Matthew Kaskel's BEST EDGE
In the early 2000′s, Jamie Gossard and I traveled to visit Matthew Kaskel. While in the garden , Matthew showed us the dayliliy he called BEST EDGE. Matthew liked the flower of the daylily but didn’t care for the plant habit because it had a short scape and a low bud count.
I remember John Benz and asking me about the daylily. I had said “John it’s a 500.00 dollar daylily on a fifty cent scape. I had agreed with Matthews view. Nevertheless that didn’t stop Pete Harry from covering the daylily with pods. Pete saw great potential in this daylily. Pete hybridized in Matthew’s garden.
That fall Matthew sent a piece of BEST EDGE to John to grow and use.
It didn’t live for John so Matthew instructed John to get another piece from Dan Trimmer to grow. Dan and Frank Smith had aquirred the daylily also from Matthew. A year later John got another piece from Dan T. Over the next several years this trio used BEST EDGE to produce several very nice introductions. To my knowledge Matthew Kaskel never made a dime off of BEST EDGE. He was gracious enough to let others make advancements. I salute you Matthew Kaskel!
© 2010, Mike. All rights reserved. Copyright extended to images.