Divine Appointment With a Daylily

Once upon a time, I bought a daylily seedling from local hybridizer Lana Wolfe.  Mom and I had visited her daylily gardens in Ft. Wayne - Hidden Acres - back in 2006.  We both bought several other daylilies and mine have all done very well for me.

July 28, 2007

Last summer, I contacted Lana to see if she ever named and registered the seedling she sold to me. I'd labeled it 'Lovely Lana' in the meantime, but I wondered if it ever got an official name.  It turns out that Lana, who has 22 registered daylilies to her name, had sold me the only seedling she had of this particular cross.

She explained to me that when a hybridizer sells a seedling, it becomes the property of the new owner who then has the right to name and register it.  I got a little excited about the possibility of doing this, but by all rights (in my mind), it was Lana who put all the work into it, so she should have the opportunity to name it and register it.

Lana gave me a gift when she sold me this gorgeous daylily. It's a beautiful flower, but as a gardener, I don't take lightly that she also allowed me to name it and register it.  So I began the process.  There is a form to fill out at the American Hemerocallis Society page, on which all known information about the cultivar is given.  Lana gave me all the pertinent information needed, I paid the fee ($20), submitted the form with photos, and then waited.

I first submitted the form on July 9, 2012, and I received acknowledgement that my form and photo had been received.  It was stated that even if they accepted my registration, it wouldn't be listed in the database until they updated sometime in 2013.

I named this gorgeous daylily 'God Winked', based on the title of a book that I bought my grandma many years ago.  When GOD Winks: How the Power of Coincidence Guides Your Life by Squire Rushnell is a wonderful little book with essays telling about how small things that happen in our lives can change them in surprising ways.

I'm also a big believer in divine appointments.  It was Chuck Swindoll who first introduced me to this concept, or at least put a name to it for me.  Some things are purely coincidental, but coincidences happen so often that I refuse to believe they're all attributed to chance.  

In any case, I believe that meeting Lana, purchasing that daylily seedling, and contacting her years later to inquire about it didn't all "just happen."  If you think that our God doesn't have time to be bothered with things that are incidental in the grand scheme of things, you really do underestimate Him.

So here we have it - 'God Winked' - a beautiful daylily, with thanks and gratitude to Lana for growing it, selling it to me, and allowing me to experience some geeky garden fun.

July 1, 2009

______________________________
***When I submitted the registration form, Lana Wolfe was listed as the hybridizer. This is not shown on the registry listing, but be assured that I gave Lana credit for creating this daylily.