Casa Rocca Gardens
started as the passionate, life-long hobby of the international glass artist, Marc
King. Marc, originally from the state of Louisiana in the United States,
started working with stained glass design at Louisiana State University
in 1976, but continued his studies in Linguistics and Art History and later
professional life in Zurich, Switzerland. Marc, with his wife Denien Lamone,
father of four children, resided in Switzerland until 1993 when they moved
garden and glass studio and home to Rocca d'Arazzo, Italy to become director
of Casa Rocca Foundation.
Marc started a collection of spider-like daylilies
in Switzerland on the farm / rehabilitation centre Breitenloh, Hombrechitkon
where he and his wife assisted counselling and therapy. After purchasing
40 cultivars from the Countess Helene von Zeppelin-Stein for the small "Park"
of the farm, the enchantment of this beautiful flower took over. In 1988
the book "HEMEROCALLIS, Taglilien" by Walter Erhardt was given
to Marc by a fellow breeder of Japanese Ornamental Fowl (one of
his hobbies) and the address lists in the index gave rise to numerous contacts
with other breeders.
Marc began breeding attempts for the "Butterfly
Form" under the guidance of the well-known Spider / Unusual Forms collector
Rosemary Whitacre. Becoming a member of the British Hosta and Hemerocallis Society
and Swiss Perennial Plant Society (Gesellschaft Schweizerische Staudenfreunde)
in 1990, Marc began to maintain regular contacts with other European collectors
in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, England, Italy and France which, a few
years later, became the axis upon which Hemerocallis Europa, Europe's first
European-based plant society, was formed.
Marc has since been recognised as one of Europe's
leading authorities on daylily culture and breeding and a world-class expert
of the Unusual Form Class (Exotic Form Class) now recognised by the American
Hemerocallis Society. He has penned numerous articles on the breeding of
modern Hemerocallis and the historical development of the Spider
and Unusual Form Classes.
An accomplished photographer, his photographs
have been published in The Garden of the Royal Horticultural Society, in
the bulletins of the Swiss Perennial Plant (Gesellschaft Schweizerische
Staudenfreunde) and of the British Hosta and Hemerocallis Societies and
recently in the new book on Daylilies, published by Charles and David, compiled
by Diana Grenfell of Apple Court, Lymington,England in which
he has also authored the chapter devoted to the exotically formed daylilies
(Unusual Forms).
Click here for 
Marc's breeding results
for the Crispatas and Spatualte Forms (within the Unusual Form Class) as
well as weather-resistant darker colours in the rounded forms categories.
DANCING SUMMERBIRD (King-Lamone 98)