NK hybridizer seeks new, unusual day lily varieties
Mark your calendars — June 29. That’s the best day, give or take a few, to drive past New Kent resident Angelo Franceschi’s home on Hemlock Road in the Woodhaven Shores subdivision and witness his yard in full bloom.
Franceschi grows day lilies — plants of Eurasian origin that produce short-lived flowers — and the yard surrounding his home is testimony to his specialty. He is a “hybridizer” or someone who cross-pollinates plants in a quest for a new variety, and he has close to 500 registered plants.
“I try to get something unique that no one else has,” he said in a recent interview.
And he has succeeded. Franceschi holds claim to five registered varieties resulting from his cross-pollinating efforts. He registered his first in 2007 and has since developed a Virginia Tech day lily that blooms in the school’s colors.
Five registered plants may seem like a lot, but the number pales in comparison to the estimated 70,000 day lily varieties that exist. It appears Franceschi is not alone in his endeavor.
Actually, day lily growers and hybridizers are highly organized in a number of local clubs that comprise various regions all under the umbrella of a national group dubbed the American Hemerocallis Society. Hemerocallis, by the way, is the genus designation for day lily.
Franceschi belongs to a pair of local clubs that are part of a region that encompasses Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. He recently returned from a national convention held in Valdosta, Ga.
At club meetings as well as regional and national conventions, he rubs elbows with fellow hybridizers. The gatherings take on a competitive edge as growers enter their hybrids in shows. Plants are judged not just on flower color, but also on such attributes as flower edges, double flowers, stem sturdiness, and bud count. Franceschi has taken home several first place, best in show, and people’s choice awards.
His interest in day lilies, meanwhile, blossomed 15 years ago when he visited a flower show at Richmond’s Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. He brought home 15-20 plants.
He has since expanded his operation beyond his yard to include several thousand seedlings planted on a one-acre tract in Charles City County. He now specializes in growing “spider” day lilies, a variety that can reach a height of more than three feet with flower petals up to 10-12 inches in length.
“I cross everything with spiders so I can get something unusual and different,” he said.
Due to a relatively short growing season compared to climates farther south, three years must pass following the cross-pollination process before a plant can produce a flower, he said. He also freezes pollen, which can be kept up to two years, on cotton swabs. That way he can cross-pollinate flowers that bloom at different times of the year.
“Day lilies are one of the hardiest perennials that exist,” he said. “You can run over one of them with a lawn mower and it’ll come right back.”
The plants require at least two hours of direct sunlight daily in order to bloom, and plants flourish when sun amounts reach six hours per day, he said.
A retired printer, Franceschi can devote considerable time to his operation, but he admits there’s no way he could do all the work himself. He employs one full-time and three part-time assistants.
He sells plants from his home as well as on-line with prices ranging from as little as $5 up to $200. Customers can check out Softballkid4u@cox.net.
“I’m not doing this to make any money,” he said. “What I take in pays for fertilizer and supplies. This has really been enjoyable, and that’s why I do it.”