April 22, 2018 

The Charleston Daylily Club had its first organizational meeting in April. The meeting was held at the Marine Resources Research Institute on James Island, just south of the City of Charleston.  There were 18 enthusiastic participants. The attendees voted in bylaws and then chose officers; President Mike Denson, Vice President Perry Gaskins, Treasurer David Whitaker, and Secretary Annette Kibler. The program was a Daylilies 101 presentation kindly provided by Heidi Douglas from Browns Ferry Gardens preceded by a very nice "early dinner" provided by the members.

May 18, 2018

The second meeting was held at Mike Denson and Don Charpia's home and garden (see pics below). The heavens opened up all morning long and it poured down rain, however the club agreed to meet rain or shine. By 9:45 am the rains cleared as members gathered. As Mike oriented the group of where the beds with named varieties, seedling beds and camellia garden were located the sun began to come from behind the clouds. The club discussed hybridizing goals and looked at dozens of seedlings of Papa Goose x Tahoe Snow Blizzard as well as many other diploid and tetraploid crosses. Members also got a sneak peak of the Region 15 seedling bed for the Regional meeting to be held in May 2019. The group then wandered the camellia garden and vegetable garden and looked at some of the 200 grafted camellias and 40 heirloom tomatoes and then met for lunch out of the rain and looked at cut daylilies and discussed the characteristics of each flower and how those traits might convey to their offspring. There were also lots of laughs and fun had by all! It's clear that the club is coming together. These are exciting times for the Charleston Daylily Club.

In June we are fortunate to host Tom Bruce of Carolina Daylilies (http://www.carolinadaylilies.com/) and look forward to hearing about his daylilies, hostas and irises.