Jan de Graaff

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Jan de Graaff (born May 1903 in Leiden , † 1989 in New York , NY ) was an American gardener of Dutch origin.

Life

Through his work as a breeder, he laid the foundation for the success of the lilies as a widespread garden plant in the second half of the 20th century . Until him, lilies (comparable to orchids ) were considered to be beautiful, but, with a few exceptions, difficult to cultivate plant genus without suitability for the mass market.

The de Graaff family had been trading garden bulbs , mainly daffodils , irises and tulips, since 1790 . Even as a boy, de Graaff collected all the commercially available lily species at the time, but did not enter his parents' business directly, but instead began a career in the diplomatic service. In 1928 he came to the USA on business and became an advisor to Oregon Bulb Farms near Portland , which was founded in the same year and which at that time was still concentrating on daffodils and irises. De Graaff acquired the company in 1934, began breeding experiments in 1938 and was able to offer the first large quantities of onions in 1940. In June 1941 he selected the Enchantment variety , which became a great success and is considered the best-selling lily in the world. What was most important about this success, however, was that the variety prepared the market for the lily as an easy-to-use garden plant and broke ground for other hybrids.

As an indirect result of this success, the Oregon Bulb Farms were able to cultivate their entire arable land with lilies in the 1950s. In 1968 de Graaff sold the company and retired.