Arlow Burdette Stout records

Arlow Burdette Stout (1876-1957) was a botanist, geneticist, and expert in the hybridization of daylilies. He was born 10 March 1876 in Jackson Center, Ohio but grew up in Wisconsin. He graduated from Whitewater (Wisconsin) State Normal School (1908) gaining his B.A. degree at the University of Wisconsin where he later taught botany. He studied under Professor Robert A. Harper at Columbia University and received his Ph.D. in 1913. The NYBG appointed him Director of Laboratories in 1911, launching a 36-year career as a geneticist, plant-breeder, and educator.

Dr. Stout characterized his work as "experimental studies on the nature and genetics of intraspecific self- and cross-incompatibilities in the sexual reproduction of flowering plants." In 1919 he initiated an experimental study on seedlessness in grapes that resulted in the commercial introduction of many new kinds of grape. He had similar success with avocado cultivation. His primary research focus was the selective breeding of daylilies (Hemerocallis) that resulted in the development of stunning hybrid flowers. His research program at the NYBG spanned three decades in excess of 50,000 cross-pollination experiments, producing over one hundred viable Hemerocallis hybrids that revolutionized nursery breeding and popular interest in daylilies.

As Curator of Education and Laboratories at the Garden, Stout lectured widely and published over 350 scientific articles, including the landmark monograph Daylilies (1934, reprinted 1986). He established business relationships with local nurseries, notably the Bertrand Farr Nursery Company, in programs to evaluate and propagate his hybrid clones. He worked for several years in the 1920s with the New York Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York to produce hardier poplar trees.

Dr. Stout was an Honorary Life Member of the Horticultural Society of New York and an Honorary Life Fellow in the Royal Horticultural Society. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Naturalists, and of the Botanical Society of America. In 1937 he received the Thomas Roland Medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. The American Hemerocallis Society established in 1950 a Stout Award in his honor, considered the most distinctive award in annual recognition of a Hemerocallis clone. In 1954 the NYBG awarded him its Distinguished Service Award for "outstanding contributions to the advancement of horticulture and botany." He died 12 October 1957 at his home in Pleasantville, NY.