Day Lily Day

I have been growing daylilies for more than 30 years. Owning a small daylily nursery back in the hills of Western Massachusetts for ten years. I began importing daylilies to the UK 12 years ago when it became clear that together with my English wife, Marie, we would be moving our lives to the UK to be closer to her parents and when it became obvious from holiday visits to nurseries and garden centers here in the UK that the Daylily was an underappreciated perennial performer in this country. My father-in-law, an excellent gardener , tended my swelling collection of American hybrid daylilies until we moved to Shropshire seven years ago.

Daylilies are year in and year out the best selling perennial in America and I was curious as to why on this island of such passionate gardeners, they were not more popular for the few varieties I did find available here were hybrids from 30-40 years ago. I wondered if the weather conditions were not conducive to the boisterous performance for which the daylilies are famous in the US. But I have discovered that daylilies easily flourish here and can bring a vast range of colour, blooming periods, heights and shapes to enliven beloved gardens in the UK. All my daylilies are field grown at my walled garden nursery in Shropshire. For the past six years I have been giving Daylily presentations to garden groups throughout the West Midlands

Daylilies are "tough as old boots", require a minimum of maintenance and provide an arresting array of colours to choose from. They are called the "Poor Man's Orchid" and the "Perfect Perennial" in the US and have demonstrated the dependable ability to succeed in English gardens. An English friend has described me as a Daylily Missionary for I believe daylilies are long overdue to be discovered and embraced by the devoted gardeners in this country.