Morton L. Morss
Winner of the Bertrand Farr Silver Medal for 2000

Erling Grovenstein, Jr.

A highlight of the 54th National Convention of the American Hemerocallis Society in Philadelphia on July 15th was the announcement at the Awards Banquet that Morton L. Morss was winner of the Bertrand Farr Silver Medal for 2000. This distinguished medal is awarded by vote of the Board of Directors for "outstanding results in the field of hybridizing".

How did Morton Morss (his friends call him "Mort") become interested in hybridizing daylilies? Mort, along with his twin sister Marilyn, was born in San Luis Obispo, California, in 1940. He attended public schools and graduated from high school in San Luis Obispo. After a tour of duty in the U.S. Navy, he went on the G.I. Bill to art school to study painting in San Francisco. It was there that he met David Kirchhoff who was working in a music store.

In 1969 David suffered an injury which made walking and even standing difficult. He decided it was better to fall on the sand in his home state of Florida than on the pavements of San Francisco, so he returned to his parents' home in the country near Sanford. His father Ed Kirchhoff was a nurseryman who, while he had specialized in raising gladioli as cut flowers, in the early 1960's became interested in raising and hybridizing daylilies and, to make the hobby pay for itself, established Daylily World in the late 1960's. David's health improved in Florida and his interest in daylilies grew such that by 1971 he decided to make Daylily World his home and profession. He invited Mort Moss to come help at Daylily World in 1972. Mort enjoyed working at Daylily World and by 1974 was hybridizing in the assigned area of eyes and edges for lavender and purple daylilies. Ed Kirchhoff died in 1978 and left Daylily World to his son. Besides being the founder of Daylily World, Ed Kirchhoff is remembered as the hybridizer of more than twenty daylily introductions, including his PASSION PINK (1971), a pink daylily with buff ivory throat.

To what can we attribute Mort Morss's success as a hybridizer? Certainly having Ed and David Kirchhoff as initial instructors and critics must have helped. Yet those of us who know Mort Morss know that he is his own most severe critic; his standards are hard to attain. He had the wisdom to begin hybridizing with the best lavender and purple tetraploid daylilies available at the time. These were generally daylily hybrids of James Marsh, Virginia Peck, Bill Munson, and, of course, David Kirchhoff. One quality which these had in common was that they were hardy enough to grow well in most areas of the United States, a characteristic which is necessary for any hybridizer seeking national acclaim. Morss's first introduction was INNER VIEW (R-1982) which received a JC in 1983 and an HM in 1987. INNER VIEW is a lavender cream daylily which is edged yellow with a primrose yellow halo and green throat. It was from Munson's SILVER VEIL by David Kirchhoff's ZINFANDEL.

Morss' first daylily to receive wide acclaim was PAPER BUTTERFLY (R-1983, HM '87, AM '90). This daylily is a cream peach and blue violet blend with blue violet eyezone of intricate color gradations and green throat. The interesting eyezone makes this flower a virtual garden jewel. It was of complex origin involving Marsh's CHICAGO TWO BITS and CHICAGO MIST and Munson's THAIS, SILVER VEIL, and KNAVE and an undisclosed seedling. Morss received the Lenington All-American Award for PAPER BUTTERFLY in 1998; this award is for a cultivar registered for at least 10 years and which gives outstanding performance in the different AHS regions as voted by the AHS board of Directors.

The next daylily to receive acclaim for Morss was SHARK'S TOOTH (R-1985, HM '88). This flower has a pastel orchid bloom edged violet with a violet eyezone above a yellow green throat. The name derives from the lighter serrated edge which recalls shark's teeth. Judith Weston has noted that "Mort could arguably be considered the hybridizer who first came up with the type edging labeled 'shark's teeth' and given the competition out there, both in numbers and in talent, being the originator of much of anything is an accomplishment."

There followed DIVA ASSOLUTA (HM '89, cream touched lavender), MAGGIE MCDOWELL (HM '91, ivory cream pink polychrome), and OPUS ONE (HM '91, greyed lavender). These had blooms which were distinguished by being edged gold, yellow, and cream respectively. SHADOW DANCE (HM '91) was derived from PAPER BUTTERFLY X OPUS ONE and has a distinctive pastel mauve bloom with slate lavender eyezone above a green throat.

