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Nature's Edge Daylilies is a hobby garden run by myself, Gayle Story,and my husband Rick. Several of the daylily people have known me in the past as Gayle Menges. We are in Danville, Illinois in Zone 5. Our climate presents some challenges for hybridizing daylilies; there is often droughty weather in the summer with very cold, windy winters with little snow cover. I cannot use much supplemental water as our well will not allow it. This is almost an organic garden as I do not use chemical fertilizer. I want to evaluate new seedlings at their "worst". If the seedlings can't thrive without a lot of help, then the average gardening person won't be successful in growing them. We do not use chemical insecticides. Ocassionally, herbicides such as Treflan or Preen are used when preparing seedling beds for planting (saves the back!)
I have been breeding daylilies for over 20 years, but a divorce and remarriage to my WONDERFUL husband Rick resulted in a couple of moves, fortunately all within 15 miles. In the process, some of my seedlings did not reach bloom size as soon as I would like, so I have used them for breeding without registering them. Most of the genetic material of my selected seedlings are from Salter, Stamile, Trimmer, Lambertson, Kinnebrew, and Carpenter. I was "out of the loop" for several years while putting my son through college and working as a Landscape Designer, since I could not take time off during the growing season to attend conventions and seminars as I once did. My wonderful husband allowed me to retire in 2004 from the landscaping business to concentrate on raising daylilies and taking care of our home and our elderly parents. Hopefully, I will be able to attend more daylily functions in the future!!
My hybridizing focus is on clear blue lavendar diploids, true red sunfast tets, patterned eyes in all ploidys,clear purples, edges, and just good "doers" for the entire country. Many of the daylilies bred from Zone 7 and south, while breathtakingly beautiful, do not perform nearly so well this far north as they do in areas with warmer weather and longer growing seasons. I do not grow many yellow daylilies and no golds as I am short on room. You will also find few UF forms here, although some of the variant forms show up occasionally, mostly in the smaller flowers. The garden is located 30 miles east of Champaign IL (GO ILLINI!), just off I74 and is not hard to find. We love visitors!! Our contact info is :
Rick and Gayle Story
14041 E 2200 N Road
Danville, IL 61834
e-mail: natures_edge@comcast.net
Phone : 217-443-3760 |
