I thought I would continue blogging about some of my favorite daylilies, and today I thought I would write about Steve Moldovan, my friend and his namesake daylily. When you think of purple daylilies, you think of Steve Moldovan. Steve's purples are in a class all to themselves. Of all of Steve's purples, some of my favorites include Ron Valente, Seraglio, Mahdi, Imperial Wizard, Vatican City, and Strutters Ball just to name a few. His purples all had Steve's trademark great branching and bud count. Today I'm going to talk about his namesake daylily, Steve Moldovan. The cross that produced Steve's namesake daylily is (Seraglio X (Sahib X Tie and tails). To paraphrase Roy Woodhall's description, it says that this was a culmination of 3 of his major purple and red lines. Steve noted this cultivar as being "the future of his purple breeding," and marked it with five stars on the tag! Roy was nice enough to let me have some pollen from seedling S919-01 the summer that Steve passed away. Being a rookie hybridizer I just took it to all my purple daylilies at the time. I wasn't thinking outside of the box when I made those crosses, but in spite of it I had some success, and one of my 2012 intros is from the daylily, Steve Moldovan, which I named Henry Egert. Back at Moldovan gardens I was fortunate to walk the seedling fields with Roy Woodhall the following years, and it would seem that the daylily Steve Moldovan wasn't just a wonderful purple parent, but it is also an excellent breeder for patterns. I like to think that I'm starting to think a little outside of the box with my crosses today and I hope to see some exciting things in the future. I'm going to attach my best photograph, which shows the pattern that appears in the eyezone area. I have really enjoyed growing this grand purple daylily and if you get a chance to buy a fan, don't hesitate to do so. It has 36 inch scapes, with 6 inch flowers, and 4 way branching. It is a great northern daylily which has increased well for me these past 3 years.
