About Us--Welcome to Mary Baker's Garden!

I love growing daylilies hybridized by others. After a local hybridizer scolded me about wasting potential kids from the many cutting-edge daylilies in my garden, I started hybridizing out of guilt. It's fun and exciting to see my new seedlings bloom, but I have a love/hate relationship with hybridizing because my seedlings require space that could be occupied by other hybridizers' daylilies.

Primary goals are full-formed and unusual form tetraploid daylilies of all sizes with good substance; vibrant green throats; and clear, clean colors. My late mentor and friend, Oscie Whatley, often said a green throat makes a daylily stand out from a distance, especially if the daylily is red. My garden has very little shade, so I breed for daylilies with good sun resistance.

The new 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map updated our hardiness zone to 6a, and our zone 6a urban island is surrounded by hardiness zone 5b. Daylilies, daffodils, alliums, lilies, unusual perennials, and wild flowers grow in our heavy clay soil without mulch or other protection. They endure cold winters without consistent snow cover (often like a frozen desert) and frequent freeze/thaws, followed by hot/humid summers (often with little rainfall). Daylilies are amazingly tough. We intersperse milkweed and dill for monarch, swallowtail, and other butterflies to enjoy.

Click HERE to read a write-up about Mary Baker's Garden on the ADS Region One Blog.