M.A.D.S. Club News - Region 14

2025 Helen Field Fischer Gold Medal Recipient

Oliver Billingslea

The AHS has awarded the 2025 Helen Field Fischer Gold Medal for distinguished and meritorious service on the national level to Oliver Billingslea.

Oliver has been an active member of AHS for over 50 years (1971–2025). On two different occasions he served as Region 14's Director on the AHS Board, first serving as Chair of Awards & Honors (1996–2001), and secondly as a member of the Publications Committee (2013–2018). While acting as Chair of Special Projects during his second term, he solicited AHS funds totaling $1,500 to help establish the Lenington All-American bed at North Dakota State University.

As Awards and Honors Chair, his first task in 1996 was to contact the mint in Connecticut, which had been doing the engraving for AHS, to have a sufficient number of medals cast which would last for several years. The following year, working with his Committee, he encouraged the Board to institute the policy of placing 10 “overlooked” cultivars on the HM portion of the ballot. These were cultivars less well-known in their own day, but which over the years had developed a popular following and were becoming historically significant. Similar to the policy of the American Iris Society, in 1999 he sought Board approval to raise the number of AM recipients from 10 to 12. He was instrumental in helping to shape the definition for the R.W. Munson, Jr., Award for patterned daylilies, voted upon for the first time in 2001. For almost a decade (2001–2009), on behalf of AHS he edited the booklet, Cumulative Awards & Honors: Of People and Daylilies. Each printing of the booklet, ranging between 52 and 76 pages, returned a profit for the AHS, and one special copy in 2005, for which Oliver solicited the signatures of 42 well-known hybridizers, went for auction on the E-mail Robin for $600, the funds going to AHS.

Oliver has attended multiple National Conventions and has used his skills in writing numerous articles for The Daylily Journal. These include features on several hybridizers, a write-up of the 1999 National Convention, and memorials for Jack Harrison, Sarah Sikes, and Barbara Watts. Among his articles are “Designer Genes: The Consummate Gifts of Sarah Sikes” (1996); “Graceland Gardens,” on Larry Grace's hybridizing program (1999); “Renaisance Gardens,” on Judith Weston's hybridizing program (1999); “Oklahoma City Revisited,” the National Convention (2000); “Opening a Magic Casement: The Hybridizing Program of Elizabeth Salter” (2001); “‘The Daylilies are Shaking’: The Hybridizing Program of Linda Agin” (2009); Terah and Jesse George (2015), “Cooking up some goodies!”, on the hybridizing program of Terah and Jesse George, co-authored with Meg McKenzie Ryan (2015); “Suburban Daylilies,” on the hybridizing program of Earl Watts (2021); “Memorial to William J. (Jack) Harrison, Jr.” (2019); “Honoring Sarah Sikes” (Fall 2023), and his “In Memory of Barbara Watts” (Spring 2024).

In addition, his contributions to Region 14 are numerous, having served as Regional Vice President (2003–2004) and as editor of The Dixie Daylily (2004–2009; 2012–2018). In 2005, he wrote a paper, “How to Publish a High Quality, Cost Effective, Full Color Regional Newsletter,” which he delivered to the Editors’ Forum at the National Convention. In that same year he instituted a Region 14 Youth Digital Photography Contest, which became a prototype for subsequent photography contests in other newsletters.

In addition to writing, Oliver has used his photography skills nationally on behalf of the AHS. Between 2014 and 2017, he served on the AHS Photography Committee as a judge. Prior to his serving in that capacity, he had entered the AHS Photography Contest on several occasions, winning the Mildred Schlump Photography Award for both Single Bloom and Landscape in 2001, the Single Bloom in 2009, the Landscape in 2010, and subsequently, after his service as a judge, the Landscape in 2019. While serving as a judge, he was invited to give a PowerPoint program on “The Aesthetics of Daylily Photography” during two sessions at the Atlanta National Convention in 2015. In 2019 he contributed a number of photos, especially of Stout Medal winners, to help Claude Carpenter update material on the new ADS website. He also proofread and helped to further update the site. Over the years he has contributed numerous photos to the AHS Database.

As a member of the Board of Directors for the American Hemerocallis Society for a second term (2013–2018), Oliver made additional contributions to the AHS on the national level, primarily in respect to publications. In 2009, at the request of AHS, he began work pro bono on a major publication. The result was Landscaping with Daylilies, a 336 page, full color, coffee table book with 720 color photos depicting gardening in the various regions of the United States, as well as internationally. Photos were selected from more than 7,000 submissions, featuring the work of more than 100 photographers. Published in May 2012, the book became very popular, returning significant profit for AHS. In 2022, AHS sold its last remaining copies. Oliver's second project was to edit a revision of AHS's most popular handbook, printed in 2005 as An Illustrated Guide to Daylilies. Completed in the fall of 2014, under the title The Illustrated Guide to Daylilies, the new enlarged, 128 page, full color softbound book with 280 illustrations became an immediate success. Upon its being sold out, Oliver edited a revised and updated version of The Illustrated Guide to Daylilies in 2017. In the same year, his fourth publication on behalf of AHS was a book entitled The Open Form Daylily: Spiders, Unusual Forms, and Other “Exotics.” This 232 page, full color softbound book, containing 616 illustrations and 10 sketches, was a totally rewritten and reformatted version of a 2006 AHS publication, “Caught in the Web” Spiders & UFs. Over 6,000 photos were submitted for consideration, and the final product featured the work of 251 hybridizers and 124 photographers. It continues to bring revenue for AHS.

