October, 2011



H. 'Shamrock Dew'



Fall is here and everyone is savoring their last daylily bloom in the garden. I’ve seen e-mails from different people commenting on the last bloom in their garden and everyone wants to know about those cultivars that bloom very late in the garden as well as rebloomers. In my own garden, Hemerocallis ‘Shamrock Dew’ ( pictured at right) was the last to bloom – a rebloom from earlier in the season.

 With fall weather, news arrives of the fall meetings of the different clubs in Region 10. Susan Okrasinski wrote that Tri-Cities Daylily Society had Mike and Sandy Holmes as guest speakers on October 1, and according to the comments on Facebook, not only did the TDHS members enjoy it immensely, but so did the guest speakers. A crisp sunny Saturday morning on October 1 also saw the Middle Tennessee Daylily Society meeting at the Baker Arboretum and Museum in Bowling Green, KY to tour the grounds. The Baker Arboretum, built on a hill overlooking Bowling Green, focuses on conifers but also has over a hundred Japanese Maple cultivars. The museum has the largest art collection of internationally renowned artist, Joe Downing, a Kentucky native and one of only a few American artists to ever exhibit at the Louvre in Paris. And for an upcoming event, I got news from Elizabeth Trotter that the Blue Grass Hemerocallis Society is also hosting Mike and Sandy Holmes on October 10 in Lexington, KY. For details you may contact Elizabeth at daylilygirl@shelbybb.net.

I received word from David Kirchhoff and Brenda Macy that the speakers have been scheduled for the Mid-Winter Symposium to be held Nashville, January 20-22, 2012. It promises to be an exciting symposium with people such as Dan & Jane Trimmer, Nikki Schmith, and Josh Jacques among others making presentations.  The ad will be appearing in the upcoming Daylily Appeal and can be seen also on the Region 10 website as well as the AHS portal. The AHS Membership Portal continues to be a good source of news for members and I would encourage all members to access it. I recently saw a list of Region 10 names and numbers who have registered on the portal and was really surprised at the missing names and the low numbers – only 18% of Region 10 members have taken the time to register and actually see what the portal has to offer. If you are not taking advantage of the portal, you are truly missing one of the benefits of being an AHS member. Only with everyone's participation on the Portal can AHS fully utilize this feature.  

I’m excited to announce that as the incoming AHS Region 10 president, I have gathered a talented group of individuals for the 2012 Board from across Tennessee and Kentucky. They are as follows:

Regional Publicity Director: Susan Okrasinski – Tri-Cities Daylily Society, Kingsport,  Tennessee

Treasurer: Sandy Merritt – Middle Tennessee Daylily Society, Nashville, Tennessee

Secretary: Chris Schardein – Daylily Society of Louisville, Louisville,  Kentucky

Please congratulate and support these folks as they work to make Region 10 one of the best in the country. We hope to be innovative in our problem solving and include as many people as possible in the decision making process. And don't forget, if you want your club's activites mentioned in the blog - all you have to do is send me an e-mail with the details to willcol@aol.com.

July, 2011



MTDS Best in Show, H. "Nutmeg Elf"
entered by Cullen Merritt

 

Nancy Estes with Best in Show in
Lexington, H. "Little Grapette"



It’s been a very busy last several weeks and I thought I better write before I forget anything. Region 10 Flower Shows have been in full swing – and some of the results are starting to come in. Chattanooga had their show recently and H. “Carousel Princess” won “Best-in-Show”.  In Nashville, MTDS also had a miniature winner, H. "Nutmeg Elf".  And then I heard that H. “Carousel Princess” also won “Best in Show” in the Knoxville Show. I had the opportunity to judge in the Lexington Show and H. “Little Grapette” won “Best-in-Show”.     It’s certainly been a year for miniatures it appears. However, I did hear that the Jackson club went against the trend and their “Best-in-Show” was H. "Boundless Beauty", a large flower. But I think this proves that a "Best-in-Show" does not have to be the newest introduction or the largest flower, but rather one that is well grown and meticulously groomed for the show. Shows are always fun to judge since you have the opportunity to see what other clubs do to make them interesting. Having an AHS Historic Display garden, I was especially excited to see BGHS have a show category entitled "Antiques".  What a wonderful way to encourage folks to grow our older historical cultivars and even seek AHS Historical Garden status. Too many cultivars have already been lost forever and I hope more clubs will consider this as a special club show category. BGHS also had a photography contest for members which I enjoyed viewing.

Garden of Gary & Ellen Carrithers

The Region 10 Summer Meeting was held in Louisville this year and what a meeting!! John Morgan, president of the hosting club, and his team pulled together a wonderful meeting with spectacular tour gardens, warm hospitality, and an informative guest speaker and well-known hybridizer, Jamie Gossard. Garden tours are always a highlight of the summer meeting for me and this year was no exception. We were able to see both small in-town gardens as well as larger sprawling suburban gardens - there was truly something for everyone. I've posted many pictures from the garden tours on the AHS Membership portal and am still slowly adding captions. I also just got back from visiting a beautiful daylily garden in Knoxville that contained a wonderful mix of daylily species, historical cultivars as well as many new introductions mixed with perennials. I will post those soon also on the Membership Portal.

