The Ontario Daylily Society is pleased to introduce you to members who have hybridized and registered their own daylilies as well as to members who are up and coming hybridizers. These members  are serious hybridizers with goals of developing vigorous, hardy daylilies that perform exceptionally well in northern climates.

If you are a member of the Ontario Daylily Society and are an active daylily hybridizer, please email us a picture of yourself, with a short bio, including your hybridizing goals, and whether you have registered any cultivars, or plan to.

updated 2019

John Burgener, Lowbanks, Ontario

John and Rebecca Burgener

John says: I am an avid daylily hybridizer and run a daylily business in Beamsville, Ontario: Dynamic Daylilies. I have been hybridizing since 1995 and a member of the ODS since the beginning. My first registrations were in 2008, with two more in 2009, 2010. I was not satisfied that what I was growing was exceptional enough so I have not registered anything between 2010 and 2018. The newest seedlings in our gardens are much better so I have begun to register more in 2018 - with the goal of having brilliant, vigorous, reblooming daylilies with many buds in Ontario. In the 1990s I was content to get daylilies with 15 to 20 buds. Now I will not use daylilies with less than 25 buds unless they are amazing flowers. I have had one plant produce 50 buds on a single stalk, and many recent seedlings with 35 - 45 buds. I hope to register some spectacular plants with 35+ buds in the next few years.

needs updating

Gary Carlson, Orillia, ON (deceased)

Gary registered his first cultivar 'Sexy Thing' in 2003. He has 11 registered cultivars.

Sexy Thing	Soldier's Memorial	Family Jewels	Orillia	Sunshine City	Mariposa Festival

needs updating

John Clarke, Barrie, ON

John's Clarke Farms is located in Barrie, Ontario, 90 km north of Toronto.

John says: Clarke Farms is what I blissfully call my small backyard daylily hobby garden. Because of space restrictions, each year as more and more seedlings need to be kept for evaluation, it seems to leave less room for registered daylilies.
Recently my hybridizing program has evolved into attempting to break up the eyed zones of some of my favourite daylilies into erratic avante garde patterns with a variety of colours that splash the sepals and the petals with complex designs. Unfortunately, the pollen parents that seem to break pattern the best, H. His Highness, H. Egyptian Queen and H. Heavenly Flight do not set pod well and so far have carried this nasty trait over to most of my more interesting seedlings. It seems that the next stage to further the excitement is to cross pattern with pattern with my seedlings and hope for new unique changes in display and colour.

needs updating

Bryan Culver, Oakville, ON

Bryan lives in Oakville, Ontario and grows his daylilies at Culver Farm outside of Waterford. He registered his first cultivars in 1999 and now (2018) has 152 registrations.
His 'Victoria Park' (pictured here) won an Honorable Mention in 2014 - his 7th Honorable Mention..

Bryan says: Some of the goals we have at Culver Farm Daylilies are hybridizing daylilies that are hardy, vigorous and healthy plants for our northern climate. We try to pick out of our hybridizing program daylily flowers that have good clear colours. All the daylilies are grown in field conditions without the aid of any artificial benefits to enhance daylily growth. The freeze thaw cycles we received during most of our winters weed out the weak and unsuitable daylilies for our climate. Daylilies that will flourish under ordinary garden conditions are a major goal for me.

Betty Fretz, Moorefield, ON (deceased)

Betty registered 168 cultivars.

updated February, 2013

Claude Gauthier, Montfort, QC (deceased) and Linda Lagroix

Claude Gauthier was born in Montreal in 1949 and passed away in November 2012

Linda Lagroix says: Claude's passion for daylilies began in 1993 when he bought the daylily stock of another Quebec grower. In 1996, he decided to start selling daylilies through mail order (Hemerocallis Montfort).
Claude began hybridizing around 1997 and registered his first cultivars in 2006. At first, his main goal was to create northern hardy daylilies that perform well. He was selective about the parents he chose and selected only the most promising seedlings. He started with pink tones which produced Hemerocallis 'Rose Des Sables', and over the following years, concentrated on crossing orange cultivars. In his opinion, he had created what he was aiming for with H. 'Paradîle'. He was more recently focussing on edges with teeth and has registered H. 'Barbarella', while others are still under observation. More registrations might come from his latest crosses still under evaluation over the next couple of years.
So far 65 cultivars are registered by Gauthier, Gauthier-Lagroix or Lagroix."

