East Texas Daylily Society
Established May 1990

The East Texas Daylily Society was established in 1990, through the efforts of Roxanne Fessler, Nell Shimek, and Mickey Sanders. The charter members were Christine Atchison, Roxanne & John Fessler, Finas Gipson, Snooks Harville, Joyce Lewis, and Lucille Wynne. The first meeting took place in the Tyler Public Library. The club currently meets most months at the Tyler Rose Garden Center.

The club renovated and established the Edna Lankart Memorial Daylily Beds at the Rose Garden in the Spring of 1991. Edna Lankart and Louis Squyres had originally planted these beds in 1978. In 2001, these beds became an official AHS Display Garden. The club replaced the daylilies in these beds with more recent cultivars in 2007. The original Edna Lankart Trophy (for the best unregistered seedling displayed in a Regional Meeting awards bed, by a Region 6 hybridizer who is not a member of the host club) is on display in the Rose Garden Center.

The club has traditionally funded at least one scholarship at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, for horticulture students. Education is very important in promoting interest in Hemerocallis, and the club plant sales each year provide support for this effort.

The club is proud to say two well-known hybridizers, Joyce Lewis and Snooks Harville, were members of the club.