JAMES TOLAR

Age: 39, he said, then answered 73

Occupation: Retired

Community connection: Daylily grower

Fast fact: The Tolars welcome monarch butterflies that hatched at their home.

Quick Quote: “We get a lot of fun out of giving dayilies to people.”

NEDERLAND — In a daily pre-coffee morning ritual, James Tolar and his wife, Doretha discreetly eye each other to see who’s ready to go out first.

“If I see he’s getting dressed, I hurry up and get up real quick,” she said.

As a couple, they step out together, and head to their daylily patch to check on Kaleidoscope Treasure, Frilly Bliss or True Blue Heart.

These Gulf Coast Daylily Society members tend beds with dozens of varieties, but their experimental hybridizing patch is their passion, the Nederland pair said. They both do the work, but James comes out as the organizer. Now, as bursts of color greet them each morning, they’re planning for their club’s annual show and sale.

The Gulf Coast Daylily Society will present its flower show and sale from 9 a.m. Saturday, May 19, until items are sold out. The sale will be in the Central Mall lobby by Target.

For the past few years, spring has brought additional admirers to the Tolar garden in the form of hundreds of monarch butterflies.