Growing Daylilies Together

Jamie Gossard grew up on a farm in northwest Ohio, the oldest of four boys. With his wife, Dianna (Baier) and first child, Michelle, he moved to Columbus so he could complete his Bachelors of Science Degree in Microbiology at Ohio State’s main campus.  Jamie graduated in 1987 and went to work in a food and water testing laboratory.

Jamie and Dianna purchased their first home in

February of 1989; a new build that had very little landscaping.  Jamie bought several truck loads of soil and started designing flower beds and picking out interesting plants.

While Jamie was out doing septic and well inspections for R & D Labs, he drove past Do rothy Warrell's garden.  He stopped in and she showed him her daylily garden. She explained that she was pollinating and then showed him the beautiful daylilies she had created.  He was hooked from then on.

In the fall of 1990, Jamie and Dianna started Superior Laboratories, Inc., which is a food, water and environmental testing laboratory. Over the next few years, they worked together to build and expand  the laboratory business into a nationally recognized laboratory.  While Jamie's daylily passion grew, the family grew as well with the arrival of Ryan in 1992 and Corey in 1993. Jamie planted as many daylilies as he had room for on their ¼ acre and then started hybridizing.  The Gossard vision of what he could achieve with the hemerocallis had begun.

Jamie soon ran out of yard space for daylily beds.  They then purchased five acres in 1996 in Galloway, Ohio.  Jamie named the garden Heavenly Gardens.

Since 1996 things have grown and grown.  There are now three greenhouses full of daylilies. Jamie's introductions are spread throughout 11 display beds.  There are also over two acres of seedlings numbering around 100,000. In 2008 a new barn was added for storage and fair animals for the boys.

Jamie’s first seedlings numbered about 500.  That later increased to 1,500 then 8,000. Now they are numbered at about 50,000 seedlings which include both tetraploids and diploids. Jamie introduced the first of his daylilies in 2000.  To date he has 242 introductions.

The children Michelle, Ryan and Corey have been a big part of planting, weeding and digging every year.  Dianna and Jamie now have a granddaughter Taylor 8 and grandson Maximus 3.  Taylor is beginning to help out and even Max wants to work. Ryan and Corey both have each started their own line of Daylilies and Dianna is working with the doubles.

Jamie and Dianna moved their laboratory business in 2004, which is now on their property.  Now they are able to work on both businesses without the need to commute back and forth.

Jamie is in demand for speaking engagements all over the country and in Canada.  His expertise in the hybridizing of daylilies is well known among his peers and also to daylily collectors.  He is particularly noted for his teeth daylilies and his work with patterns and clear colors.

In 2004 Jamie was awarded the Englerth Award for a seedling soon to be introduced. The Howard Hite Award for Hybridizing excellence was awarded to Jamie in 2009.  Jamie also received the 2009 Lambert/Webster Award for best unusual form for his Heavenly Angel Ice.
 

Heavenly Gardens
James Gossard
1069 Amity Road Galloway, Ohio 43119
Cell Phone (614) 419-1781
Fax (614) 851-1375 (on all the time)
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website:  www.daylilynet.com