Tolar’s daylilies are a neighborhood delight

By Darragh Doiron
The Port Arthur News

NEDERLAND May 13, 2007 08:21 pm

— 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.
“We were worried we couldn’t get enough milkweed,” Tolar said, referring to stage where thick, juicy caterpillars were munching on everything in the garden but the daylilies. He pointed to a row of empty chrysalis blowing under his garage roof line, and the occasional red/orange butterfly that flew gracefully around his spread.
Years ago the Tolars attended the daylily show and got some “pretty” flowers, then started getting serious enough to where Doretha thought, “It might be good for us to get in the daylily club.”
While neighbors admire the colorful spread in his front and side yard, Tolar says he’s got to be honest about the family hobby.
“The be truthful, it’s a lot of trouble,” he confessed.
But he’s way more dedicated than most of the guests the Society hopes to draw to the show. Tolar says plenty of people can buy and grow a couple of plants and not become addicted. There’s a good payoff, too.
“It is quite a satisfaction to see what it is,” he said of the “mystery” plants grown from experimentation. “We get a lot of fun out of giving daylilies to people.”
Contact this reporter at ddoiron@panews.com.

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