Annual daylily sale in Gordo becomes a family affair

Asa Holliman, an aviation mechanic in the United States Coast Guard stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, flew home to help his mother and father with the annual daylily sale they host at their home and farm in Gordo.

The Hollimans are hosting the event for the 32nd year. Asa shocked his mother, Rene, by saying he planned to continue the tradition of growing daylilies after his mom and dad give it up, but he probably wouldn't continue the sale.

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"Do you have that on tape?" Rene asked after Asa's surprise statement.

After so many years of organizing the plant sale, Rene and her husband, Len, had been thinking of calling it quits. Rene never thought the daylily enterprise would continue, which accounted for her surprise at Asa's statement.

"I've been threatening to retire for a while because I said 30 years is the limit, but we are at 32," Rene said. "But I feel like if you quit and you sit on your fanny, you won't be able to get up and do anything, so I guess we will keep going for a while."

The daylilies are a family tradition that was started in 1987 when Len's father gave them six daylily plants. Since then, they have expanded until they have over 600 varieties in their garden. Even that is drop in the bucket of the daylily varieties, which number about 90,000 cultivars.

"Out of the 600, I guarantee you will find at least one you like," Rene said.

Len said they held the first sale to help pay for the birth of a child, further strengthening the familial ties to the lovely flowering annual plants.

"We held that first sale to help meet the deductible for our second child. I got interested after that because we started planting Better Lilies. We got planting that variety and we got to saying we had too many. We started selling some to make room for more so it supported our habit," she said.

Len explained that their early varieties didn't have names, like they do now. They started buying lilies and keeping the names with them in order to better track what they were growing. He said their early varieties would only produce from two to five buds. Rene rolled her eyes as Len said this and a small family disagreement sprang up but quickly faded into laughter.

"Oh my gosh, don't listen to him," Rene chided. "Most everything on the farm, all the newer varieties, will rebloom when the conditions are right."

Asa joined the conversation but didn't offer an opinion on the blooming frequency debate his mother and father were having. He spends most of his days working on Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopters, but found that the farm still holds a draw for him.

"I probably won't take over the sale, but I will keep the garden alive if I am able to," Asa said. "I haven't been able to help for three years. I do miss working in the garden, but it has not been possible for me right now. It's just something I've kind of missed. Whenever I'm out of the military, I might as well."

"Mom is shocked. Mom is pleasantly shocked," Rene said, surprised that the family's daylily farm had an heir apparent.

The sale starts Friday and continues Saturday and Memorial Day, the 27th. The sale will resume the following weekend with times available on May 30, June 1 and June 2. The sale is by appointment only. You can make and appointment by calling Rene Holliman at 205-331-9480. She said the first two days of the sale are already mostly booked, but there are times available for the later dates.

Reach Gary Cosby Jr. at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Flowers and family blossom at annual Gordo daylily sale