Last July Ange and I had the opportunity to visit Karol Emmerich's Springwood Gardens, just outside of Minneapolis. For those of you who don't live in the daylily world, Karol is a cutting-edge, world-renowned daylily hybridizer who recently won the prestigious 2018 Stout Silver Medal Award for her cultivar "Entwined in the Vine."

Upon arrival my head was on a swivel, not knowing which direction to look first. The daylilies were just three days past peak so there was riotous bloom everywhere. Karol's gardens are definitely an adrenaline rush for anyone who loves daylilies. The gardens are so tastefully designed with numerous walkways to enjoy the never ending daylilies, companion plants, landscaping, and scenic vistas. Although my photos convey the beautiful scenery and flowers, they cannot begin to recreate the true scope and feeling of what you experience in real life.

Karol was a very gracious host and we were fortunate to be the only visitors on the day we came. It was interesting to learn about the rigorous process of culling 'good' plants and growing on only the 'great' plants that adhere to her high set of standards. She keeps sections of first year, second year and third year seedlings to evaluate. Plants that successfully make it through third year evaluation continue to be grown in clumps to see how they fare over the test of time. Of the thousands of seedlings Karol grows, only a select few make it to the finish line for registration each year.

Of course I had to purchase a memento of my visit. A division of "Deliverer" (pictured below) is now happily planted in my garden. And finally, you have to appreciate how memorable this visit was, when as we were leaving, Ange (who is not the flower child in this family) exclaimed, "Wow! I'm glad we came here. This was really something to see!" I think his statement says it all.

Be sure to check out Springwood Gardens' website:  www.springwoodgardens.com
My photos are only a teaser compared to what you can find here. Learn about the dream that started Springwood Gardens, the historic house and property, the huge renovation, building the gardens and greenhouse, and you can check out all of Karol's gorgeous daylily introductions and seedlings that may be future introductions. Your wish list will grow larger--guaranteed. I know mine did!

Photos below: The registered daylilies have names by their photos. The ones without names are either seedlings, or I did not take note of their name. 

Where do I start? Maybe with died-and-gone-to-daylily-heaven? I spent Saturday with my friend Roger walking one of his seedling fields. This particular field had between 8,000 and 10,000 daylily seedlings. (And yes, you read those numbers correctly.) It was nothing short of amazing! In addition to his magnificent home garden, Roger also keeps two large seedling fields, each in a different location, on extra acreage that friends let him plant on. They, of course, get the added benefit of a beautiful landscape full of flowers.

Roger is an American Hemerocallis Society (AHS) certified daylily garden judge. When he hybridizes, he aims for specific outcomes when making a cross. He keeps in mind parent genetics, bloom color, pattern, size, and substance, branching, bud count, foliage, scape strength, and many other specifics that determine what a good cross may be. Green eyes are one of his favorite bloom traits that he often hybridizes for.

Our main task was to methodically go through the garden and choose the seedlings that we thought showed the most promise. We also tagged some 'put in the compost pile' seedlings. He appreciates other people's opinions, because with 10,000 seedlings it's very easy to overlook a plant or two. And as daylily aficionados, we all like and value something different.

It was a daunting task at first, but for each seedling that caught my eye, I asked myself, 'Does this plant have the wow factor for the characteristics I value?' Everything I loved got tied with pink vinyl tape that had my initials on it. And believe me, there was no shortage of pink tape being used. Here are photos of *just a few* of the seedlings I loved. I stand by all of my choices and I would totally bring any one of these babies home to grow in a heartbeat.

We also did a little bit of pollen-dabbing with some bloom pollen from my garden. It was fun determining which plants to make the crosses with. If only the units on genetics and plant biology were this much fun in school I would have paid more attention.