The Chattahoochee Valley Daylily Society will host the Daylily Festival June 7-8 at the Columbus Botanical Garden. Mark your calendars now for this special event.

Times:
1-6 p.m. Saturday, June 7
1-5 p.m. Sunday, June 8

General admission is free. Tickets to hear the speakers are $15 (for one speaker) or $25 (for both).

Guest speaker Walter Reeves will be speaking at 3 p.m. June 7. Read all about this Georgia garden expert and TV personality in his biography.

Another guest speaker is Oliver Billingslea, a member of the Board of Directors for the American Hemerocallis Society. His biography is below.

Olliver Billingslea’s Biography

Oliver Billingslea grew up on a farm in Mississippi, completed his Master’s degree at Johns Hopkins University and earned his PhD at the University of Wisconsin.

In 1970, he joined the faculty at Auburn University Montgomery, teaching in its English department until his retirement in 2011. A longtime member of the American Hemerocallis Society, he has written numerous articles for its national publication, The Daylily Journal, and is also a well-known hybridizer, winning 18 Honorable Mention Awards, an Award of Merit and the President’s Cup.

He served as Awards & Honors Chair for the AHS, later as Regional Vice President for Alabama and Mississippi, and in 2005 became editor of The Dixie Daylily, the journal for Alabama and Mississippi. In May 2012, he published Landscaping with Daylilies, a 336-page book with 720 color photos depicting gardening around the world.

He is currently editing a revision of the popular AHS publication, An Illustrated Guide to Daylilies, due to be completed in the fall of 2014.