possibly oldhousegardens.com

Old House Gardens is my go-to source for heirloom bulbs, but not for daylilies. I think for older daylilies, it'd be better to seek out daylily sellers who specialize in older ones, or who have a large inventory of them.

I couldn't find GAINESVILLE GOLD online. What about contacting people in the club in the area where you used to live? Some of them may have it, or they may know someone who grows it. I think there's also a historic daylily group - part of AHS? Or on Yahoo, I'm not sure which.

I contacted the NE Fla daylily group earlier today, and have received a response indicating that they'd look into it.
It serves the area in which the hybridizer lived so, here's hoping.

One of the best sources is/was Sunset Meadows Daylily Farm. I could not find the website. These were super great people to do business with.

Marietta Gardens has quite a few older varieties still, and I also highly recommend them. Eclectic Gardens in Oregon are great folks and take special care in shipping. Valley of the Daylilies, Shaw's Sunshine Gardens, Bluegrass Daylily Gardens, Quarles, Earlybird Daylilies, Blue Ridge Daylilies,
Cottage Gardens are all good people to buy daylilies from.

Last but not least, there's the Lily Auction - many older varieties are sold there.

Nancy

Thanks, I'll check them out. Usually you can google for "daylily xxx for sale" and find any on-line seller who's offering that particular cultivar.

I'm guessing, however, that google misses a website here and there, for one reason or another....

Nancy & Faraway, sorry to be discouraging, but to my knowledge, most of those places do not sell too many plants from the 60s. With the exception of Valley of the Daylilies, which has a lengthy list of historic daylilies, there may be one or two here & there on the others' lists perhaps, but, like most sellers, the other places don't have huge stocks of the real oldies.

There is (was???) Linda Sue Barnes, who's in one of the Carolinas, and LaVere Webster, in Michigan, who has a registered Historic Daylily garden --

That reminds me! Check southern gardens that are AHS-registered Historic Daylily gardens!

Because LaVere is in Michigan, he probably wouldn't grow the daylily you're seeking, which is an evergreen. But you never know. Same with Dan Bachman & Valley of the Daylilies. He's in Ohio. But as mentioned, he does have a very long list of historics. Worth checking out.

In addition to seeking out owners of historic daylily display gardens, surely there's an online group consisting of southern growers. If there is, you could contact them. Someone might know someone, who knows someone, who...etc.

Earlybird Daylilies is closing down BTW.

Thanks for the sources, there are a couple oldies I am looking for as well.

I forgot to mention one, homesteadfarms.com
I have ordered there before and got nice plants and service. they carry some older cultivars particularly from the 80s.

Faraway Farmer - please also check Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth, MA. They have many older varieties and their catalog can easily be searched. I wasn't able to ever get an answer from them about a particular cultivar they had sent by mistake, so I can't say much about their customer service. I did get some very nice daylilies from them. Average price runs around $12. Most are dormants, but they do have EVs and Sevs also. They don't have many later cultivars.

lynxe, I didn't see any mention of "historic" daylilies in the original post, nor a specific request of daylilies from the 60's.

The American Hemerocallis Society lists a "Gaiesville Gold" daylily by McFarland. I'm not sure if it was a imisspelling or not when registered. There is no listing there for Gainesville Gold.

Older daylilies, to me, can mean anything from the 90's backward. If looking for a specific cultivar, it's best to google it. You might try posting at Dave's Garden to see if you can find a specific daylily. Sometimes that helps.

Nancy

Yes, the AHS database has it misspelled.
The cultivar is Gainesville Gold (after the city that is home to the Univ of Fla)

"lynxe, I didn't see any mention of "historic" daylilies in the original post, nor a specific request of daylilies from the 60's. "

Well, I was interpreting, of course. :) It was the fact that the McFarland is from the 1960s, the "days gone by," and having sadly to have left daylilies in 1971.

"If looking for a specific cultivar, it's best to google it."

I do that, too, but it's sometimes frustrating--you're looking for something hard to find or, more frustrating, no longer available commerically. Online searches might turn up a retail source or someone's private albun. But so often, you're left with the feeling that the plant you want is out there somewhere, in someone's garden....if only they knew you were searching for it, because they have 30 or 40 fans of that old thing!

There was a gentleman who lived around here up til about the late 80s and who had four intros, then moved abroad. I have one of the four, and I could get one more locally if I wanted to. But the other two seem to be lost. For all I know, I drive by them every day. How would one know?

For the record, I've googled it to death, and come up with bupkes.