It only seemed fitting for me to follow up a blog entry about Curt Hanson's daylilies with one about Steve Moldovan and Roy Woodhall's daylilies. Before I get started with Steve's and Roy's daylilies, let me say that Curt Hanson's 2013 introductions are up on his website. Check them out, they are fantastic.
Before I begin, the photos at the top of the page are of Roy Woodhall in the seedling field that has Steve Moldovan's last seedlings growing. What a magnificent seedling field it is. The photo right below it is of Bill Chambers planting a daylily with Dan Robarts and Dan's wife looking on. (Photo courtesy of Dan Robarts, thanks for sharing Dan.)
Where do I start with Steve Moldavan and Roy Woodhall's daylilies? It's where it all started for me. It's where it all started for many of us. How many of us who hybridize were just blown away walking around Moldovan gardens for the first time? Quite a few of us. So many great memories of talking about daylilies out at the guest house out back....why even this past season there was a group of folks who came out and helped Roy clean up some weeds (I showed up late, but put my weedwhipper to good use after the others left.) and how much fun it was to get to know some new friends like John Hric and Dan Robarts.
Special thanks must go to Wayne Listowski for organizing the get together and helping out Roy with everyday tasks around the garden. For those of you who didn't have the pleasure of knowing Steve Moldovan, who unfortunately passed away in July of 2006, then the next best thing is listening to Roy Woodhall talk about what Steve tried to teach me and many others about daylily hybridizing. Steve was big on the daylily plant habit as well as having a nice flower. Bud count, branching, and the daylily had to be able to thrive without being sprayed with pesticides and pumped up with fertilizers. The other thing that I remember Steve talking about is whether a daylily could survive in our climate. I remember him pointing out some southern daylilies that were just too tender to survive, and those would usually get discarded. There weren't a lot, but there were a few. Steve would always tell you his opinion of a daylily, he never held back. I kind of liked his honesty. It was refreshing.
This past summer I enjoyed listening to Roy tell me about how patterns and eyes were interchangeable
When I thought about hybridizing patterns, I always just thought about crossing a pattern with another pattern, but this made me think twice about which direction I would go in. To sum it up, I wouldn't be where I am today without the teachings of Roy and Steve. Next week I'm going to feature one of Steve's cool introductions Gaudeamus and post a few pics of seedlings I have gotten from it. Hope you enjoyed this weeks pictures. The seedling photograph at the bottom is one of Steve Moldovan's seedlings from last years photographs. Hope you folks had a nice week. Happy St. Patrick's day!
