PH OTO BY BILL HANSEN

A New Tradition

A father creates a new flower for his daughter's
bat mitzvah.

JULIE WIENER STAFF WRITER

W

hile studying for her
bat mitzvah at Con-
gregation Shir Tikvah,
Erin Michelle Wolson
learned a lot about her Jewish
roots. And at her bat mitzvah
party, her guests received a dif-
ferent kind of root: the root of a
specially hybridized day lily that
bears Ms. Wolson's name.
In a departure from the usu-
al bat mitzvah party gifts, Ms.
Wolson distributed roots and
stalks of the perennial which her
father, landscaper Merritt Wol-
son, designed in honor of her rite
of passage. If planted according
to Mr. Wolson's instructions, the
pink and yellow flowers should
bloom in August.
"You go to so many of these
things and get stuff that doesn't

Merritt
Wolson with
daughter,
Erin, in the
greenhouse.

mean anything," said Mr.
Wolson, who spent three
years hybridizing a day
lily to his daughter's lik-
ing. "I wanted to give
away something that
would make [her guests]
think of Erin."
Because every new hy-
bridized plant can be
named by whoever devel-
ops it, Mr. Wolson has
chosen to register this one as
Erin Michelle. In full bloom, the
day lily measures approximate-
ly 30 inches high.
"I think it's really pretty," said
Ms. Wolson, a seven th-grader at
Roeper School who said she likes
to help out in her father's nurs-
ery.
In the process of developing a

_

Erin Wolson with the day lily her
father, Merritt, created for her
bat mitzvah.

new plant, Mr. Wolson has cre-
ated a new family ritual: appar-
ently, Erin's 7-year-old brother
Sam has already decided he
wants a plant designed for his
bar mitzvah as well.

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