Rose des Sables, 2006	Paradîle, 2013	Barbarella, 2012	Fruit defendu, 2012	L'Orangerie de Montfort, 2006	Clin d'oeil à Nicole, 2013

updated 2019

Paul Gellatly, Mississauga, ON

Paul is owner of The Tattooed Gardener based in Port Credit, Mississauga.

Paul says: I have 9 current registrations and several coming in the upcoming years. My interest is in Striped, Streaked, big and bold, teeth, patterns, UFs and Spiders. I also am managing the Daylily display at the Toronto Zoo, where we are aiming to display ALL Ontario registered daylilies from the first to this year's newest. If you can suggest any additional daylilies for us, and donate to the Zoo, we will be listing the source and hybridizer of the plants in the display gardens.

updated 2013

Mike Georges, Guelph, ON

Mike's 10 acre property, Quintessential Daylilies, is located just outside Guelph, On.

Mike says: I have been hybridizing for several years. My goal is to produce pretty flowers with exceptional plant habits. I have not registered any daylilies and it will be a while before I do primarily because this is a hobby and I do not want to get involved with packaging and shipping. I am a confirmed lazy guy and I strive to keep work to a minimum!!

Webmaster's note: Mike started registering daylilies in 2012!

needs updating

Paul Judge, Clinton, ON

Paul's Field of Dreams Daylily Garden is located in Clifford, Ontario. He has registered two cultivars: 'Happenstance' (pictured here) and 'Internal Combustion'.

Paul says: I have been growing and hybridizing daylilies since about 1997 at my parents' farm near Clifford, Ontario. Garden space is not a limitation here, only time is! That keeps my program to a manageable size of approximately 1,000 seedlings per year. These are primarily tetraploids.
My initial breeding goals focused on hot colours, flowers with eyes and matching wide edges, and bitones or bicolours. With the great variety of daylilies available I found I was breeding all of the above in addition to stippled flowers, complex eye patterns, and wide light edges. Yikes!
Recently I've pulled in the reins and decided to direct my efforts in fewer directions with the largest emphasis on the appliqué throat patterns. Some of these types arose in my very first crop of seedlings and they've intrigued me ever since. My first two registrations both fall into this category

updated 2017

Henry Lorrain, Orono, ON - retired

Until 2015, Henry ran We're in the Hayfield Now in Orono, Ontario, east of Toronto. Henry introduced 390 daylilies under Lorrain and Lorrain/Lycett names, continuing the spirit of  Doug Lycett, his friend, partner and cofounder of We are in the Hayfield Now. There are 390 cultivars registered to Lycett, Lorrain/Lycett and Lorrain.

Henry says: We have been breeding daylilies for over 25 years, with vigour, hardiness, bud count and, of course, beauty, for the Canadian climate. We guarantee all our hybrids.

James Douglas Lycett died of heart failure on Sept. 15, 1998, aged 60. When Doug and Henry Lorrain moved to the farm near Orono in 1984, Doug made his first attempts to hybridize new daylilies.  It was after his mother died and he was at a low spot that he phoned Bill Munson, a renowned daylily hybridizer in Gainesville, Fl, asking if he could come and see his garden. For 13 years Doug, and later Henry, made regular visits to Florida, learning all Mr. Munson could teach them. Doug Lycett and Henry Lorrain were partners and owned We're in the Hayfield Now.

The Ontario Daylily Society created the Douglas Lycett Award for Achievement in Canadian Hybridizing in the memory of Douglas Lycett.

needs updating

Barry Matthie, Bloomfield, ON

Barry is making significant in roads in breeding formal, ruffled, gold-edged, double-edged and rounded red ruffled flowers that perform reliably in northern areas.
With tetraploid breeding he is introducing new colors and patterns, and his mini-spiders are hardly recognizable as daylilies, and a really original addition to the garden. He has registered 132 cultivars as of 2018.
Barry runs Bonibrae Daylily Gardens in Bloomfield Ontario. A recommended stop during Peak Bloom.
- Over 100,000 beautiful daylilies
- 300 hosta varieties
- potted oriental lilies

Bonibrae

Bonibrae Crooked Logic	Bonibrae Royal Lineage	Bonibrae Sharky	Bonibrae Mostly Ghostly

needs updating

Dave Mussar, Guelph, ON

Dave's garden, Hillside Daylilies is located in Guelph. He registered his first daylily in 2010. He moved and relocated his garden in 2009.

