Saturday, June 27, 2009

Steve Moldovan - Part One

The late Steve Moldovan was one of Ohio's most prolific hybridizers, with nearly 500 introductions over a period of 30 some years. He gardened in northern Ohio and worked with hostas as well as daylilies, though his work in daylilies is much better known. Among other goals, he was trying to create a blue daylily, a quite elusive quest since the gene for blue doesn't exist in daylilies. He came quite close, with almost blue eyezones, but never quite reached his goal.
This first photo is of 'Jade Star' , an older introduction with just a hint of a white edge.
Next is a lovely red, 'Imperial Guard'.


Another older cultivar is 'Gideon'. These are all in the older 'traditional' form which was the norm when I first started collecting daylilies, back when spidery ones and very round 'fat' ones were not consdered pretty or desirable.



This is 'Empress Seal', one of many purples he created. I tend to like his purples and lavenders best of the ones I have.




'Daydreamer' is a lovely peach.





And 'Caviar' is one of his darkest purples.

Part Two tomorrow since I have so many of Steve's daylilies that I like.
I expect peak bloom in our daylily gardens to be starting next weekend and continuing to the weekend after that, so if you were thinking about visiting to see the daylilies, this is the time.
Jane





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