Daylily Haiku Thursday | We're not all creators...

<posted April 11, 2013>  

There are countless ways to enjoy the wonderful daylily.  Photographers, writers, collectors, painters, landscapers, designers, website creators, authors, editors, auditors, planners, judges, teachers, administrators, speakers, donators, growers, sellers, and ambassadors all cherish the diversity and delight that a daylily brings to the perennial garden.

We buy and sell them in all sorts of ways...

We can sit in dark rooms and listen to hours of lecture on them...

We show them in designs, in so many creative ways...

We tour gardens all over the world as a group - learning together.  Getting stuck on buses together, sitting around pools together, sharing a laugh over a good gumbo...

There are many ways to love daylilies.  It takes many different kinds of people to keep our daylily universe humming along.  

Make sure you search for "daylilies" on Facebook and join some of the groups out there that are sharing photos and stories every day - every minute - about our favorite flower from all over the globe.

touring the Reilly Garden in Enterprise, Florida (2009) - that's Mort Morss on the left!

one of many shade houses at Floyd Cove Nursery - Enterprise, Florida (2009)

The American Hemerocallis Society organizes almost 10,000 people around the daylily.  They provide sales, shows, symposiums, and tours all over the country.

Local daylily clubs bring in speakers who share their passion for growing daylilies.  Some lecture on photographing them, growing them, hybridizing them or collecting them.

The best thing you can do to fuel your daylily love is to plan to visit an AHS Display Garden this summer.  Find them all here and make some plans!

Jump in when you can, in whatever way makes your heart flutter.  

Daylily Haiku Thursday | New ideas for daylily shows?

<posted 4/3/2013> This is the daylily, H. 'Texas Feathered Fancy'

Spring is coming.  Her approach is slow, sure and maddening, but coming nonetheless.  The temperatures are just warm enough for me to be out in the garden, but still too cold to let me do anything on the growing to-do list for Spring Chores.  That means a lot of nervous energy and ideas buzzing through my vitamin-D deprived brain.

I got to thinking about what plants I'll sell this year, and the list was longer than I would have imagined.  Many clumps are now 20+ fans and I could make several pots of many cultivars to sell at my Farmer's Market booth this summer.  I'm only picking two days at the weekly event in Alton - two of their busiest days - to set up shop.  

I'm going to really put on a show, complete with my new A-Frame thingy to display off-scape blooms.  I built two similar to this to have in my booth.  

a feature of an AHS-accredited daylily show by the Southern Michigan Daylily Society

The booth is going to be just as much selling plants as it is talking daylilies and getting people energized about bringing them into their gardens.  I have a great collection of vintage tablecloths that Ill use to decorate, and have some other ideas to stand out in the crowd.  It'll be my most public display of personal daylilies that I've done since moving to this area, so we will see how it goes.  This is a Farmer's Market that is really getting going with popularity, so I think it will be a hit.  The manager of the place wants to arrange some daylily "talks" too, so maybe that will bring in more addicts like us.  

I'm only selling once in June and once in August, and for the June sale I plan to use potted daylilies that I'll dig very soon - maybe 20-30 cultivars for which I have awesome photos and can sell for a good price.  Not the discards.  Not the has-beens.  Not the ones I don't want anymore.  Not the typical $5 lot seen and "wanted" by the general public.  I'm going to step it up, give the daylilies some personality and draw some attention to these gems.  

I find that digging and dividing them this early in the season (like this weekend) disturbs most established cultivars very little.  It also provides for a great specimen for the customers.  Once the dates are set, I'll publish them on my calendar of events, which you can find here.

I know people have been selling at public markets forever, but I'm excited to put my own spin on it.  This is my big "new thing" for the year, and I am very excited!

The Central Illinois Daylily Society is also planning a sale/show that I hope to be a part of again the first Saturday in August.  Last year was so much fun!

I also got to thinking about daylily shows (of course.)  And what kinds of "new things" AHS could think about infusing into the traditional show procedures.  What do you think about these things?

• A local section for Multi-Bloom Exhibits ON THAT DAY?
• Adding points to the Scale of Points for "presentation?"
• Add an AHS-mandated section for "historic" cultivars?  (1982 and prior registration years)
• Ask the AHS Membership or Public Relations Committees to publish a "Show Day Information Kit" for local clubs to duplicate and hand out to interested visitors?

There is always time to think...and to change.

Til next time-