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The Region 2 Hybridizer Corner:
The Al Goldner Daylily Stor
ory
By LaVere Webster, Rochester Hills, Michigan
Hybridizing Landscape Daylilies was the passion of Alfred (Al) H.
Goldner (1918 - 2003). Over 60 daylily varieties were marketed, mostly
with garden names. However, 14 were registered with AHS by his
friends, thus preserving their information for posterity.
Al’s parents moved to southeast Michigan from Sandusky, Ohio.
Al graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor’s
degree in Horticulture and then earned a Master’s degree from The
Ohio State University.
Al’s day job was plant manager for Hudson’s Department Store
at Detroit area Northland Mall with his friends; Harris Olson and
Arthur Malone, who also worked there. But on weekends, nights,
and holidays, his passion was hybridizing daylilies. He called them
“Experimental Daylilies,” as the sign read.
My first interview of Al came
Al’s Friends are Working
to Preserve a Heritage.
about quite by accident. About 10
years ago I went to his home on
Telegraph Road to dig daylilies for
the local club. He asked me to leave
the other diggers in the seedling
fields and come with him to the house where there were numerous
12 x 12 foot gardens between cement sidewalks. “Dig this one,” he
said, “all of it.” It filled the wheel barrow, full and over flowing with
H. ‘Black Eye’. I dug, lifted, and separated while he talked the entire
time, even offering me a job working for him. He stopped long
enough to say, “Here, dig this clump, the biggest one. You take this
home with you and plant it in your garden. And here, take the label
with it. You might as well have the original ‘Black Eye’ sign.” I still
have that original ‘Black Eye’ sign in my garden.
Later I learned the H. ‘Black Eye’ story from Harris Olson, the
well-known spider hybridizer and sponsor of the Harris Olson Spider
Award, who maintained daylily gardens at the Detroit Zoo and
the Botanical Gardens and at the Congregational Church of Bir-
mingham, and from Hal Rice, the 2004
recipient of the AHS Helen Field
Fischer Award, former AHS board
member from Region 2, and chair of
two (1985 and 2002) AHS national
conventions held in the Detroit area.
The first name Goldner used was
‘Dark Eye’, but when he wanted to
register it, he changed it to ‘Black
Eye’ because the name H. ‘Dark Eye’
was already taken. By the time it appeared
on the Region 2 Popularity
Poll ballots, both names were well
represented. Together, Dark Eye (garden
name) and H. ‘Black Eye’ (the
1984 registered name of the 30" M
5" dormant lavender pink with dark
pink, eyezone and green throat tetraploid)
won the highest number of
votes but lost the popular vote because
of the divided names. It re-
Alfred H. Goldner
mains a popular plant today as well
as his “Improved Black Eye” (unregistered), which he liked better
than the first registered H. ‘Black Eye’.
“Where did you get your original gene pool” I asked Al.
“The Chicago 7” he answered. “And who were the 7” After asking
a dozen or more old timers, we finally came up with a list we think is
The
“Iimproved
Black Eye”
(garden
name), which
is not
registered.
LaVere Webster
with H. ‘Sears
Tower’ in his
AHS Display
status HIS-
TORIC DAY-
LILY GARDEN
in Rochester
Hills, Michigan.
H. ‘August
Cheer’
Registered
1990, 34” VL
5” dormant
diploid, dark
pink with light
pink watermark
above
green throat.
Page 18 Fall 2005 - Winter 2006 AHS Region 2/Great Lakes Newsletter