OK, I'm a hemaholic. I guess you'd have to call a person with nearly 2,000 daylilies a hemaholic. But I'm a plantaholic as well. I grow thousands of daffodils, hundreds of hostas, and nearly every kind of plant that will grow on my difficult property (it's swampy clay). I collect snowdrops, my great-grandfather Charles Dexter's rhododendrons, witch hazels, amaryllis, viburnums (ones that the deer don't eat, at least), hellebores, and vines. I also love container gardening and put together more than 100 containers each year--some for every season!
I think it all started when we moved to our house in 1978. The 600' driveway just beckoned to me. It wanted to be planted with flowers. However, the rhododendrons that I desperately wanted to grow did not like my sopping-wet ground. Daylilies did, however! A couple of years later I happened to see a flyer for the Delaware Valley Daylily Society auction, and I was hooked! I'm a member to this day, and was president twice in the late 80s.
Although I gave up hybridizing in the 80s, I still think about getting back to it someday. Guess I'll have to throw away my old seedlings first.
When I retired from teaching five years ago, I looked around for something new to learn and began the certificate program at Longwood Gardens. Ten courses later, I graduated in October! This program not only taught me 500 new plants, it cost me tons of money as I tried to grow most everything I learned. (Just loving rhodea japonica these days!)
But as you can see by the pictures, daylilies are still my first love. After having my garden on two regional and two national tours, you'd think I'd be sick of it all. But I'm not. My big, secret, hidden agenda these days is to turn my little granddaughters into a new generation of plantaholics!
Thank you for viewing my garden. Comments or questions welcome at ecreveli@yahoo.com
please click on top left photo to start the viewing
Garden Of The Week Archive Page
Site for week Dec. 19 to 25, 2009 By: chacha@abacom.com
OK, I'm a hemaholic. I guess you'd have to call a person with nearly 2,000 daylilies a hemaholic. But I'm a plantaholic as well. I grow thousands of daffodils, hundreds of hostas, and nearly every kind of plant that will grow on my difficult property (it's swampy clay). I collect snowdrops, my great-grandfather Charles Dexter's rhododendrons, witch hazels, amaryllis, viburnums (ones that the deer don't eat, at least), hellebores, and vines. I also love container gardening and put together more than 100 containers each year--some for every season!
