One of my short-term goals is to obtain "Display Garden" status for my new gardens here in Illinois. The American Hemerocallis Society bestows this designation on gardens that exhibit the daylily in its various forms in wonderful ways. Specific criteria can be found here.
Carter (my precocious six-year-old) made the announcement at our New Years Eve Dinner that he wanted to do some daylily traveling with me in 2012. There was never a more obvious opportunity to instill the love of gardens and gardening people than this one! Carter and I decided we would plan a set of trips this summer to see all the AHS Display Gardens in Illinois - just he and I.
There are over 70 in our region, and about 15 in Illinois, so I think we can see all the ones in our state this year.
Will he have good garden etiquette?
Will he be patient in the gardens?
Will he enjoy the sights?
Maybe he will take his own camera and capture the journey...
I'm already excited.
Here are some memories of my visits to other daylily gardens in our region. The large picture below is Daylilies by the Pond, which is a great mail-order source and a family owned business in Ohio. I visited there on tour in 2010 and they have an amazing website with tons of information and reasonable prices. I placed my spring order today for 4 FAB daylilies I saw there when I visited.
So, Carter and I will set out together this summer on a two-person journey to see Illinois' daylilies. I hope that in the future someday he will remember this trip and have good stories to tell his own kids about how he and his mom hit the road and invaded other peoples gardens.
Its bound to be a trip full of stories and texture. I will post our proposed route soon- maybe you want to caravan along!
I love the "big-picture" I find on these trips into someone else's green universe. I like to see how established clumps contribute to the landscape, how hardscapes are used to accent the daylilies, how mono-cultures are kept interesting and beautiful and how these garden jewels shine in others lives.
Here is a list of all the display gardens in Region 2. We have lots of good stuff to see in this part of the heartland, and I hope you'll find someone near you to share the sights!
going, going gone!
silky petals wither too soon -
making way for new.
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2 comments:
I love the idea of Carter having his own camera for the journey. What limited experience I've had with kids has taught me they have perspectives that are quite different from adults - both visual perspectives and thoughtful ones.
I have a good number of daylilys in my garden but never considered an entire garden full of them. What a beautiful thought. I enjoyed your post very much.
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