ROBERT’S HUGS FROM HEAVEN

Height: 32 inches
Season: Early
Rebloom
Branches: 4
Buds: 20
Diameter: 6.5 inches
Foliage:  Evergreen

Round, reflexed clear red, midrib, watermark, triangular green throat. Tallish with blooms resisting water blotching and thrip damage, giving a big show over several months in my garden.

Pod Parent : Trixie LaTour

Pollen Parent : Porcia’s Choice

Easy fertile

Robert’s Hugs from Heaven    (shared by Melissa Reynolds)

I thought I would share how this daylily came to be named ‘Robert’s Hugs from Heaven’. Robert is my nephew and one of my most favorite people in the whole wide world. Robert left us way too early on September 1, 2024 at the age of 18. He was in a car accident on his way home from Oxford, MS where he had attended the first Ole Miss football game with family and friends.
One of my favorite things about Robert was that when he saw me his face would light up and he would have this really big grin on his face and would say, “I love you, Aunt Missy.” He would then open his arms and give me a big hug. I would say that others would agree Robert was known for his hugs. His father wrote a poem about hugs and read it at Robert’s funeral. Robert’s grandfather was inspired to write about “Hugs” one morning while drinking his coffee and thinking about Robert.
Robert’s smile was contagious. He smiled most often when he was with his cousins. This is how they described him – cornerstone, goofy, original, thoughtful, good looking, randomly funny, grumpy but loving, like a brother, my favorite cousin, calm, and cheerful. As you can tell from the long list of characteristics, he has lots of cousins.
I feel it’s worth sharing how I stumbled upon Ladybug Daylilies. I am a bit of a daylily fanatic, and I was in search of the daylily named ‘Guided by Angels’. As I thought about this, I realized that I might have actually been “guided by angels” and they led me to Dan. After ordering my daylily, I asked Dan if he had a daylily with the name Robert in it and he didn’t, but this led into a conversation about Robert. I asked Dan if he would be willing to name one of his daylilies after Robert. He agreed without hesitation.
I cried when I hung up with Dan. There was this peace that I felt. I knew there was nothing any of us could do to bring Robert back, but naming a daylily after him could keep his memory alive for a very long time.
Thank you, Dan, for giving others the opportunity to enjoy ‘Robert’s Hugs from Heaven’. I will close by sharing the other “Hugs” mentioned earlier. I think we can all agree that we can never receive too many hugs.

Hugs

Hug your mom Hug your dad
Hug your sister Hug your brother

Hug your grandma Hug your grandpa
Hug your aunt Hug your uncle
Hug your wife Hug your husband
Hug your cousin Hug your friend
Hug when you are happy
Hug when you are sad
Hugs are good when you are mad
Hug someone you disagree with in the
past because the hugs you get and give
that day might be your last.
Tally Noah (Robert’s father)

Hug

How tight should I hold you? Until I feel your heart beat and our hearts beat
together in a song that we always remember? Can we hug with so much
openness that our souls connect for eternity? Is there one hug that brought us
so much joy that we remember it our whole life and is with us even after death,
and if so is that person’s soul also with us? Do we cry because we long for the
hugs or because we regret, we did not hug more when we had the chance to?
Our one body and soul are not enough. We need all of those hugs to carry us

through eternity.

Victor Napoli (Robert’s grandfather)