort, and friends.
The first daylily catalog I got from Daylily World was in 1997, and featured the daylily, Fortunes Dearest (Morss) on the cover. It was one of the earlier toothy daylilies that is probably in the parentage of many of today's modern day purple toothies.
