Howard Hite Award – 2024 Winner: Mike Holmes
Congratulations to Mike Holmes of Riverbend Daylily Garden in Xenia, Ohio. Mike is the proud winner of this year’s Howard Hite Award for his notable achievements in the field of daylily hybridizing. Mike has been nominated for the Hite Award numerous times over the last five years. Nominations this year for Mike were detailed not only about his hybridizing program, but also included information about his generous sharing of daylily knowledge. He has spoken to many daylily clubs, spent time with individuals new to hybridizing, and presented at the Shirley Farmer’s Hybridizer’s Meeting, always making his presentation in a daylily language which both novice and professional can understand.
Sitting down with Mike for a brief interview, I learned so much information that only the highlights can be included here. He has lived in the Bellbrook, Ohio, area most of his life and is married to 2014 Hite Award winner, Sandy Holmes. Mike is a father of two and grandfather of three. Adding daylilies into the landscape of their home started in 1996. Sandy was the one who really got Mike interested in hybridizing, as she had started a few years before him. Mike gives her full credit for putting him on the path to hybridizing. Advice from Steve Moldovan and Shirley Farmer was and is still valued today in Mike’s hybridizing program.
Mike has been hybridizing for nearly thirty years and to date he has registered 85 cultivars. He introduces cultivars sparingly, limiting his introductions to those he considers excellent and distinctive. He does not promote his own cultivars and does not nominate his own daylilies for awards; therefore he has received only one ADS Award. His 2005 introduction ‘See Me-Feel Me-Touch Me’ won an honorable mention award in 2009.
Mike is continually concentrating on the betterment of his daylily genetics. Always on the cutting edge of the latest daylily trends, his program includes bicolors, bitones, fancy and/or toothy edges, patterned eyes, broken patterns, color changers and so much more. His hybridizing program produces cultivars which are hardy and have good plant habit as well as great branching and bud count.
When asked about his favorite introductions, he did not hesitate to recognize ‘Striped Action’ for its branching and bud count and ‘Redefinable’ for its form. The future for Mike’s hybridizing program will focus on variegated daylilies — ones with flecks, stripes or blotches that lean more to stripes.
With his interest in technology, he has found ways to use tech in his hybridizing program. Mike has shared his tech knowledge with other hybridizers, assisting them in using tech in their programs a swell. Additionally, Mike maintained a blog about toothy daylilies and others have used his shared knowledge to create amazing toothy cultivars. Along with Michael Miller, Mike was instrumental in developing “Monday Night Lights,” an annual series of Facebook slideshow presentations by a wide variety of hybridizers. Together, Mike and Michael won the ADS Electronic Media Award in 2017. Also to Mike Holmes’ credit, he served as the Region 2 Web Master and provided technology support to various projects at the National level.
Mike spends time during the winter season studying genetics, always searching for the next genetic break which could lead to an awesome cultivar. Mike’s advice to novice or beginner hybridizer is as follows:
1. Get a mentor.
2. Go to meetings and meet people. It’s the people who keep you going.
3. Be consistent each year with your monthly schedule of tasks that have to be done. The primary tasks are making the seed, harvesting the seed, planting the seed, and evaluating seedlings. All of these tasks have subsets which are equally important to completing the primary task at hand.
4. Don’t take on more than you can handle.
Mike and Sandy are very generous with their time and knowledge. Each year they choose a new introduction and the funds raised from the sale of this intro are donated to the fight against childhood cancer. To date they have raised nearly $8,000.00.
So much more can be said about this humble unassuming man. Most of us know him as a gentle giant. And we who grow and love daylilies are thankful for his contributions to the daylily world. When I called Mike to let him know he had won the 2024 Hite Award, he stated that he never dreamed he would be considered for the award let alone be in the company of his mentor Steve Moldovan. Congratulations Mike! Well deserved.
One last note. “Thank You” to the Southern Michigan Daylily Society. SMDS has sponsored the Hite Award since 1989. This prestigious award has been presented to 32 Region 2 hybridizers. The nomination form is available on our Region 2 website and will appear in print in the next newsletter.
Gail Braunstein, Awards and Honors Chair
The Howard Hite Award is to honor a Region 2 ADS member who has contributed notable achievements in the field of hybridizing. These achievements have been the results of years of dedication to a hybridizing program and have greatly influenced the world of daylilies.
The Award, established in 1989, is sponsored by The Southern Michigan Daylily Society and is named for the late Howard Hite.
Howard was an avid fan of daylilies. In the early 1960’s he began working on a hybridizing program which focused on the entire plant. Strong plants which could withstand the cold winters of Michigan. In 1968 he registered his first daylily “Angelus Bells” and for the next 35 or so years he worked tirelessly, and registered 125 cultivars.
Like most daylily hybridizers, Howard had dreams, he was working for a true blue daylily and he wanted to live to be 100 years old. He didn’t make it to his 100 birthday; however, a week prior to his 99th birthday he submitted his last registration. The daylily was registered as “Christine Walser Hite”, and was named for his mother. Shortly after submitting the registration he passed away.
Although the Howard Hite Award was established in 1989, it wasn’t until 1995 when Howard was presented the award. At that time he joined the ranks of other highly regarded hybridizers, Dr. Charles Branch, Bryant Millikan, Charles Recamp, and Steven Moldovan.
Criteria For Howard Hite Nominations
The Howard Hite Award is a free-form, sand-etched glass plate with an engraved image of Howard Hite’s H. ‘Indonesia’. The award is not based on the quantity of nominations for any individual, but on the quality of the individual’s years of hybridizing efforts to improve daylily cultivars.
The criteria for selection of a recipient are as follows:
- The award is to honor a Region 2 ADS member who has contributed notable achievements in the field of hybridizing from years of a dedicated hybridizing program.
- The award may be given each year only if a recipient is selected.
- A person may receive the award only one time.
- Deceased hybridizers may be considered for the award.
- Any ADS Region 2 Member (including committee members) may submit names of possible recipients to the Awards and Honors Chair before April 15 of each year. The final selection will be determined by the Hite Award Committee composed of four members and the Regional President representing the five states in the Region.
- Names of past nominees may be considered as possible candidates for future years.
2025 Howard Hite Nomination Form in .pdf format available HERE.
Howard Hite Award Winners
1990 Dr. Charles Branch
1991 No Award
1992 Bryant Millikan
1993 Brother Charles Reckamp
1994 Steve Moldovan
1995 Howard Hite
1996 Charles Griesbach
1997 Dennis Anderson
1998 Curt Hanson
1999 Margie Soules
2000 Jon Benz
2001 Leo Sharp
2002 Walter Jablonski
2003 Charles Applegate
2004 Dan Bachman
2005 Dottie Warrell
2006 Don Jerabeck
2007 Richard Norris
2008 Roy Klehm
2009 Jamie Gossard
2010 Robert Ellison
2011 Joel T Polston
2012 James Marsh
2013 Martin Kaminski
2014 Sandy Holmes
2015 Bret Clement
2016 Phil & Luella Korth
2017 Bob Faulkner
2018 John Kulpa
2019 Mandy McMahon
2020 No Award
2021 No Award
2022 Gerda Brooker
2023 Steve Williams
2024 Michael Holmes