Woodhenge Gardens with Margo Reed and Jim Murphy

Each August or September our Daylily Club invites a hybridizer (or in this case two) to our meeting to do our monthly program.  This year we hosted Margo Reed and Jim Murphy of Woodhenge Gardens. They are located near the Blue Ridge Mountains on a beautiful piece of property in Virginia. They specialize in Spider, Unusual Form, and Exotic Daylilies that are TALL, exactly what we like.

'Brown Witch'

We were lucky and got to listen to both Jim and Margo do presentations this year.  Both were wonderful speakers and I enjoyed hearing about their breeding programs, favorite daylilies, daylily names, and about their entire 3 acre garden (not just the daylily portion).

Margo Reed started hybridizing in a small backyard in Rockville, Maryland, in 1978. She found that breeding daylilies was a fabulous hobby and had to borrow additional space in other folks gardens a different points.  Her focus is on interesting forms, quality/strong plants, and bright clear colors.  She is also working on patterns and white daylilies.  Recently she retired from being a kindergarten teacher in a remote part Virginia. Margo is a member of the Charlottesville Daylily Club. She is also an AHS exhibition judge and garden judge. Her daylilies have won about 20 HM awards.  In 2013, Margo was honored to be awarded the A.H.S. Bertrand Farr Silver Medal for excellence in hybridizing.

Jim Murphy works as a Landscape Supervisor at The University of Virginia by day, and hybridizes on his off time. He helped to start the Charlottesville Daylily Club, and served for 9 years as president. He also chaired the 2006 Region 3 Convention, as well as co-hosting a tour garden. He is an AHS Garden Judge and Senior Exhibition Judge, and is a member of several daylily clubs, and and email robin. He grows about 3,000 seedlings at a time, and selects for introduction about 10 per year. He started hybridizing daylilies in 1988, and his first introduction was in 2001.

I really enjoy a number of their daylilies including: Alice in Londonland (Reed), Brown Witch (Reed), Cheif Justice (Murphy), Dances With Giraffes (Reed), and Cherry Peacock (Reed).  We purchased One More Bud, Cherry Peacock, Don't Panic, and Patriotism.  Honestly, we could have happily bought more if we didn't set a limit for ourselves.  So excited to have more of thier plants in our garden!