So the first year I planted some iris, shrubs and cedar hedges. After that, in the second and third year, I planted 426 perennials including twelve daylilies and six hostas". "It is satisfying to see all this botanical diversity, especially the shades of those colors".

Then I asked him: So in all those plants, it's the daylily that moved you? He said: "During the next three seasons and in spite of the small number of specimens in this entire flora, they never cease to impress me. Fertile in the number of flowers, each of them insure a blossoming that never stops all season long, without diseases, always elegant and clean with a proud upholding. They don't need stakes and they proudly decorate their owner's salad bowl or the one of their admirers".

And I kept asking: Was that the real trigger of your passion? He said: "By now, I'm sure you understood that I consider this flower as exceptional". And when I asked him where this passion brought him? Normand Dancause answered: "I now have a marvelous garden. It's welcoming and clean, and has near 1,000 varieties of daylilies that are registered with the American Hemerocallis Society' including two, that are my own hybrids and are now the emblematic flowers of two cities, i.e. DAME DE PÉCAUDY for the City of Contrecoeur and LA ROCHOISE for St.Roch de Richelieu." He goes on by saying: "I also add an excellent choice of hostas among the most appreciated ones".

During the interview I said: Of course this passion brought you to create new daylilies! He replied: "As hybridizer, I already have 17,000 new cultivars including many that will be registered in 2006 with the AHS". I know that pretty soon, Normand Dancause's garden will become a show garden recognized by the AHS.

Yes, in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada there are people that are passionate about this flower, the beautiful daylily.

Reggie D. Millette

Author, Photographer

bomil@ca.inter.net http://www.millettephotomedia.com