'Rita Sue' meet 'Rita'. 'Rita' meet 'Rita Sue'.

'Rita Sue' (Smith-HR, 2006) Photo by Rita Sue Buehner

'Rita' (Russell, 1949) Photo by Rita Sue Adkins

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'Painted Lady' (Russell, 1942) Stout Silver Medal - 1950

Hugh Russell - hybridizer

So ... this story is less about daylilies than about who you meet because of daylilies. My name is Rita Sue. A few weeks ago, a Rita Sue from Kentucky phoned me to ask about a 'Rita Sue' daylily listed on the Rita Bees website.  After talking about lots of things, we ended up with an interstate trade deal better than any you'd read about in the Wall Street Journal. In exchange for 'Rita Sue' and a few others, she'd send me 'Rita' and a few others. Coincidence #1 and #2 - we're both named Rita Sue and both are from the rolling hills of Kentucky.  

Coincidence #3 is that when I was making a label for 'Rita' I found it was registered by Russell in 1949, my birth year. (Hold onto that hybridizer named Russell - that's Coincidence #5.)

​#4 is that last week I answered a phone call, again not knowing who it was. I RARELY DO THAT! Angie S. was calling about daylilies and we too talked about a lot of things including her uncle, Hugh Russell, a hybridizer from the mid-20th century. He owned 30 acres of daylilies and in 1950 received the second Stout Silver Medal ever awarded for 'Painted Lady'. (Everyone knows the Stout Silver Medal is THE highest award in daylily-dom.) Here comes Coincidence #5 - Hugh Russell was the hybridizer of 'Rita'!  

Long story not-so-short, I am so pleased that I wasn't too busy to answer the phone those two days or I would've missed many of these opportunities to know interesting people ... through daylilies.

Moral #1:  Stop and smell the daylilies!

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Oh! That may be my next blog ... fragrant daylilies. Fast forward. I don't know enough to justify an entire blog devoted to fragrant daylilies. So I'll add it here. Some are very fragrant. A customer recently bought out my entire stock of 'Magic Amethyst' because she once walked by a large bed of it and was so struck by its fragrance that she promised herself she'd build her own garden of just 'Magic Amethyst'.  My regret is ... I don't have any to build MY own bed of it. Sigh. (I'll keep an eye out for it.)

Moral #2:  Keep better inventory!

Magic Amethyst

Magic Amethyst (Stamile, 1996) - height 27 inches (69 cm), bloom 5.5 inches (14 cm), season EM, Rebloom, Dormant, Tetraploid, Very Fragrant,  Amethyst lavender blend with green throat. (Druid's Chant × Big Blue) Awards: HM 2002; JC 1997