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Clubs Histories in Region 13
Source:
The following article was originally printed as
"Notes From Central Louisiana", by Mrs. George D. (Vernon)
Beall, Louisiana. The
Hemerocallis Journal, 1959 Yearbook Issue: Volume 12, No. 2 –
April-May-June, 1958.
Peggie Shulz, Editor.
Central Louisiana
Hemerocallis Society
Founded 1956
On November 1, 1956, Mrs. U. B. (Jo) Evans, Regional Director, met with the Alexandria-Pineville Hemerocallis group for their organization session. Mrs. John F. (Dee Randolph) Kerper was elected President of the Society, which includes 28 enthusiastic members. We take pride that two of these members, Mrs. Oscar Shanks and Mrs. Memie H. Leatherman, are charter members of the old Midwest Hemerocallis Society.
While our organization itself is new, interest in daylilies in central Louisiana dates back at least 25 years. Our findings indicate that the first daylily grown here was SOVEREIGN (Yeld, 1906) which was brought to Pineville by Mrs. S. W. Tudor in 1932 form the Chattanooga, Tennessee garden of her sister, Mrs. W. V. Costello. It was also in the early 1930’s that Mrs. E. C. Erving obtained from foreign nurseries the varieties QUEEN OF MAY (Van Veen, 1925), ROYAL (Mead, 1925) and Dr. Stout’s 1931 introductions MIKADO, VESTA and WAU-BON.
Mrs. Edward C. Mounce began collecting daylilies in 1935, and now grows nearly 700 of the newest and best introductions of the top hybridizers, along with hundreds of her own seedlings. A number of these have been recently introduced and promise to win high honors.