My Background
Sassafras Daylilies, owned by Floyd Boatwright, is basically a hobby garden. We hybridize modern tetraploid daylilies, and specialize in bi-tone and bi-colored daylilies. However, we also take what mother nature give's us and run with it. I have been working with daylilies since the middle 1950’s, when my Grandmother encouraged me to grow and care for my own flowers. I've had flowers ever since.
In 1966 I was drafted into the military and spent a year in Vietnam. After returning home it took a couple of years to get my head uncorked from the military and a subsequent move to Hartsville, South Carolina. After settling in I bought more unnamed daylilies just because of their beauty. As the years went by I learned more about them and became enamored of many registered cultivars. In 1986 I pulled up all the plants without names and composted them and have only purchased named varieties since. In 1990 the hybridizing bug bit me, and the rage was on! At one time I had approximately 1000 different cultivars.
I retired in 2002 and continued with the large number of cultivars I was growing until 2012 when I reduced the number to about 150, the majority of which were my own introductions. Today, I still try to grow about 1800 – 2000 seedlings, which is a good number for something that was supposed to be just a hobby. That being said, in the South Carolina summer, sometimes even that seems like too many!
Thank you very much for visiting the site and we look forward to hearing from you,
Floyd Boatwright