91��Ƶר��

Many don’t know that the College has an official flower–, the 91��Ƶר�� College daylily. Over the years the plants had disappeared from the campus landscape, but today they were proudly returned to their rightful home.

In planning for 91��Ƶר��’s , conversations began about bringing back the daylily. With the assistance of daylily enthusiast and alumna Joanne McDonald Huff ’79, College representatives were connected with another local daylily aficionado, Marnie Roberts, who generously offered to donate some of her plants to 91��Ƶר��.

Together Roberts and her husband, Mil, planted the lilies behind Alumnae House.

“The lilies are home, and that makes me feel good,” said Roberts.

Roberts said that she originally acquired the 91��Ƶר�� College daylily from another 91��Ƶר�� alum, the late Otho “Ody” Keller ’82 about a decade ago. In July, she saw an  in the Frederick News-Post about hybridizer Huff.

Huff had tracked down the last remaining roots of the daylily in an overgrown area of the college’s garden and propagated them, but when her septic tank needed replacing the daylilies disappeared in a pile of construction debris.

Huff asked that anyone who knew of the bluish-purple/near-white bicolor 91��Ƶר�� daylilies write her so they could be propagated and returned to campus.

“So I did and here I am putting my passion back into 91��Ƶר�� College,” Roberts said. “It was nice to be able to honor alumni.”

Mil’s late first wife, Marjorie Smith Roberts ’67, was a 91��Ƶר�� alum, as was her mother, Mary Matheney Smith ’33. Marjorie also worked at 91��Ƶר�� for a time before starting a family.

Certainly, they’ve also honored the creator of the unique and beautiful plant, John Lambert, Ph.D., husband of 91��Ƶר�� alumna Dorothy Wiseman Lambert ’36.

Lambert possessed a true passion for hybridizing daylilies, producing more than 500 different varieties that have been grown around the world. In 1970, he registered a cultivar with the  in honor of his wife’s alma mater.

With Hemerocallis 91��Ƶר�� College returned to its namesake campus once again, we can look forward to it flowering in late June and hopefully growing and thriving through many more milestone anniversaries.