Jack Carpenter was born October 16, 1939, in
Laredo, Webb County, Texas, the son of Chancey Lee Carpenter, Jr. and Mary Jane
(Hooper) Carpenter.Jack Carpenter was born October 16, 1939, in
Laredo, Webb County, Texas, the son of Chancey Lee Carpenter, Jr. and Mary Jane
(Hooper) Carpenter.
Daylilies have been a part of Jack's life since he was a sixth grader when his grandmother, Marie Hooper, purchased a pair of daylilies at a Methodist church bazaar near Galena Park, Texas. He crossed those two daylilies and when the seedlings bloomed, he was hooked.
Catherine Neal's family and Jack's were linked by his Uncle Vernon Carpenter, who married Adelia Strack. Jack's place on Strack Road was given to him by Adelia (Strack) Carpenter. Catherine Neal's Mother's family were Stracks. That is where Jack's daylily venture began in earnest.
When Jack was in the sixth grade and already growing daylilies, he visited with Hugh Russell at his commercial daylily garden on I-45 near Spring, Texas. In 1955, Jack purchased daylilies from Hugh Russell.
Jack attended Texas A&I University at Kingsville, Texas, to pursue a teaching career. He took many courses in botany, and side courses in landscaping and horticulture. He graduated with a double major B.S. in Art and Biology from Texas A&I, and a Master's in Art from Sam Houston State. Jack moved to the Klein, Texas area after graduating from college. He taught at Eagle Lake, Texas; Long Island, New York; Klein, Texas; and Center, Texas before retiring.
In the 1970s, Jack established the Rainbow Hill Daylily Nursery on a 10-acre hilltop five miles west of Center, Texas, on Highway 7. That one acre nursery expanded to four acres of daylilies when he established the Lily Farm about five miles farther west on Highway 7 on a 45 acre tract he had there. Josie Bomar worked many years alongside Jack to make this a successful enterprise.
In April 2010. Jack sold the Lily Farm to his nephew, Mark Carpenter. Jack and Josie continued their work with daylily hybridizing and in 2012, had 23,000 new seedlings ready to be planted at a new location north of Beaumont in Town Bluff, Texas.
Jack's biggest influence came from the daylily lines of Elsie Spalding, but he also used lines from multiple hybridizers across the country.
Jack's cultivars have been recognized with multiple Honorable Mentions, Awards of Merits, the 1991 Eugene S. Foster Award for Hemerocallis 'Catherine Neal'; the 1988 American Hemerocallis Society President's Cup for H. 'Beautiful Daydream' and in 1992 for H. 'Regal Heir', the 1999 L. Ernest Plouf Award for H. 'Dena Marie' and in 2003 for H. 'Lavender Blue Baby', the 2007 Don C. Stevens Award for H. 'Lavender Blue Baby', and the 2010 R. W. Munson, Jr. Award for H. 'Texas Kaleidoscope'.
In 2007, Jack was honored as the recipient of the Stout Silver Medal for H. 'Lavender Blue Baby'. In 2008, Jack was awarded the Bertrand Farr Silver Medal, the highest American Hemerocallis Society recognition for hybridizing.
As of November 2012, Jack had registered 563 daylily cultivars.
Jack has generously made donations of daylilies to American Hemerocallis Society Region 6, American Hemerocallis Society National Convention host clubs, and other Regions and clubs.
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