Most people are likely unaware that the College has an official flower–Hemerocallis Hood College, the Hood College daylily. The creator of this unique and beautiful plant was Dr. John Lambert, husband of Hood alumna Dorothy Wiseman Lambert ’36. Dr. Lambert possessed a true passion for hybridizing daylilies, producing more than 500 different varieties that have been grown around the world. In 1970, Dr. Lambert registered a cultivar with the American Hemerocallis Society in honor of his wife’s alma mater. The plant features distinctive bicolor blooms of belladonna and cream with an orchid blush and a grass green throat, flowering annually in late June and early July. The flowers had briefly been sold as a fundraiser through the alumni office and could be found on the college grounds in select locations, but time eventually took its toll and the plants disappeared from the campus landscape. In planning for Hood’s 125th anniversary, conversations began about returning the Hood College daylily to its rightful home. With the assistance of daylily enthusiast and alumna Joanne McDonald Huff ’79, College representatives were connected with another local daylily aficionado, Marnie Roberts, who generously offered to donate some of her plants to Hood. In September 2017, Hemerocallis Hood College returned to its namesake campus once again to hopefully grow and thrive through many more milestone anniversaries.
