Feedback from Club Officers

"Subject: Brian Mahieu at the New England Daylily Society (NEDS)

Once again I've been shanghaied as program chair for the New England Daylily Society (actually, co-chair with Jim Brennan.)  Of course, the bright side of this otherwise heavy responsability is that I get to bring in people that I want to have present to us. And I was lucky!  My highest priority (for a few years now) has been Brian Mahieu.  I've been following reports on his breeding for years now, and I consider his goals exceptionally important for northerners.  He had short notice, but was happy to come, and what a show he put on!

Brian has the knowledge, style, and charisma to present his program with a really effective hard-sell: but he doesn't.  Instead, he mostly lets the photos speak for themselves.  And what photos!  Hundreds of gorgeous faces projected from his laptop computer.  Now, Brian hybridizes narrow and unusual forms, but even the hard-core tet collectors were going oooo and aaaah.

Brian has one of the characteristics I consider most important in a
hybridizer: he has an audacious, independent vision of what he wants to breed.  He's not just putting pretty on pretty, nor crossing the latest Florida offerings to follow in the footsteps of the great hybridizers there.  He's looking to create tropical orchids for the temperate zone garden: as diverse, bizarre, and wild in appearance as the Cattleyas, Oncidiums, and other genera, yet vigorous and carefree garden subjects

Brian's breeding program fits all the important northern requirements:  he's breeding for rapid increase, great foliage, vigorous plants, bloom over long periods, rebloom, branching and budcount, clear colors, a variety of heights, seasons, flower sizes and flower forms.  Unfortunately, we're not getting enough things from southern breeders  that meet these requirements.

Now, it's hard to credit all the claims to robustness, vigor, and other plant qualities that Brian claims for his breeding: except that Bob Sobek and I have been breeding along very similar lines (going back to work with species crossed with modern varieties) and have been getting very similar results.  The difference is that we're small scale, and Brian is large scale; we're only two or three generations along, and Brian is four or five generations along.  With up to 100,000 seedlings per year, Brian's made tremendous strides.

We've all seen the pictures at Brian's web site and in his catalog, but seeing them projected is a whole 'nother story.  Until I saw the projected image of TANGERINE IBIS, I wouldn't have considered it.  But on the big screen, the scape branching, large size, and intense color really stand out.

But the thing that excited me most is the selected seedlings not yet pictured at his site or in his catalog.  Huge strides in size, color clarity, green throats, ruffling, and unusual form.  And in the fields where I've wished to breed myself, but haven't had the room.  Whites and clear anthocyanin colors with big green throats and graceful motion of huge flowers.  Even if some of those selections don't make it through Brian's rigorous standards for introduction, there'll be similar looking offspring that will pass in future generations.  These are things I'm really going to wait for with bated breath.  (Hey, I can only hyperventillate for so long!)  Some future intros, GREENLAND and SCANDINAVIA are definitely on my wish list now.

As a program chair, I've invited many speakers.  Brian ranks with the best for beauty and content of his program.  Invite him to speak to your group if you can!

Mike Huben 
Arlington, MA  Zone 6B 
NEDS   

all comments used by permission, updated January 2005 

Tom and Brian at one of the beautiful Region One tour gardens, July 2005
Marshalltown IA  Regional Convention, July 15&16, 2005

Be sure to see my article A Daylily Manifesto in the Winter 2007 AHS Daylily Journal

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Please visit David and Laura Burris' website Bluegrass Gardens Daylily Farm for the most complete selection of Mahieu Daylilies for sale anywhere.  I am very excited to be collaborating with a professional daylily grower and hybridizer who is collaborating with me to take my breeding program to the next level.  Tom and I spend time in Kentucky every summer, and we have made over 3,000 crosses while there. I also hybridize here in Missouri.

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