The Daylily Festival and Garden Show is set for Saturday, rain or shine.

With rain not likely, Magdalen Square in Downtown Abbeville will be busy with flowers and much more. The event will kick off at 8:30 a.m. and wrap up at 3 p.m. The festival is presented by Abbeville Main Street, Vermilion Chamber of Commerce and the LSU Ag Center, and sponsored by Gulf Coast Bank and the City of Abbeville.

The festival will host the Accidental Chef, Carlos Russo, an Abbeville native. The Accidental Chef will be sharing his culinary talents with the festival attendees by performing a cooking demonstration. “Fresh from the Garden”-Eggplant Caponata. Cooking demonstration will be held in the Abbeville Cultural and Historical Alliance Center located adjacent to the Square starting 9:30 a.m.

The event will feature a free presentation entitled “Dabbling in Daylilies” by Dalton Durio. The talk will be given in the Cultural Alliance Center or old library in Abbeville near Magdalen Square at 10:30 a.m.

Durio was born into the daylily business some 46 plus years ago and began hybridizing daylilies at the ripe old age of 4. He won the Florida Sunshine Cup (awarded to top miniature daylily in the country by the American Hemerocallis Society) twice for his daylily introductions (the cultivars ‘Border Baby’ and ‘Pookie Bear’). As a youngster, he also served as National Youth Coordinator for the American

Hemerocallis Society.

Duio has a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture from the University of Louisiana and studied Plant Breeding in graduate school at Texas A & M University. He has served in a number of positions on several plant organizations including:

• Board Member (Society for Louisiana Irises)

• Board Member (The Magnolia Society)

• Board Member and Past-president (Louisiana Society for Horticultural Research)

Currently, he runs Durio Nursery and Landscaping. At the conclusion of his presentation he will answer any questions about daylily culture.

Other questions and problems will be answered and solved on Saturday.

Do you have any plants that are out of control? Do you want to swap out your plant for a new plant? If your answer is yes then the Gazebo is the place to be at 10: 00 a.m. Drop your plant off before 10 a.m. and if you are not sure how this works Sandra Creswell, Master Gardener, will guide you through the process.