Back in the 90's I had a pretty good business selling Stella De Oro daylily and had developed contracts for Happy Returns and was building up some other daylilies. Then daylily rust entered the US and so went the daylily business. I looked at a number of different plants to grow and hybridize along with the lilies I already had. Dianthus was the big winner, but I also had good success with Hosta and variegated Aquilegia.

I now have a good supply of Orienpet lilies build up and will start offering them for sale in fall 2008. I also have about a half dozen of my own Asiatic hybrids that I am propagating for introduction and a number of others that are being evaluated. I have 3-4 Hosta seedlings that I have started to propagate and a few others that need more evaluation. The nicest surprise has been some variegated Aquilegia. I managed to get about a dozen variegated Aquilegia that are not only vigorous growers, but have bold variegation that appears to be stable. I've been amazed at the success I've had with Dianthus. So far I only have one plant that I am considering for introduction but quite a few that look real promising - look for some really interesting Dianthus hybrids in future years.

Starting with this seed list I will be cutting back on seed sales but will continue to offer a selection of lily seeds and a few daylily seeds. I didn't produce much in the way of lily seeds for sale this year as I was concentrating on making test crosses for next years crosses and for producing seedlings for evaluating for introductions. I want to test grow all the crosses I offer for sale to make sure they grow well enough before they are offered for sale. I plan to concentrate on quality crosses for hybridizing. If you are interested in trying to grow lilies from seeds you will find a number of crosses on sale that will provide you with the experience of growing lilies from seeds before you try some of the more expensive crosses.

Besides the lilies, hostas and Aquilegia I've been propagating a number of other plants and will start offering plants and bulbs of lilies, Hosta, Aquilegia, Allium, Dianthus and some other odds and ends I have, both for landscaping and hybridizing. I'm looking at adding a nice selection of shade plants. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has some ideas about what they would like to see in quality shade plants. I'm not interested in selling the common stuff that is already easily available. I would be interested in trading seeds, bulbs and plants for any seeds and plants of really interesting shade plants.

I'm offering some additional services that may be of interest to lily hybridizers and maybe other hybridizers. If you are hybridizing lilies and need a serious and honest evaluation of seedlings you are thinking about introducing I will evaluate seedlings for a small fee, depending on what you want and will consider custom propagating or paying a royalty on superior seedlings that meet my standards.