Growing Daylilies Together

We began our love affair with daylilies around 1974 when we saw the hybrids created by Gene Foster and George Rasmussen on Long Island and were inspired to try to create something beautiful too. We resided on Long Island (New York) and taught in public schools. The folks in the Long Island Daylily Society influenced our initial interest by their support and encouragement. In 1991/1992, we left teaching to pursue our love of daylilies full-time and moved to Florida and brought our daylily business with us.  In 2009 we retired and are planning to relocate our personal garden and hybridizing programs.

For almost 30 years we owned and ran Floyd Cove Nursery, http://www.floydcove.com and http://www.distinctly.on.ca/stamile. They still carry our most recent introductions and will be introducing a number of our introductions for the next three years.

Some of my very first introductions were Porcelain Pleasure and Supernova. Porcelain Pleasure was the whitest tet for its time and had the wire gold edge. This wire gold edge was to become important for all kinds of edgings and borders. Supernova was the roundest, flattest tet daylily I had ever seen with the wide sepals that were just becoming common in diploids.  What I love most about daylilies are their bold beautiful forms, sizes and colors. It is almost like having all kinds of flowers but from one genus.

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Editor's Note: Pat Stamile has a Bachelors Degree from Duke University, a Masters Degree from the University of New York, Stony Brook and a Masters Degree in Administration and Supervision from Queens College. Grace has a Bachelors Degree from Adelphi University and a Masters Degree from the University of New York, Stony Brook.

Pat and Grace have won numerous awards. Pat won the 1997 Bertrand Farr Silver Medal for excellence in hybridizing and 3 Stout Silver Medals for Strawberry Candy, Custard Candy and Wedding Band. He also has won 30 Awards of Merit, 138 Honorable Mentions, 6 L. Ernest Plouf Awards for fragrance, 4 Eugene S. Foster Awards for late-blooming cultivars, the Ned Roberts Spider/Unusual Form Award, 2 Don C. Stevens Awards for boldly-eyed cultivars, 3 Annie T. Giles Awards for small flowers, 2 Ida Munson Awards for doubles, the Lambert/Webster Award for unusual forms, the 2 Harris Olson Awards for spiders, 2 R.W. Munson, Jr. Award for patterned daylilies, the Early Season Blooming Award, 59 David Hall Regional Awards ( AHS Popularity Poll) and 3 President’s Cups at National Conventions. Pat was honored with the AHS Regional Service Award-Region 4 in 1991and has won the Hemerocallis Europa Waterman award three times. He has served on the AHS Board of Directors, the AHS Registration Committee, the AHS Scientific Committee, and AHS Long Range Planning Committee, the AHS Round Robin Chairman and as the Non-Publications Chairman. He is the Scientific Liaison for Region 12, is an AHS Awards & Honors Judge and an AHS Awards & Honors Instructor.

Grace Stamile has a Bachelors Degree from Adelphi University and a Masters Degree from the University of New York, Stony Brook. She has dedicated her hybridizing efforts to the development of small and miniature varieties with low scape height and proportional plant habit. Her first introduction was Coming Out Party in 1988. Her tiny, 'popcorn' doubles, blue eyes and other miniatures are grown throughout the country. She is the proud winner of the 1999 Donn Fischer Memorial Award for best miniature with her blue-eyed  Baby Blues, the 2004 Donn Fischer Memorial Award for You Angel You, the first of her series of popcorn doubles and the 2007 Donn Fischer Memorial Award for Iddy Biddy Gal. She has won 31 Honorable Mentions for her work and the 2007 Florida Sunshine Cup for Broadway Attraction. Grace received the AHS Regional Service Award-Region 4 in 1991 and is an AHS Awards & Honors Judge and an Awards & Honors Instructor. Grace serves on the AHS Youth Committee and is the Region 12 Youth coordinator.