A timeless, serene garden
heralds advancements

By Roger Mercer

A cool wind rolled up off Lake Erie and swayed the stalks of thousands of daylilies. The bright flowers seemed to say welcome with their light, musky fragrance and their colors.
The lace of Japanese maple leaves in red, white and green unfolded gently to reveal curving beds of hostas, beeches and other perennials in full array. I was glad I'd driven the extra five hours
from Milwaukee to see this garden in Avon, Ohio.
The garden is Steve Moldovan's, and in my pantheon of plant people, Steve Moldovan ranks well above the angels.
I value no skill more than the capacity to create a thing of great beauty. I always admired Steve Moldovan's daylilies. But
hybridizing good flowers and creating a garden of great beauty require different skills. Steve combines both skills in abundance.
Most daylily hybridizers credit Steve with making great advancements in daylily colors possible. He was one of the first to have
clear purple and lavender varieties. And his pinks
and rose colors are unmatchedfor in tensity and clarity. The colors are
so clear and bright that it strains credibility to accept that all daylilies were either orange or yellow less than 100 years ago. In just a few decades, what would almost appear to be a wholly new kind of flower has been created.

I have spent hours talking with Steve in other gardens. He and I visit Bill Munson in Gainesville, Fla., about the same time most years. I've grown Steve's cultivars for two decades and I've edited his writing for the Daylily Journal.

But only upon visiting his garden did I feel I really knew this big, burly, dark and intense man with East European roots. He still uses Hungarian given names for some of his flowers. And one of his greatest, the clear, pink `Mariska,'' he named for his mother, Mary.

After 45 years of breeding them, what does Steve value most in a daylily?

``The color has to be there,'' he says, and ``It has to branch,'' meaning the flower stalks must be plentiful on each scape and there must be many buds. And perhaps most important, the plant has to grow well.

Increasingly important for Steve are wide, round, ruffled forms and decorative edgings, he says. His new cultivars, are edged with lace, ruffles, and tooth-like protrusions. This is a whole new and fanciful look in daylilies that was first developed by the late Brother Charles Reckamp, a longtime friend of Steve's from Techny, Ill.

Steve's garden is essentially linear. It runs from his back door perhaps 700 feet toward Lake Erie. All manner of new, rare and exceptional plants appear in the garden. But the stars of the garden are the daylilies, and the best supporting actors are Steve's own hostas, which are spread through many parts of the garden.

The garden is arranged in many raised beds edged with stones. And each bed seems to have some focal point, some special tree or shrub or planting of daylilies that makes it special. Grass walks curve around beds and a main walk gives an almost unobstructed view of the length of the garden, giving a powerful sense of great distance.

The Moldovan garden is one I'm glad I didn't miss.

From Your Garden, 1992