The Canadian Mississippi River flows from the Mazinaw Lake area of Eastern Ontario to join the Ottawa River west of Canada's capital city, Ottawa. Alongside the river, about half an hour's drive from downtown Ottawa, is a semi-private 18-hole golf course, the Mississippi Golf Club, in Mississippi Mills. This is one of the older golf clubs in Ontario, dating back to 1915. Apart from the superior condition of the golf course turf and the naturally scenic setting, it also features many flower beds and ornamental plantings scattered throughout.

Bill Hudson is the greens superintendent, and American Hemerocallis Society and Ontario Daylily Society member Sue Bergeron is the horticulturist. Sue has been involved in gardening since she was a small child back in England, see picture at right showing her in "early training" in her grandfather's garden. She probably wasn't supposed to be gardening in a dress! Her first specific plant "obsession" was with fuchsias as a teenager in the mild climate of southern England. The collection eventually reached over 90 different cultivars located both in the garden, for the hardier ones, and a small greenhouse.

Her first daylily was acquired in 1973 while still in England, but apparently it didn't make a huge impression as it remained the only one until she moved to Canada several years later. Daylily collecting didn't start in earnest until the 1990's, after reading somewhere that they attract hummingbirds.

Fast forwarding again to the golf course, which is located in USDA hardiness zone 4, there were several unidentified, some possibly historic, daylilies already present when Sue first started work there over a decade ago. The number of daylilies has since been increased, especially on the slope near the first tee adjacent to the clubhouse. Those daylilies were closely spaced to prevent erosion of bare soil after construction of the new tee, and have worked well for that purpose with the added benefit of a mass of colour every summer when in flower.

As well as the extensive gardens around the clubhouse and first tee, there are ornamental plantings of annuals, perennials, bulbs, shrubs, flowering trees and ornamental grasses at most of the other tees, as well as a number of containers and hanging baskets. Apart from the challenge of remembering to look out for flying golf balls, deer are the biggest problem when gardening in such a setting. Deer repellents and plants that don't have deer-appeal have to be used since fencing obviously isn't an option.

The pictures below show a few of the course's gardens, finishing with a shot of the Mississippi River taken from the golf course when the fall colours were just beginning.

please click on top left photo to start the viewing