From Hybridization to Your Garden
🌱 Selecting the Finest Varieties
The process begins long before a seed is ever planted. Nance personally handpicks the strongest and most unique daylily varieties from the best hybridizers in the country. These initial selections are critical — they set the foundation for the unforgettable colors, shapes, and traits that make Souls ’n Bloom lilies one-of-a-kind.
By starting with only robust, memorable varieties, we ensure that every lily in our collection can grow into something meaningful, whether chosen to honor a loved one, celebrate a milestone, or simply bring joy to a garden.
✋ Hand-Pollination with Purpose
Once the right varieties are chosen, Nance carefully hand-pollinates flowers to cross-breed them. This step is done entirely by hand, ensuring full control of lineage and quality. Each pollination is intentional, designed to bring out specific traits — color blends, bloom size, fragrance, or foliage type.
Over the course of 2–3 months, seed pods develop and mature. Only the healthiest and most viable pods are harvested, guaranteeing that every seed holds potential for a strong, unique bloom.
❄️ Preparing the Seeds
After harvest, the seeds are bagged and labeled individually and aren’t immediately planted. Instead, they are carefully stored and refrigerated for up to three months. This period of rest mimics the natural cycles of winter and helps ensure strong germination when they are eventually sown.
This stage is all about patience and preparation — setting the stage for growth that will last for decades.
🌱 Early Growth in Solo Cups
When the time is right, seeds are planted into solo cups where they spend the first 6–12 months of their life. Here, they are nurtured in a controlled environment that allows them to grow safely and steadily.
This careful start helps each lily establish a strong root system, ensuring that when it’s ready to be transplanted into garden beds, it has the resilience to thrive.
🌸 Growth in the Garden Beds
After this initial year, seedlings are moved into raised garden beds at Souls ’n Bloom’s North Carolina sanctuary. Here, under Nance’s daily care, they begin their journey toward becoming fully mature plants.
Even then, the process is far from over. It takes two full growing seasons before a lily can be properly evaluated. During this time, each plant is monitored for color accuracy, bloom quality, blooming and reblooming potential, fragrance, foliage type, and hardiness.
✅ Only the Best Are Chosen
Souls ’n Bloom’s standards are high. Out of multitudes of seedlings, only the most exceptional lilies are selected for sale. These are the blooms that show outstanding beauty, resilience, and emotional resonance.
Daily care plays a huge role at this stage. Each day of the blooming season, Nance and Rick deadhead thousands blooms that have not been hybridized. This keeps the plants strong and healthy, while maintaining strict control over the growing process. Every detail matters — because only one of its kind will be sold to insure the uniqueness of the bloom carrying the memory and meaning for its future owner.
📦 Freshly Dug and Delivered Bare Root
Once chosen, lilies are carefully dug fresh to order — never stored. Each root is packed by hand to protect it during shipping and to ensure it arrives healthy, strong, and ready to thrive in its new home.
Unlike generic garden centers or mass sellers, Souls ’n Bloom lilies come with clear instructions tailored for gardeners and non-gardeners alike. From planting depth to watering schedules, we guide you step by step so you feel confident caring for your lily.
🌸 A Lily That Becomes Part of Your Story
By the time a lily reaches you, it has already lived through years of careful selection, hybridization, growth, and evaluation. But its true purpose begins when you plant it — as a living tribute, a joyful marker of celebration, or a colorful reminder of love accompanied by your words on a customized plaque. Every Souls ’n Bloom lily is more than a flower. It is a story you can grow, year after year, season after season. With each bloom, you’ll see not just a garden full of color, but a garden full of meaning.
Plant More Than a Flower — Plant a Memory
The Souls ’n Bloom process is long, deliberate, and deeply personal. But that’s what makes every lily so meaningful. From the moment Nance selects a variety to the day it blooms in your garden, each step has been touched by care and intention.
When you plant a Souls ’n Bloom lily, you’re planting more than a flower. You’re planting memory, celebration, and love — in bloom and words for years to come.