Growing Daylilies Together

I first started collecting daylilies in 1982. My sister, Mary Lou Lundblade, asked me to come to her house in Wichita, Kansas to help get her gardens ready for the Region 11 Garden Tour.  I went home with a suitcase full of daylilies.

I made a list of the cultivars that were blooming at my sister's house that impressed me with their bloom and brought home H. MARY TODD, BIG REX, STELLA D'ORO, SNOW ELF (which has since been composted), SUMMER WINE, SHIRLEY WILD, APPLE TART, CARPENTER SHAVINGS, CHAMPAGNE BUBBLES, CONDILLA, FRENCH FROSTING, SILOAM SPACE AGE.  MARY TODD, BIG REX, AND SILOAM SPACE AGE were the largest daylily flowers that I had ever seen at that time.  STELLA AND SNOW ELF are both reliable early bloomers which helped to jump start the bloom season.  FRENCH FROSTING is a near white with diamond dusting, which was new to me at the time.  APPLE TART is a really nice large flowered red.  CHAMPAGNE BUBBLES, CONDILLA, CARPENTER SHAVINGS are nice doubles that I liked for variety. I liked SHIRLEY WILD because it's a spider whose petals and sepals curled and seemed to dance in the wind.  It leans without support, but I didn't know that at the time.

I am a member of AHS, Sunbelt Daylily Club in Florida, Southern Michigan Daylily Society and Central Michigan Daylily Society.  I attended my first National Daylily Convention in 2002 in Troy, Michigan.  Previous to that, I had attended the Regional in Wichita, Kansas three times with my sister. That gave me the to opportunity to do some clerking at some of the daylily exhibitions in Region 11, as well as some judging to help get my certification as an Exhibition Judge.

I attended National Conventions in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2003, St. Louis, Missouri in 2004, Cincinnati, Ohio in 2005, Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2007, Houston, Texas in 2008, and Lake Mary, Florida in 2009.  I also attended and helped with the Regional in Florida in 2008 and helped with the National in Florida and was on the planning committee for both.  I was a bus captain also for the Florida National.  I also worked in Dan Trimmer's gardens for the week previous to the convention. I attended the Region 2 Regional meeting in Naperville, Illinois in the summer of 2009.  At the convention in Lake Mary, Florida, I took the Garden Judge training and have become certified.  I am also a certified daylily Exhibition Judge.

My garden is an AHS National Display Garden and is open to visitors July through August by appointment.  Please call first to make sure I will be home or that we haven't already live-headed the garden.

There are no daylily 'people' in the county in which I live, but that is gradually changing as I give talks and show pictures of the different types of daylilies to the organizations at home.  This spring, I will be giving my first Powerpoint Presentation about daylilies to the Master Gardeners "SPRING INTO GARDENING" Conference.  I belong to the Huron County Master Gardeners, and the Huron County Rose Society and promote daylilies to anyone who will listen.  During the bloom season, I take blooming plants to the Farmer's Market and sell bare root daylilies. This generates lots of interest also.

My sister feeds my daylily addiction and keeps it growing but unfortunately, she doesn't reign me in. I have over 650 cultivars and have outgrown the space allowed for daylilies. Something has to go.

What do I love about daylilies? They are an easy care perennial. They increase well and can be shared with others easily.  There are so many good friendly people who are involved with daylilies and it is so much fun meeting new daylily lovers.

Do rothian Meyer
Bad Axe, Michigan

Meyer Daylily Garden
Phone: 863-273-9335