GORHAM – The nationally known Barth daylilies are blooming brightly this week.
But there’s only one place to buy them the entire line – O’Donal’s Nursery in Gorham.
Owner Jeff O’Donal said the nursery in 2010 bought the Barth daylily line that the Rev. Joseph Barth began in 1952 in Alna.
“We own the rights,” O’Donal said, and added he exclusively has seven Barth varieties that no one else in the world has.
O’Donal’s is growing 5,000 Barth daylily plants, including a selection blooming in a garden viewed from the highway. And, he plans eventually to market the lilies through a catalog and mail order. But he would need to stock more plants.
“Right now, I’m building the market locally,” he said Tuesday.
Barth died in 1988, but the lilies he developed bloom still. Barth’s son, Nicholas Barth, is still developing more hybrids for O’Donal’s.
“He’s the expert, I’m the grower,” O’Donal said.
The nursery is billing the Barth line as the longest continual line of hybridized daylilies in the world.
Strolling among the lilies, O’Donal easily recognized the variety of each plant and its history.
The lilies from their 2-gallon pots at the nursery can be transplanted in gardeners’ yards between April and November, O’Donal said.
“Plant anytime you can dig a hole,” he said.
Barth, who acquired several varieties to work with, developed the hybrids to withstand the harsh Maine climate.
Barth “traded all over the world,” O’Donal said,
The Barth varieties are noted for their longer period of blooming and for extended blooming through the day.
“The number of buds gives you longevity of bloom,” O’Donal said.
O’Donal’s has one lily this year that bloomed on May 30 and was still in bloom Tuesday.
Barth lilies are available in a variety of colors and each variety has a name, including Not Forgotten, Alna Pride, and Twirl Girl. Others were named for members of Barth’s family.
A vegetable grower in Dresden, who had thousands of Barth lilies growing on about 25 acres, sold the line to O’Donal’s. The farmer had acquired the line from Barth’s son.
O’Donal bought three clumps each of 72 types of daylilies.
“We ended up with the entire Barth line,” he said.
The lilies were sold directly from the fields in Alna and Dresden. In 2010, the year O’Donal acquired the line in July, his sales were $500 the first fall.
“I was ecstatic,” he said.
Then last year, his Barth lily sales tallied $9,994.
“My goal this year is to sell $30,000,” he said, “I’m at $20,000.
The O’Donal collection of Barth lilies is drawing national attention. He said an editor from Better Homes and Gardens snapped photos this summer at O’Donal’s while touring with a plant association that held a convention in Boston.
O’Donal is selling the Barth lilies in pots starting at $14.99 and ranging up to $39.99. For more information, visit odonalsnurseries.com or call 839-4262.
Jeff O’Donal of O’Donal’s Nursery in Gorham works among Barth daylilies, a line the nursery bought two years ago. The hybrid lilies are noted for length of blooming, large flowers and the number of flowers per stem. (Staff photo by Robert Lowell)Send questions/comments to the editors.