Dave says: In August 2000, a friend and former neighbour from Guelph visited our garden. It was then I learned that he had been seriously hybridizing daylilies for a couple of years. He gave me some pollen to play with and a few fans of some of his newer cultivars and an addiction was born. I set my first few pods that summer and the following spring joined the Ontario Daylily Society and the American Hemerocallis Society. I am now a certified AHS garden judge and my personal collection is up to about 350 - 400 named cultivars. I plant about 450 - 500 seedlings annually and bloomed my first large crop of seedlings in 2003.
One of my hybridizing goals is to develop a "spotted" daylily with large distinct spots spread evenly over the petals like you can now find on a phalenopsis (moth) orchid. Currently there are a number of speckled or stippled (very finely speckled) cultivars that I have collected and am using as breeding stock. My first speckled seedlings bloomed in the summer of 2004.

updated March 2024

David Retallick    Millbrook, ON

David says: I live near PETERBOROUGH, on a 50 acre farm where I grow and sell my daylilies. I have been growing and developing my own type of hardy, high bud & branching plants for over 30 years. I have registered around 40 since 2005. I also grow iris, peonies, lilies and other perennials. Come on over and enjoy a stroll thru the gardens sometime.
Visit my website.

About Blooming Time, 2020	Canadian Candy Girl, 2022	Exotic Pleasure, 2022	Open Just Today, 2021	Putting on a Show, 2018
Awesome Show, 2023	Orange Koolaid, 2023	Canadian Watermelon, 2023	Fade to Pink, 2023

updated February, 2011

The space on Brian's one acre property is shared between a garden with a large collection of hostas, heucheras, primulas, and Japanese Maples (and daylilies!) and his English setters which he breeds and shows under the Kennel name "Briary" which is also the name of the garden.

Brian says: I started hybridizing daylilies in 2006. My goals have been round formed, fancy flowers in hot colours and eyes and edges. I grow an average of about 1000 seedlings each year.

updated 2023

We live in Muskoka where we enjoy producing new varieties of daylilies from seed. Our gardens are called Near North Daylilies. We like most types of daylilies: round, ruffled, spiders, unusual forms, and the species. Each year we start about 3,000 seedlings with the goal of producing hardy daylilies that grow well in Muskoka. We have 1500-2000 named varieties that we are evaluating as potential breeding stock and we regularly buy new daylilies to add to our gene pool. We sell extra stock of some named varieties as well as seedlings. Occasionally we name and register cultivars that stand out because of overall performance.

Near North Daylilies

retired

Gil Stelter, Guelph, ON

Gil Stelter's garden in Guelph was on a huge 3/4-acre city lot with a century stone house, white picket fence with a "species walk" starting with historic daylilies and meandering through different time frames of cultivars. The walk concludes with new intros plus seedlings and other perennials and shrubs. Then add a pretty pond, "map" garden and a huge patio. Gil has registered 29 daylilies (2018) and has two Honorable Mentions.

Gil's hybridizing goals were:

• Began with dip spiders and UFs, with some use of H. citrina.
• Then I was tempted by the alluring but oh so tender exotics from Florida.
• Adapting tetraploid spiders and UFs to the North.
• Experiments with H. fulva to try to make tet spiders and UFs

Gryphon Gardens

Istanbul Magic	Potala Tapestry	Rashomon Gate	Gryphon Chinese Fire

needs updating

Dawn Tack, Donwood, ON

Dawn lives outside the City of Peterboroough in Donwood, right across from the Donwood Fire Hall.

Dawn says: I became serious about of daylilies while visiting the late Douglas Lycett. His passion was transferred. My collection grew from 10 to 500+ in 8 years. Garden Plus is now an AHS approved display garden.
My goals are simple - loads of buds and pretty faces'. To date have registered 3 all with 25+ buds and named after the area I live in. Ones never knows what could happen - look at the awesome 'faces' out there now!
I do workshops to encourage gardeners to try to hybridize and grow more daylilies. All proceeds donated to Breast Cancer annually.

Gardens Plus

Donwood Fire Hall	Donwood	Peterborough Sunset