Every June and July, a small garden hidden away on the north side of Smith College’s campus in Northampton, Massachusetts, comes to life. The unsuspecting site is home to an extensive collection of award-winning wild daylilies.
The garden includes winners of the annual Stout Silver Medal, awarded by the American Hemerocallis Society. The award is named in honor of Dr. Arlow Burdette Stout, considered the father of modern daylily breeding. According to the garden’s sign, the prestigious title is “the highest award a daylily can receive.”
During the blooming season, visitors to Capen Garden can enjoy the spread of impressive daylilies sporting a variety of colors, sizes, shapes, and textures. Plant labels display their species’ names and the year they won the prestigious award, listed in chronological order. The first winner, Hesperus, won in 1950.
Some names are about as colorful as the flowers themselves, including Strawberry Candy, the pink frilly winner of 1998, and Moonlit Masquerade, the white, yellow, and purple winner of 2004. The garden is a lovely spot to stop and smell the flowers and a fragrant lesson in daylily breeding history.
