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2020 Winter Meeting Guest Speaker Sandy Holmes |
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SANDY HOLMES
As an avid gardener living in metro Atlanta, GA., Sandy planted her first daylily seeds in the early 1980’s. Unfortunately none of them came up so she resorted to Stellas which the rabbits promptly ate. After a job change, Sandy ended up in Centerville, OH, where she met and married Mike Holmes. In 1995 they were introduced to the modern daylily when a co-worker, Bill Barrere’s daughter, gave them plants from her late father’s garden. The following year they met internationally known daylily hybridizers Steve Moldovan and Roy Woodhall, who changed Sandy's life forever.
In 1996, Mike and Sandy began hybridizing in their back yard. In 2002, they purchased 11 acres of good farm land, just outside of Xenia, OH where they operate Riverbend Daylily Garden. Sandy and Mike both introduced daylilies. Sandy hybridizes for large graceful, tetraploid unusual forms. She works for clear colors with green throats and watermarks or patterned eyes. Plant habit is very important to her, so she has been known to introduce daylilies that are just unusual even if they aren't an unusual form. Many beautiful daylilies have been composted because the rest of the plant didn't make the cut. At the 2016 AHS National Convention her Walt Lowry won the Ned Roberts Spider/Unusual Form Award and at the 2017 convention her Tidewater Elf won the President's Cup for the best daylily clump. She has received the Region 2 Howard Hite Excellence in Hybridizing award and is currently the President of Region 2 of the American Daylily Society.
Both Mike and Sandy are retired and live in Bellbrook, OH.
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As an avid gardener living in metro Atlanta, GA., Sandy planted her first daylily seeds in the early 1980’s. Unfortunately none of them came up so she resorted to Stellas which the rabbits promptly ate. After a job change, Sandy ended up in Centerville, OH, where she met and married Mike Holmes. In 1995 they were introduced to the modern daylily when a co-worker, Bill Barrere’s daughter, gave them plants from her late father’s garden. The following year they met internationally known daylily hybridizers Steve Moldovan and Roy Woodhall, who changed Sandy's life forever.
In 1996, Mike and Sandy began hybridizing in their back yard. In 2002, they purchased 11 acres of good farm land, just outside of Xenia, OH where they operate Riverbend Daylily Garden. Sandy and Mike both introduced daylilies. Sandy hybridizes for large graceful, tetraploid unusual forms. She works for clear colors with green throats and watermarks or patterned eyes. Plant habit is very important to her, so she has been known to introduce daylilies that are just unusual even if they aren't an unusual form. Many beautiful daylilies have been composted because the rest of the plant didn't make the cut. At the 2016 AHS National Convention her Walt Lowry won the Ned Roberts Spider/Unusual Form Award and at the 2017 convention her Tidewater Elf won the President's Cup for the best daylily clump. She has received the Region 2 Howard Hite Excellence in Hybridizing award and is currently the President of Region 2 of the American Daylily Society.
Both Mike and Sandy are retired and live in Bellbrook, OH.
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