CityView Magazine

Discover CityViewNC.com's fresh updated look! | 57 In Virginia, as a young journalist, he indulged his passion for horticulture by growing corn in his front yard – a gardening feat unappreciated by his neighbors – and by converting his back porch into a greenhouse for some of his other plants. When he moved to Fayetteville to take a job with e Fayetteville Observer, he bought the land near Hope Mills so he could try to create a garden. His first plantings included 2,000 crocuses and 100 President canna lilies that he'd brought with him. e following spring, hardly any of the flowers came up. Voles had eaten their roots. Undeterred, Mercer turned his focus to daylilies, a perennial that had already drawn his attention because of the remarkable variations that breeders had achieved in just a few decades. For centuries, daylilies came in a few basic colors – yellow, orange and fulvous (a dull reddish-yellow). en people breeding the plants and, in the 1930s, hybridizing began in earnest in the United States and England, according to the American Daylily Society. Today, there are more than 45,000 named varieties of daylilies, including nearly 300 bred by Mercer. ey come in a wide range of colors, including near-whites, pastels, yellows, oranges, pinks, vivid reds, crimson, purple, nearly true-blue and "fabulous blends," the Daylily Society says. Hybridizers are pursuing pure white and pure blue. ey also come in a wide range of sizes and flower forms. Mercer says many daylily breeders aim only to create the prettiest flower they can, which sounds reasonable. Mercer says he's also aiming for beauty – but only if it comes in a flower that's tough enough to survive and still thrive in the face of such things as sudden freezes, intense summer heat, insect attacks, inadvertent mowing and overgrowth by weeds. ey also have to be vole-proof. "I want to create daylilies that will live 1,000 years," he says. Each year, Mercer says he plants 100,000 seedlings. Since those double in a year's time, that's 200,000 plants and that's too many with all the others he already has. So he can afford to be ruthless with daylilies that don't meet those standards. At the first sign of weakness, he pulls them out and composts them. He does keep daylilies bred by others to see how they do. He says many languish aer a year or two because they weren't bred to last. Daylilies that thrive and that have a desirable trait may be used in cross-breeding. ose that are remarkable may get named and registered with the American Hemerocallis Society, where Mercer's creations account for 296 entries. To come up with unique names for a new hybrid where thousands already exist, Mercer sometimes looks to the flower's appearance – Alabaster Gleam, Garnet Gi or Ruffled Wow. e name might include an apparent nod to the daylily's "parents" – Gossamer Parasol was created from a cross of Vision of Beauty and Fairy Tale Pink, for example. Auto. Home. Life. Retirement. They them all in a blanket of Nationwide® members first, because we don't have Join the Nation® that knows what's Combine your policies and save up Not all Nationwide affiliated companies are mutual companies and not all Nationwide members Not all Nationwide affiliated companies are mutual companies and not all Nationwide members Not all Nationwide affiliated companies are mutual companies and not all Nationwide members Nationwide N and Eagle Join the Nation, What's precious to you is precious to us and We put members Nationwide N and Eagle Join the Nation, What's precious to you is precious to us and We put members service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. © 2014 Nationwide Mutual Insurance service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. © 2014 Nationwide Mutual Insurance service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. © 2014 Nationwide Mutual Insurance worthw@nationwide.com Phone: (910)488-5056 WALKER WORTH AGENCY Walker Y Worth, III What's precious to you is precious to us. SM Auto. Home. Life. Retirement. They all matter, so wrap them all in a blanket of Nationwide ® protection. We put members first, because we don't have shareholders. SM Join the Nation ® that knows what's important. Combine your policies and save up to 25% Walker Y Worth, III WALKER WORTH AGENCY Phone: (910)488-5056 worthw@nationwide.com Not all Nationwide affiliated companies are mutual companies and not all Nationwide members are insured by a mutual affiffiliated company. Nationwide, the Nationwide N and Eagle Join the Nation, What's precious to you is precious to us and We put members fifirst because we don't have shareholders are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. © 2014 Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. NPR-0718AO.2 (8/14) Owen' s Florist NEW LOCATION! 811 Hope Mills Road Fayetteville NC 28304 Your Elegant Event & Everyday Florist Owensflorist.com 910.484.4161 10% OFF MILITARY DISCOUNT

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