As always at this time of year, I would like to remind everyone to participate in this year's Popularity Poll. This is your opportunity to help select the most popular cultivars in Region 10. Their selection is always a great help to daylily growers, new and old, since it reflects cultivars that perform well in our area. All ballots must be submitted to me by Sepember 1, 2011 and ballots may be found in the most recent 'Daylily Appeal', or on the AHS website.  Voting has never been easier and I would encourage everyone to vote. Please don't let only a few people decide what is most popular in Region 10 !!

Word also comes to me from Hebron Smith in KY that Jimmy Jordan, Region 10 President, has asked him to serve as editor for the Fall/Winter edition of the regional newsletter, The Daylily Appeal.  I'm sure that Hebron would welcome any and all articles and/or pictures for consideration for publication in the newsletter. According to Hebron, he hopes to have the draft ready by the September 1 deadline  - so you still have time to get your articles to him. And don't forget the routine club reports that are also due at that time.  All should be sent to Hebron at : hebrons@bellsouth.net.

I also would like to remind everyone that if you have club news, either past or present, and would like it to appear in the Region 10 News blog, you are welcome to e-mail me at willcol@aol.com.

June, 2011

Wow - I cannot believe that two months have passed since I posted my last blog.  Where did the time go?  It is suddenly early summer, 95 degrees and the daylilies are loaded with scapes after a spring that provided an excess of rain and cooler than normal temperatures. My historical cultivars and species collection kicked the bloom season off several weeks ago, but just in the last few days have I started to see recent introductions and my newer cultivars start to bloom. Pictured at the right is Hemerocallis 'Symphony' (Stout, 1941).  Yes, it's an exciting time of the year for daylily enthusiasts in Region 10. It's not too late to plan to attend the Region 10 Annual Summer Meeting and Garden Tours in Louisville, KY on June 24-25, 2011 which is sponsored this year by the Louisville Area Daylily Society (LADS). Reservations may be made at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (1-877-227-6963). For more details you may contact Andrea King at JasOKing@aol.com.  This is a wonderful way to view other daylily gardens, get landscaping ideas as well as recommendations for new cultivars that you may want to grow in your garden. And don't forget to consider making a donation to the the Plant Auction during the Summer Meeting.  All proceeds go to finance the Regional newsletter, The Daylily Appeal.  Without adequate funding and auction proceeds, the newsletter cannot have color pictures or the wonderful articles that we all enjoy and appreciate. LADS is still requesting plant donations for the auction - they should be  cultivars with a minimum value of approximately 35.00 or more. Cash donations will also be accepted. I've been told of at least one club that will be making a cash donation to the Summer Regional in place of plant donations. Several clubs have contacted me with news of upcoming and recent events. From the Tri-Cities Daylily Society comes news that Maurice Greene of the East Tennessee Daylily Society conducted a grooming class on June 4 in preparation for their upcoming Flower Show. They are also planning garden tours at the homes of Spike and Donna Good, Dennis Marshall and Ingrid Lane. For more information and dates, you may contact Susan Okrasinski at susanokrasinski@charter.net. The Middle Tennessee Daylily Society  has its annual 'Breakfast in the Garden' planned for June 11, 2011 at the residence of Dewayne Roberts in Spring Hill, TN. These two clubs contacted me regarding club events, but for other club meetings and flower show dates, don't forget that you may access the American Hemerocallis Society Membership Portal at the AHS website.  Region 10 has pictures, forums and club events posted for everyone to enjoy. That's all for now -  looking forward to seeing everyone at the upcoming Region 10 Summer Meeting in Louisville !!

March - 2011

March is here and whether we are ready or not, spring is upon us. My daylilies which were barely peeking through the ground 10 days ago are suddenly 5-6 inches tall thanks to the unseasonably warm weather we have had here in Nashville.  In isolated spots, I have even noticed cherry trees blooming !! Almost as exciting as spring is the introduction of the AHS Membership Portal which goes live on March 10. I have been busy over the last several weeks developing ideas for blogs, forums and photo galleries just for Region 10 members. The categories are all in place, but it will be up to Region 10 members to provide the content. I'm especially excited about the opportunity for members to upload their own pictures of gardens and flowers and can't wait to see everything going on in Region 10 on one website. And I have enlisted the help of Susan Okrasinski to help moderate the forums which should be fun.  I would encourage everyone to register for the AHS portal once we go live and explore all the different categories, both at the national level as well as the regional level.
I've heard from a couple of clubs regarding upcoming events. From Blue Grass Daylily Society, Elizabeth Trotter wrote the following : "I wanted to let you know the Blue Grass Hemerocallis Society will meet Monday, March 14, 7:00 p.m. at the Fayette County Extension Office, 1140 Red Mile Place. Our speaker will be Curt Hanson of Crintonic Gardens in Ohio. For more information, call 502-857-8600 or visit www.daylilyfans.com/bghs. ". From the Middle Tennessee Daylily Society comes the news that Sharon Price, an Alabama hybridizer, will be speaking at their March 8 meeting at Cheekwood at 6:30 PM.  And speaking of clubs, I have given each Region 10 Club a group page on the Membership Portal for their yearly calendars. Requests went out last month to all club presidents for 2011 calendars.  To date, I have received calendars from Tri-Cities Daylily Society, East Tenn Daylily Society, and the Middle Tennessee Daylily Society.  If you want your club's calendar of events posted on the AHS Portal, please forward to me when they are ready.
That's about all for now - if you want a special club event publicized, just send me an e-mail at willcol@aol.com.