Some thirteen years after starting hybridizing at Daylily World, Mort registered ALWAYS AFTERNOON. This daylily is from a seedling of RING OF CHANGE (Kirchhoff ) by TIFFANY PALACE (Munson) crossed with OPUS ONE. The bloom is lavender mauve with midnight purple eyezone above a bright green throat. Purple veins and tightly ruffled greyed lavender edges enhance the bloom. This well branched cultivar has been beautiful in all the gardens the author has visited. From Schoeppinger, Germany, Werner Reinermann has written: "The absolutely superstar of all Morss' hybrids in my garden is ALWAYS AFTERNOON-all the visitors give us positive comments for ALWAYS AFTERNOON… The daylilies from Morton Morss are good for North German weather of cold and rainy winters." Herr Reinermann also said that when he visited Daylily World, even though he speaks only a little bit of English, he was able to communicate with Morss in German (a talent Morss has not revealed to most of us English speakers). Morss won the Don C. Stephens Award in 1993 for ALWAYS AFTERNOON; this award is for the best registered, boldly eyed or banded daylily as determined by a vote of the Garden Judges. Finally Morss won the Stout Silver Medal for ALWAYS AFTERNOON in 1997; this medal is the highest medal bestowed upon a daylily (see The Daylily Journal, Vol. 52, No. 4, Winter 1997/1998, p 386 for a picture of ALWAYS AFTERNOON). For a complete list of Morss's daylilies which have won AHS awards see the attached table.

In 1992 Morss received HM's for FANTASY FINISH and GRACELAND and in 1993 for MANDALA and MENDOCINO. GILDED MOSAIC (HM'94) is a greyed rose lavender edged in gold with a green throat surrounded by a large yellow clover leaf pattern. JACKIE'S CHOICE (HM '94) is an elegant purple with bluish lavender watermark eyezone, a dormant 4.5" daylily. WITCH STICHERY (HM '94) is cream with a lovely eyezone which has been described as lavender edged purple in "an intricately feathered, watercolor style" above a green throat.

MORT'S MAGIC (HM'95) is a large medium mauve, dormant daylily which has a double edge of purple and then white. It is from a seedling, derived from Moldovan's NILE FLOWER by Kirchhoff's MONTAGE, crossed with Peck's HOLIDAY FRILLS. MORT'S MASTERPIECE (R.1995) is a large alabaster daylily with a brushed-on wine eyezone and double edging of wine surrounded by narrow white shark's teeth; it is from Kirchhoff's SONG WITHOUT WORDS by Morss's LIN WRIGHT. FORTUNE'S DEAREST (HM'99) , derived in part from MORT'S MAGIC and its sib, is a red-purple self with a flamboyant white shark's tooth edge. UPPERMOST EDGE combines the gold edged daylilies of Stamile (WEDDING BAND), Kirchhoff (MEDITERRANEAN MOOD), and Reckamp (ANGEL'S SMILE) in an apricot colored daylily with red purple eyezone and double edge of red purple and gold filigree

Inevitably Mort's work with lavender and purple has led to daylilies of other colors. BARBARA DITTMER (R,1994) is a small pink daylily with a large rose to pink to peach eyezone above a green heart and a fringe of gold ; it is from a seedling (SHADOW DANCE x tetra-SILOAM VIRGINIA HENSON) by ANGEL'S SMILE. REQUIEM FOR DIANA (R.1998) is a pink bitone with a large coral orchid pink watermark above a yellow to green throat. JULIE NEWMAR (R.2000) has a 7" bloom of pastel peach color with an eyezone of imperial purple colored webs above a watercolor wash of violet lavender and green heart; the eye colors are echoed in a diffused watercolor pattern on the sepals; the petals are edged in grape plum and bordered with wide serrated and shark's tooth formations. JULIE NEWMAR typifies much of the work of Mort Morss, daylilies with beautiful, intricately colored eyezones and edges.

Surely Mort Morss's early training in art must have influenced his hybridizing and selection of daylilies for introduction. David Kirchhoff says that when Mort looks at a daylily he can see things which others fail to visualize and then bring these qualities out in subsequent diligent hybridizing. Curt Hanson says that the dramatic patterns which Mort has given us are "his unique signature in the evolution of the modern daylily". Morton L. Morss obviously deserves to be the winner of the Bertrand Farr Silver Medal for 2000.