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Judi and I have been married for almost 17 years, and I have two sons from a previous marriage. Ryan will be 26 and Grant 22 next month. Judi, Ryan and I work at Samford University, near Birmingham, Alabama, USA; and Grant is a senior student there. Near a major interstate highway, a short three-mile drive through rolling hills can take you to our subdivision home and Shantih Daylily Gardens. Situated on a sloping standard sized lot, the gardens are home to an AHS Display Garden and the shipping headquarters for official AHS Display Garden signs, as we are members of that National Committee. Besides growing a good number of different registered daylily hybrids in front and side display gardens, we maintain a back 'yard' filled with several tiered beds devoted to growing and evaluating seedlings that they have hybridized. A meandering creek divides the seedling beds from wildflowers, azaleas and dogwoods planted among massive boulders. Some of the more recent plants in the display gardens are: VANILLA LACE, QUEEN'S CIRCLE, STORM SHADOWS, MARILYN THORTON, MARY'S BABY, GINNY MITCHELL, SHANTIH, ALEXANDER HAY, CROWNED HEADS, EXPRESS YOURSELF, HOMEPLACE CHERRYFACE, CHERRY VALENTINE and RANDY RANDALL. Aussie plants to be added this spring include JULIE BANKS and ALLISON JANE. Scattered among them are some of my introductions: MARLA CORTS, TOWARD THE BLUE, NEW ORLEANS DARLING, NEW ORLEANS LADY, DEA, and LONGSHOT, 2004 Sally Lake Bed winner. Judi's very diminutive TEE TINY THIBODAUX has found a place of honor near the top of the driveway. I got started hybridizing about 11 years ago not long after joining the AHS and its associated e-mail robin when the late Bill Watson offered to send me a few seeds he had left over from a cross he had made of SABRA SELENA X CLASSIC DELIGHT. There were 12 seeds and I soaked them and then planted them in a little Burpee's greenhouse like planter and put it on the south window sill. They sprouted and with seeming innocence, my affliction and the seedlings took root then. Since then, I have registered 24 hybrids and Judi had her first one this year. There are several more waiting in the stable. Some of our seedlings from this summer can be seen at: http://www.mindspring.com/~seedlings/2005_Seedlings/ We have presented our 'Beating the Bees' PowerPoint program on backyard hybridizing to nine clubs in four different states, and are scheduled for the Mid-Winter Symposium in Chattanooga in February 2006. An avid amateur photographer, I share photos of flowers, birds and other wildlife with distribution lists of many hundreds of subscribers several times a week, when they are in season. If you would like to be added to either the 'flowers' or the 'birds' list, just send an e-mail to aucoin@mindspring.com telling me which one or both you would like. This is a favorite quote that sums up my enjoyment of the hybridizing process from the planning of crosses, to making the crosses, collecting the seeds, cataloging the seeds, planting the seeds, transplanting the seeds, and seeing the seedlings bloom. 'The whole difference between construction and creation is this; that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.' - Charles Dickens (1812-1870, British Novelist) Shantih Daylily Gardens may be viewed online at: http://www.shantihgardens.com/ |