Well, here we are in January and I wake up to temps in the single digits. At least the sun is out today....something you don't see much of in Cleveland, Ohio in January. Anyway, it only seemed fitting to share some pictures of Mike and Sandy Holmes daylily garden after just writing a piece about Jamie Gossard's garden since they are located so close together. I believe both gardens will be on the garden tour for the big conference this summer.
I believe the first time I met Mike and Sandy was at Steve Moldovan's place one summer. Steve and Roy needed help getting a seedling bed dug, and I was wanting to help to gain some experience, while being able to help Steve do some work that was difficult for him. Mike and Sandy were there that day, along with Bill Chambers, another friend of Steve and Roy's. It was a difficult undertaking, but having everyone working together made it a little less taxing. I remember the hardest thing was tearing up the rolls of black weed fabric that had been there for some time. At the end of the day, Steve was nice enough to give me a plant of his great purple, Vatican City in exchange for my work. I thought that was worth every ounce of effort. Going forward in the years to come I would bump into Mike and Sandy at Moldovan's gardens and it was always nice to catch up with them about their hybridizing. I finally had some time this summer to get down to the Columbus, Ohio area and after visiting Jamie Gossard's gardens, I proceeded over to Mike and Sandy's place. Wow, what a cool location for a garden. You can see from the top photograph how beautiful it is. The daylilies you see in the front of the photograph are Banana Smoothie (very tall yellow), and Voracious Vixen. (lavender) I might also mention that you can also see daylilies hybridized by Kimberly McCutcheon there as well. The daylilies I have photographed below are Sandy's introduction, Martha Lowry (top photograph) named for her mother, and the bottom photograph is a Mike Holmes toothy seedling.(bottom photograph) I don't have the information as to who the parents are for the Mike Holmes seedling, because I was taking a ton of photographs of so many nice seedlings in Mike's fields. Perhaps Mike can give us the details in the comment section. Mike and Sandy are a pleasure to talk to and some of the nicest people you will meet in the daylily world. Make sure you stop to see their daylilies this summer if you get the chance. 
