Growing Daylilies Together

Joshua Jaques

My family has owned and operated a small nursery for the last 12 years. We mainly grew ornamental shrubs. In 2006,  Ellis Powell purchased some azaleas from us and I

delivered them to his house. I have been interested in daylilies since I was about 13, but had no idea that there was someone close by that was so into them. It was late October when I saw his display garden for the first time; and though nothing was blooming, I was impressed with the lush green foliage that filled the land scape. The following March, he was kind enough to share several cultivars with me. I joined the Cenla Daylily Society shortly after and traveled with them to Jack Carpenter's Lily Farm. While there, I made my first purchases. Texas Blue Eyes, Ellis Powell, Sabine Baur, Eye on America, and several other Carpenter and Salter introductions were some of my other first daylilies; I loved the eye and edge flowers especially.

Ellis encouraged me to join AHS and began helping me build my own display garden. Currently, we grow between 800 and 1000 cultivars as well as 3000 to 5000 seedlings. I made my first crosses in 2008 and bloomed my first seedlings in 2009. With our usually mild, Zone 8 winters, I've been able to get about 60 to 70 percent to bloom their first year.  My main hybridizing focus in on larger, fancy flowers with crazy edges and lots of teeth.

I have been hybridizing under shade cloth the last two years, but am planning to build a small greenhouse this Fall. I start my seeds in one of our old rooting sheds from the nursery and usually transplant them to the ground in mid to late September. Some of the best parent plants for me have been Dan Trimmer's Carol Todd, Jeff Salter's Fabulous Black Pearl, and many of John Kinnebrew's toothy flowers. My wife, Nikki, has been a tremendous help with my daylily experiment; from building our website, to helping out with all of the photo data that we keep, entertaining garden guests, and helping me "dead head" the garden.  We have twin 3 year old boys who also love helping out in the garden. I will probably register my first plants in 2011. Our daylily business, Bayou Bend Daylilies, is open from mid-May until the end of June. I do have a selection of named daylilies for sale in pots, as well as some of my own seedlings in the field.

I am a member of the AHS and the Cenla Daylily Society and am currently serving as Vice President of that club. I attended the Region 13 Annual meeting in 2008, 2009, and 2010. My garden was a Display Gardens for the 2009 Regional. I will also be an Open Garden for the 2011 National Convention.

Joshua Jaques
59 Bayou Clear Rd.
Woodworth, LA 71485
www.bayoubenddaylilies.com