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F E A T U R E
In a quiet neighborhood near Hope Mills, a narrow
street dead-ends at a tree-shrouded driveway.
A small sign promises something's ahead.
"Welcome," it says. "Mercers' Garden."
Even so, you might wonder. Enter the driveway and
there's a house and a carport. Four dogs are probably
racing to meet you. Trees and bushes are the most
obvious signs of vegetation.
But then you might catch a glimpse of something.
Beyond the carport, there's an open swath of green. If
you're lucky, and you're glimpsing this on the right day
in spring or summer, you'll see color dotted throughout
the green – oranges, yellows, reds, purples and all the
shades between. You're lucky then because the daylilies
are in bloom – thousands and thousands of them. is
is Roger Mercer's garden.
Mercer, a writer and retired newspaper journalist,
has been growing and breeding daylilies on this land
since he moved to Fayetteville from Virginia in the '80s.
When he arrived, the property was a sandy
wasteland, home to weeds and scrawny pines.
Today, it's a verdant garden where Mercer operates
what he says is the largest daylily breeding enterprise
in the world. At any given time, 250,000 daylilies are
planted there, including dozens of varieties created and
sold by Mercer to customers around the world.
Mercer's love for growing things began when he was
a boy. His aunt gave him some hollyhock and poppy
seeds and he planted them. Beautiful flowers sprouted.
"I was hooked," he said.
Mercer's Daylily Garden
BY CATHERINE PRITCHARD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW WONDERLY
