Lilies of the valley

Southern Living, Jul 2003 by Vanhooser, Cassandra M

Thousands of daylilies show their true colors at this Shenandoah Valley farm and garden center.

Growing up, we had an orange daylily blooming by the rock wall behind our Tennessee home, no doubt this old-fashioned flower was a gift from residents past. I spent hours studying the blossoms as they opened their freckled petals to catch the daylight, then closed them again as evening approached.

It was years before 1 learned the word "diurnal," the scientific term for flowers that open in daylight and close at night. Still, I never lost my fascination with daylilies. Imagine my delight then, when 1 round a curve on a back road in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and discover the hills blanketed with a rainbow of daylilies.

I waste no time detouring into the parking area at Andre Viette Farm & Nursery. Our Garden editors have been here many times, but for me, stumbling across the home of one of the most renowned daylily experts in the country is sheer surprise.

Andre, I learn, inherited his green thumb from his father, Martin, who in 1920 left Switzerland and came to the United States. Only 16 years old when he arrived, the talented young gardener apprenticed at Cedar Hill, Theodore Havemeyer's Long Island estate, before opening his own famous nursery in 1929.

Under his father's tutelage, Andre began hybridizing daylilies when he was just a child. His collection now numbers in the thousands, and they're all growing on the hillsides of his Virginia farm and nursery for visitors to enjoy. There's a daylily blooming every day from late May through October, and best of all, you can purchase your favorites to take home.

In addition to daylilies, customers can choose from more than 3,000 selections of sun and shade perennials. Tools, fertilizers, and books, including the Viertes' own titles, are also available for purchase.

The garden center surrounds the Viette family home, and shoppers are welcome to stroll through Andre's backyard garden to see what the plants will look like in their own yards. Andre's fame doesn't stop at the garden gate, however. he hosts a live call-in radio program to answer gardening questions that is carried on some 60 stations in eight states and Washington, D.C. What's more, he and his son Mark have written several books, including the newly released MidAtlantic Gardener's Guide.

Though Andre is off traveling the world when I visit, Mark is on the property. As we walk through the fields surrounding the farm, Mark points out some of the choice cultivars and their beneficial characteristics. We even stop to admire the new hybrids the Viertes hope to be selling soon.

It's here I find my favorite, a plant with a bloom as pale and pure an orange as you'll ever see. My mind returns to my Tennessee childhood, then to the color sported by my college alma mater. 1 turn to Mark and suggest the perfect name for his new hybrid: Volunteer Spirit.