Fifty Years of Growing Daylilies
Bud Bennet

Reprinted with permission from the Daylily Robin
(Part 1)

Bud Bennett - Laytonsville MD zone 6

Yes, it was the spring of 1954 that I planted my first daylily. I had lots of Iris and Daffodils and mums, but no daylilies. I believe that the first ones planted that spring and in '55 were:

• BOUNTIFUL (Cook ' 43),
• CABALLERO (Stout '41),
• CIBOLA (Hill '50),
• GEORGIA (Stout ' 46),
• GLOWING GOLD (Nesmith '40),
• HESPERUS (Sass ' 40),
• JEAN (McDade '43),
• KANAPAHA (Watkins '42),
• MING (Stout '49),
• PATRICA (Stout),
• REVOLUTE (Kraus '48),
• VALIANT (Cook '43),
• MABEL FULLER (Kraus '50),
• NARANJA (Wheeler '48) and
• ABCADA (Culpepper '52).

In 1956 I helped to start the National Capital Daylily Club. And in 1958 I joined the AHS. 1959 saw me as the Bus Chairman for the AHS Convention in Washington, DC. (We had 11 buses!) And it has been all down hill from there.

The first convention that I attended after DC in '59 was

• St. Louis in '68, then
• Atlanta in '70,
• Pittsburgh in '78,
• Birmingham in '83,
• Orlando in '84,
• Atlanta in '86,
• Washington in '87,
• Houston in '88,
• Savannah in '89,
• Philadelphia in 90,
• Pittsburgh in 93,
• Orlando in 94,
• Knoxsville in '95,
• Philadelphia in '00, which most likely my last one.

Back in 1983 I had a daylily visitation trip that lasted nearly two weeks, and with me driving all the way. From Washington, D.C. we went to a regional near Charleston, SC. And from there we went to Sanannah to vist several more gardens. Then on to Jacksonville to visit Ed Brown and Dave Talbot, from there we went to the Munson's. Then we we on to visit Sarah Sikes, but before the visit we had to wash clothes. After Sarah's we went on to the Convention at Birmingham. Going home from the convention was very tiring trip, even with a stop at Iron Gate Gardens. Coming from Birmingham the view of Atlanta in the distance was quite something, but I wasn't able to wake anybody up to see it (Paul Botting and Nancy Keeran).

My wife, Ruth and I have made several more long daylily trips, but we flew part of the way which really helps on the driving and cuts down on the time length. On the trip above, Ruth went to SC. with us and came home with Doris Simpson. (The kids come first).

Back, at the end of WW2 (1946) when I was in the Army Air Corps I was a teletype operator and until the past 2 years I could type quite well. Now my little pinky fingers on both hands are curled under, thus I can only type with 6 fingers. My hands want to use all 10 fingers, so now I need to think each stroke. For a long time I was getting lots of extra zzz and aaaaaaa.

Enough for now,

Bud