Daylily, Ed Murray

This last week we went on a trip and I stopped at Hem Haven Daylilies in Fairhope, Alabama (eastern side of Mobile Bay) owned by John and Nancy Falck. It is always intersting for me to see different operations and how they do things. I would say that Hem Haven Daylilies has about 3,000 – 4,000 daylilies all of which are in pots! They all looked great, even in mid 90’s with lots of hummidity. They are a registered AHS Display garden with specific gardens beds that include: a Stout bed, a historic bed, and a doubles bed. They also have a commercial area off to the side, and another area where they do their hybridizing.

What was amazing to me was that even in their display beds, all their plants were in pots – sunk in the ground. What John did is to “plant” a pot that slightly larger than the one he had his daylily in. Then he would slide his potted daylily into the sunken pot. When I asked him about this, he said that it made things much easier for him when changing plants around and he didn’t really have to “dig” any plants when he wanted to move things. He mainly used 3 gal pots for this. I have seem some similar things done in other home gardens and in some large commercial tree nurseries, but this was the first time it had seen it in the daylily world. It is an interesting concept. I may just try that later on in the fall in one of my demonstration gardens.

In his commercial area, he had all 2 – 3 gallon pots on black landscape fabric. In the hybridizing area which was under shade cloth  (so he could work longer in the mornings), he built large wood framed areas that held all of his 3 – 5 gallon pots of registered daylilies which he used in his hybridizing program. John told me that he is halfway through planting his 7,000 seeds this year and that he is using a deeper seed pot this year. Hoping that he will get more of his seedling better rooted before lining them out, hence a better survival rate. He also showed me one of seedling which he planned on introducing this fall. It was a creamy, light pink/yellow that was heavily ruffled and with a lot of substance to the petals. He told me that it would still look as pretty at 6 pm that night, as it did at 11 am when I saw it.

All in all, I had a great time. Of course I always do when I am looking at flowers, especially daylilies and iris. I would recommend seeing Hem Haven Daylilies if you are ever in and around Mobile, Alabama.

Forbidden Fantasy

All I can say is WOW! What a fantastic Spring Garden Day this year. We ended up having over 500 people come through the gardens on Saturday. Our friend Rusty (the master griller) called me the “jackrabbit” because I just kept running back and forth through the gardens answering questions and digging plants for people. Marty and I didn’t get to take a breather until about 2:30 when we split  sausage dog. The sausage came from Pruski’s in Adkins for those who have asked, as did the hamburgers.

I apologize to those who were looking for me, but didn’ t get to me. Don’t hesitate to send me e-mails with questions or comments. If there are ways for us to improve the Garden Day (other than cloning ourselves) we will take it all in.

This season has been a rather strange one, since most of our blooms are anywhere from 1 – 2 months later than normal. Peak bloom for daylilies is usually in late May – as you could tell, we haven’t hit peak bloom yet. Probably in another week. The blooms we did have were great – I think the most popular bloom on Saturday was Forbidden Fantasy, next in line was Pastel Inspiration, and then all the blooming mixes.

As a side note, the fish emulsion seems to have been keeping the deer and the rabbits out of the garden – and it is a great fertilizer. I have been using it weekly.

I also heard from the other Markets in the Country sites (Rhew Peach Orchards, Green Country Farm Blackberries, and Cooper’s Garden Place) that they also had fantastic turnouts. I would just like to say Thank You to all those who came to Wilson County and Floresville to all of our different sites. We loved having you, and we will let you know when we are planning the next Markets in the Country.

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