In the spring of 2020, Oliver authored Historical Daylilies: Daylilies in the Garden, 1980-1990. The 144 page pdf, dedicated to the American Daylily Society, contained 485 photos submitted by 53 photographers. It was made available for free download in the AHS Media Library. Subsequently, he has updated the publication each year.

At the request of Ken Cobb, Chair of Special Projects, Oliver has served as one of three judges to evaluate the Regional Newsletters, along with articles appearing in them, as well as articles in non-daylily publications.

Contributors to the AHS at the national level often begin by first serving their respective Regions. Over the years, Mr. Billingslea's articles appearing in The Dixie Daylily have won numerous national awards. As editor for an article in 2006 celebrating Region 14's 50th Anniversary, he converted some of the black and white photographs to sepia tones to give them a classic appearance. In 2007, this article received the award for “Best Article Featuring Historical Aspects.” In 2007, The Dixie Daylily was honored with four writing awards, and for the third year in a row the newsletter received the “Best Use of Photos and Graphics.” In 2008, Oliver received the AHS Regional Service Award, as well as his second “Best Newsletter Award,” the first having been granted in 2005 during his first year of eligibility. In 2013, his essay, “Travels with My Camera: the 2012 National Convention in Columbus, Ohio,” won for “Best Article about Gardens.” In 2014 The Dixie Daylily won its fourth award for the “Best Use of Photo and Graphics.” In 2016, The Dixie Daylily received the two most prestigious awards, that of “Best Newsletter” and that of “Best Use of Photos and Graphics,” as well as three writing awards: for Oliver's essays entitled “Travels with My Camera” on the Asheville and Atlanta National Conventions, and for his “A Morning at JTM Garden,” featuring the hybridizing work of Terah and Jesse George. In 2019, The Dixie Daylily received “Best Use of Photos and Graphic Arts” for the sixth time.

The Billingslea Garden has been open on four occasions for Regional spring tours: 1984, 1992, 2000, and 2018.

In 2018, at the invitation of Charlotte Chamitoff, of Charlotte's Daylily Diary, the Billingslea Garden was featured as an International Daylily Garden of the Week.

In the spring of 2019, on behalf of Montgomery Area Daylily Society, Oliver designed the new Daylily Display Bed at the Oak Park Botanical Garden in Montgomery, Alabama. The Display Bed features the work of Region 14 hybridizers over the years. With an extension added to the bed, in the fall of 2020 it became an official AHS Daylily Display Garden. It presently contains 140 cultivars. Having kept a photographic record of the garden's development from its inception in the winter of 2019 through the fall of 2020, Oliver entered in the AHS Photography Contest a digital sequence of 20 photos entitled “The Development of the ADS Daylily Display Garden at the Montgomery Botanical Garden.” This entry received the Sarah Sikes Sequence Award for 2021.

Last but not least, Oliver is proud of his work as a hybridizer. He registered his first daylilies in 1984. Of his 62 registrations, 18 have won HMs. H. ‘Xia Xiang’ received an AM in 1992. H. ‘South Sea Enchantment’ won the President's Cup in Oklahoma City in 1999. Recognizing the importance of hybridizers, he has nominated several hybridizers for the Bertrand Farr Silver Medal, among them Ra Hansen (1999), Dottie Warrell (2016), John Kinnebrew, Jr. (2017), and Victor Santa Lucia (2022).

Montgomery Area Daylily Society hosted the Region 14 Fall Meeting at the Pike Road Agricultural Center on Trotman Road, Montgomery. Here are some photos from the event:

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The Eastdale Mall daylily sale, 1000 Eastdale Mall, Montgomery, AL, 36117, will be held on June 4, 2016, from 10:00 a.m. until gone! Come get some great deals on registered daylilies. See the flyer on our MADS website.

Our next program is Saturday, August 20, 12:00 p.m.: Club Meeting and Covered Dish Luncheon (Bring your favorite luncheon dish.) Program: “Backyard Daylilies: The Garden of Winfred and Janie Huff, Hawkinsville, GA”.

We’ll also complete the Region 14 Popularity Poll and select a Nominating Committee for next year's officers.

2015 Region 14 Results

Cultivars:

1. ’Double Blue Blood’

’Double Blue Blood’ 2014 Pop Poll winner for Region 14

Photo by Oliver Billingslea

2. ’Suburban Nancy Gayle’

3. ’Look Here Mary’

 

 

4. ’Lillian’s Woman’s Touch’

 

5. ’South Sea Enchantment’

Alice Woodrome, Photo

 

Becky Parr, Photo