Feb, 2011

Can you believe that the first month of 2011 is already over!! It seems that the month has come and gone in a flash as many of us have struggled with multiple weekly snowfall events. I seem to have spent the last few weeks reworking my daily schedule as I tried to dodge the icy road conditions. If you did not attend the MWS this year at the Hotel Preston in Nashville, you missed a golden opportunity to renew friendships and make new friends as well. I overheard several people say that they thought it was the best MWS in several years. Everyone seems to be getting accustomed to the new location; and the convenient proximity of the meeting rooms was especially appreciated during the cold temperatures. The speakers were varied in their topics and all were interesting. The auction on Saturday night was especially fun with auctioneers David Kirchhoff, Janene Tidwell (aka “ Paula Deen”), and Paul Owen keeping the pace fast and furious. I must admit that Paul Own had the pace so fast, that several times I jumped in quickly just to keep from losing the opportunity to bid completely. The saying ‘you snooze, you lose’ was certainly true during the auction this year. And of course, best of all, the proceeds of the auction will be used to fund the regional newsletter. One exciting feature of the MWS this year was the roll-out of a new area of the AHS website for AHS members only. I have agreed to serve as the Region 10 Group Leader and am still learning exactly what I can and cannot do. But overall, it promises to facilitate better communication and relationships between members in our region. Parts of it remind me of a version of Facebook for AHS folks only !!!! Look for more news about this change in future blogs. Region 10 clubs are gearing up for the busy spring months. One club that I did hear from last week was the BGHS. Elizabeth Trotter contacted me with the following information:


“The Blue Grass Hemerocallis Society will host Dan Hansen of Ladybug Daylilies on Monday, February 14, 7:00 p.m. at our new meeting place, the Fayette County Extension Office in Lexington, KY. Visitors are welcome. For more information, go to www.daylilyfans.com/bghs or email me at daylilygirl@shelbybb.net (note my new email address)”.

This meeting sounds like a real treat. If you are in the area, I am sure they would love to have you visit. That’s about all for now – please remember, if your club has events that it wants publicized, just send me an e-mail and I will do what I can to let others know.

Happy New Year - 2011

I can't believe that it has been so long since I posted, but time has flown. Everything was impacted as we sold the house in Nashville and moved "to the country". Ceilings are still being painted and boxes unpacked as I write this, but at least my office is functional and I'm getting excited about the upcoming gardening year. Many of your yards may look like the picture at the right now, but underneath that white covering are daylilies just waiting for warmer weather. 

 My apologies should first go to Janice Wood who sent me an e-mail back in September just as I was preparing to move.  In her e-mail she asked for any information and/or pictures regarding the below Region 10 hybridizers and their DSL introductions.  The hybridizers that she mentioned were:

Joanne Johnston- Nashville TN

Martha Lamkin- Louisville KY

Ellen (Mrs J) Alexander- Lexington KY

James McGaughy- Memphis TN

Catherine (Mrs Robert) Walsh- Lexington KY

Mrs. Frank Lucas- Owensboro, KY

John Bedel- Ft Wright KY

If anyone has information that may help Janice, please forward to her at simonsaid4me@aol.com.

 Locally, MTDS has been busy putting together a calendar of events for the coming year that will keep old members interested and attract new members too, just as other clubs across Region 10 are also doing. I would like to remind everyone that the 21st  Annual Mid-Winter Symposium is only 2 weeks away - January 21-23, 2011 at the Hotel Preston in Nashville.  Nationally known hybridizers will be making presentations as well as other well qualified horticulturists and speakers.  One particular speaker that Nancy Ligon and I sought was Randall Lantz, Superintendent of Horticulture for the Metro Nashville Parks & Recreation.  Randall spoke to our local club several years ago and members are still talking about how enjoyable his presentation was. He has over 30 years experience in horticulture, having worked at the Tennessee Botanical Gardens at Cheekwood as Chief Horticulturist for over 15 years before accepting his current position with the city of Nashville. His topic will touch on the use of daylilies in landscaping in the city parks as well as other horticultural topics.  If you want to know about current trends in horticulture, Randall's presentation is one that you won't want to miss.

Another exciting feature of MWS this year will be the introduction of a new enhancement of the AHS website - a member's only portal.  I have volunteered to be the Region 10 Group Leader for this exciting development and have already been able to view some of the features.  I think everyone is going to be excited when they see what this is going to offer to members as an added benefit of belonging to AHS. That's about all for now - the day is not over and I still want to start a few daylily seed from my amateur hybridizing efforts of last summer.  See everyone at the MWS !!