Margo started hybridizing in a small backyard in Rockville, Maryland, in 1978. After many years of obscurity, she started selling a few unusual daylilies. Her focus has been on distinction (personality), exotic qualities, and good plant habits. Breeding daylilies was a fun hobby for a full time mother and teacher.
In 2001, Margo and Jim purchased property with good soil, near Jefferson's Monticello home outside Charlottesville, and moved both breeding programs to the new "estate". They have 9 acres, wonderful for walking except most of it is vertical. A river runs through it. There is more room for daylilies!
Margo has recently retired from being a kindergarten teacher in remote, rural North Garden, Virginia (near the Blue Ridge Mountains). Having raised three children who now live in NY, London, and Norfolk, Margo has two new grand daughters. She loves to paint and draw daylilies, but seldom has time.
She is a member of the Charlottesville Daylily Club. She is also an AHS exhibition judge and garden judge. Her daylilies have won about 20 HM awards. Goal: "I want to be the first to produce a pure white ruffled 12" cascade spider daylily that is 6 feet tall, and has 6 way branching. Maybe with a kaleidoscope complex eyezone. We can always dream".
"I have registered almost 100 cultivars, and about 20 of them have won awards (mostly HMs). 90 of them are under-recognized, and the 10 most popular ones I'm always sold out of, and I never get to see them! "
In 2013, Margo was honored to be awarded the A.H.S. Bertrand Farr Silver Medal for excellence in hybridizing.