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| One of the private gardens I visited. Click on the pictures and page through them in a larger version. Carol uses mushroom compost. |
If you have
a vole or mole problem, buy chocolate XLAX, break into pieces and stuck one
into the breathing earth humps. Sooner
or later the varmint will have a tasty snack and become underground
compost. Don’t do this if you have dogs or cats that dig because they
will smell it, love it, eat it and you know the rest of the story.
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| This private garden was perfect in so many way. |
Every
daylily hybridizer and retailer is having problems with weeds. Weeds are becoming resistant to Round-up and
other popular herbicides. Most of them
are experimenting with mixing two kinds for pre emergence treating. Others have said some combos end up killing
everything, including their valuable plants.
This is a developing story and advice right now is to be very careful
using herbicide mixes around your valuable plants even early in the year.
 |
| These are the same lily "Party Queen". It should look like the bottom lily every time. Most of the time it looks like the above lily. |
Some
plants, even award winning plants, don’t perform perfectly. Some don’t perform perfectly because of
weather changes and others simply aren’t all that good. Don’t assume it’s you.
Daylilies
require LOTS of water because the flowers are made up of a good percentage of
moisture. They need it going into
winter, in the spring and off and on all bloom season. Our particular area has had good rainfall and
the lilies are spectacular. Others must
decide to have just a few flowers bloom or they must water. Side Note: Daylilies need good drainage or they will rot.
Professional
gardeners fertilize their plants. They
use the right fertilizer for the specific plant, administered in the right
amount and at the right time(s).
 |
| One small portion of one field - there were twenty fields at Rod Kroemer and Jim Wuersch's 5 Acre Farm Daylilies. |
Although I
found the professional hybridizers I met to be welcoming and encouraging, they’re
in a highly competitive business. They
are basically farmers and a good share of their income is derived from being
able to introduce a flower other people will buy. It’s like planting the right variety of corn
that distillers want to buy.
I didn’t
meet one person involved in any kind of gardening that was in it for any other
reason than they LOVE what they’re doing.
That comes miles before income and it’s what sucked them into the
business. It’s the farmer comparison
again. Ever know a farmer that didn’t
occasionally stare out at the fields with a complete look of contentment on his
or her face? Yes, they want a good
income doing it, but, I don’t know one that isn’t in it first because they LOVE
what they’re doing.
 |
| Acres of daylilies. |
The
professionals will give a poor performing plant a couple of years at most and
if it still has faults, it hits the compost heap. They don’t give away these plants because
they feel it would be like serving a second rate pie – simply embarrassing.
Professionals
don’t crowd their plants. If you’re in
it for the money, they know having a disease wild fire its way through their plant stock is suicide. Giving plants
room for air to move freely and weeds to be noticed and removed helps keep
things disease free.
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| Mike and Susan, Champaign IL, have created a private specimen garden. This is the side entrance to their back yard. Mike researches a confer's nutrient needs and mixes his own soil. |
Nature is
always a balancing act. Remove something
and another thing will take its place (good or bad.)
A
hybridizer/nursery owner from Oklahoma told how a rancher had killed all the
coyotes around their town. A year later
the town was overrun with rats. So many
that when they mowed the rats were jumping and scurrying in front of the mowers
like grasshoppers. Nature’s balancing
act got severely out of balance.
Another
nursery owner told of a law his city passed that all garden centers must kill
all red ants on their property. When
this was done, an endangered reptile disappeared because red ants were the only
thing it ate. This reptile kept the ant
population down but now residents must use insecticides. A balance.
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| "Buddy's Black Lady" might be something I NEED. |
Professional
lily hybridizers seldom use insecticides because they rely on bees in their
retail growing fields. Insecticides kill
both good and bad insects. Find other
ways to fight the problem.
 |
| "Etched Eyes" another beauty. |
If you want
a daylily to be hardy in your garden, buy from someone who hybridized it, grew
it and sells it in a hardiness zone similar to where you live. That’s not bad advice for most plants you
buy.
I visited
two private residential gardens, two hybridizer gardens and two retail gardens
while at the conference. Take advantage
of garden walks, botanical gardens, growing fields and visiting garden centers;
it’s like the chocolate fudge on an ice cream Sunday. Talk with other gardeners, both amateur and
professional. It’s part of the joy of
summer.
Following is a list of daylily retail outlets close enough to visit:
- Roth Daylily Farm, 161 Roth Auction Rd., East Peoria IL 61611
- 5 Acre Farm Daylilies, 1578 County Rd. 300 N., Tolano Township IL 61880
- Prairie Gardens, 3000 W. Springfield Ave., Champaign IL 61822
- Webers' Garden, 1006 S. Prospect, Champaign IL 61821. (This is a retail outdoor/garden center (huge.)
Check their websites for times and directions (5 Acre's address is not recognized on GPS.)
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