Phil was born in Milwaukee, WI and Luel was born in Melrose, MN.  I (Phil) went to college and began my work career in Milwaukee.  I have a MS degree in Environmental Engineering from UW-Milwaukee.  Luel has a BS degree in marketing from St. Cloud State, MN.  We met while we were both working on a large wastewater project (Luel office technician, Phil engineer) in Milwaukee in 1979 and were married in 1980.  Shortly after our wedding, we moved to Green Bay, WI and began our family there.  I have worked as a consulting engineer from 1978 to 2021 and am retired now.  Luel had various part-time jobs but has been a full time daylily hybridizer for the past 16 years.  We have two children and four grandchildren all living in Green Bay area.  We currently live in a northern suburb of Green Bay (Suamico) in a zone 4 climate. 

In the mid 90’s, my wife (Luel) and I began serious landscaping on our city lot in Green Bay.  Our friend, Leo Bordeleau, is a professional horticulturist in rural Green Bay and had a good collection of daylilies.  We bought 5 daylilies from him.  During our social time with him, I was introduced to AHS and daylily catalogs from Bill Munson.  I was fascinated by the process of hybridizing.  Other perennial plants did not have genetic heritage in their description (at least the ones we were buying).  I started asking how the hybridizing process worked.  I made a few crosses and got some seeds.  Once we started seeing new seedlings, we were hooked.  My academic background is science and engineering and my personality is “do it myself”.  My wife is the artist and she enjoys “painting” with daylilies.  Thus we formed a good team.  From 2005, all our daylilies are registered under both our names.