Daylily News 2012

A Message from Pollie 2012

So here we are again and a very big welcome to this our tenth daylily plant list. I keep starting my letter with this paragraph and again wondering where the years are going.

2011 was a very strange year for us dominated by the sadness surrounding the death of a very dear friend in the New Year and the excitement that was the Hampton Court Flower Show. The Show was challenging in so many ways and even now I find the whole experience almost unbelievable. Having been told that we "were in" in November 2010 it almost took over our whole lives for the period running up to the show. Yours truly potted up 120 large plants which, due to the very early season, were mostly past their multi blooming best by the show and we were left with about 50 plants which we knew, or at least hoped, would bloom throughout the whole period. In a way this wasn't so bad as at least we didn't have to spend hours selecting suitable plants as the phrase "beggars can't be choosers" reared its ugly head. Still lots of work by Terry and Mel, our designer friend, got us to the Plant Heritage Tent in one piece, winning a Silver Gilt medal and being described in various PH blogs as "the star of the show" and later the Tent was voted the best show exhibit. (Many thanks to all of you who helped us along the way). When we came home it all seemed so quiet after the constant hum of the tent and this year we are back to being our normal ordinary selves although we haven't faded away completely as we already have a few bookings for visits this year and a nice mention included in a piece about the National Collections in the Saga magazine. You see, I told you last year that I was getting older.

So having had a really good boast I will continue in my normal rambling way. For those who don't know me I am truly a daylily fanatic and hold the National Collection of Spider and Unusual Form daylilies, (now numbering something over 550), out of a complete collection of just over 1700. This is always followed by how mad is that? Some of the plants that we grow here are very new to this country and we continue to trial them for weather hardiness and performance so that when they finally clump up sufficiently, we can supply you with hardy plants that are really garden worthy. The field is a very unforgiving place in the winter and the plants stand out there in their pots all winter and just have to cope.

Now to the catalogue and again apologies as I am repeating myself from year to year by saying that we are a small family concern and in some cases I do not have many plants available of the ones listed. These are marked clearly in the catalogue. This means plants will be sent out/sold on a first come, first served basis from mid March to June subject to weather conditions and again during September and October. They travel through the post bare rooted and most of the daylilies I am offering are growing on in 2 litre pots at present and are, (with some exceptions), almost always at least 2 fans. Occasionally the daylilies will be single fans only, sometimes because they are very strong fanned plants and will not increase in a 2 litre pot or sometimes because the plants, especially on the limited list, can be in very high demand. You will see that the prices of the plants vary a great deal. In some cases these are cultivars that I think are being offered in the UK for the very first time and the prices reflect their rarity and availability in this country. As far as the limited list is concerned if you do not order early it would probably be advisable to contact me first by telephone, (I have also included my mobile telephone number above), or by e-mail to check that these are still available. In nearly all cases last year we were able to provide all daylilies requested and I never send substitutes unless you provide me with a list or I have discussed this with you first.

As before I am making available an ever increasing list of daylilies on special offer mostly from my older varieties of which I have larger numbers. As far as my mail order efforts go it is very reassuring and encouraging to receive all your lovely e-mails, cards and letters to tell me how happy you are with your plants and how well they are growing. It really is very kind of you to bother. To thank you for your kindness and continuing loyalty and support I am, as usual, offering bonus plants to the value of 15% of your order, or alternatively a 10% cash discount for orders over £50. Please state your preference and pick bonuses where appropriate. (I am afraid, however, that because of the very small numbers on the limited list I would please ask you not to pick anything from here as your bonus.)

As usual the catalogue will also be available shortly as a PDF once the website has been updated giving you the opportunity of looking at the catalogue pictures and bringing them up to full size if you wish. Great fun! I have also managed to get quite a few more pictures into the online catalogue although I will definitely have to try harder this summer. There are always so many distractions during the bloom season and we do tend to take pictures of our newer varieties, endlessly. If you would like to see even more pictures please visit the website to view the galleries or click on the direct links to our Flickr and Facebook pages. I am also reminding you here that the varieties listed represent just a small sample of the daylilies that can be seen growing here and if there is a plant not listed that you particularly want please do not hesitate to ask. In 2011, as usual, many visitors after admiring the wonderful display, (I am biased) left us wish lists and I am always very happy to try and fulfil wishes as the plants become available. I love to see the response I get from a satisfied customer as I know what it means to me to acquire a plant that I have coveted. Again thank you very much to all of you who came again last year. It is always such a pleasure to meet new friends and to welcome back our regulars. As usual we are not charging an opening fee but the Oakhaven hospice boxes will be on display.

Terry is still hybridising like mad and the greenhouses are completely full of last years germinations. We had some fabulous new seedlings blooming last year and are really excited at the prospect of the new season with well over 1500 to look at and evaluate. We are in the process of registering 4 of our introductions at present and hope that some of the ones growing on here will also be good enough to register in the future. Below is the stand at Hampton Court with thanks to Gillian Murray for the lovely picture

Daylily Success at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2011

After a very busy and stressful build up to the Hampton Court Flower Show throughout June we are over the moon to have walked away with the RHS Silver-Gilt Medal for our display of Daylilies.

To have won this prestigious award has made all the hard work worthwhile and our thanks go out to all those people who helped us to achieve this accolade and to those willing helpers during the course of the show. We are honoured to be able to display our achievement for all future visitors to our Daylily nursery to see.

As our season draws to an end we can look back with pride and maybe, just maybe, we will get the chance to display our glorious Daylilies again next year.

If you came to see us at the show and would like to buy some of our award winning plants they will be available from Monday 8th August 2011. Please contact us for details.

A Message from Pollie 2011

So here we are again and a very big welcome to this our ninth daylily plant list. I cannot understand where the time has gone again this year. What I do know is that we are definitely getting older, (in fact it is our Ruby Wedding this Spring), but our passion for our wonderful plants has not diminished at all. It is not surprising really when we are greeted every year with an ever increasing display of beautiful daylily blooms. The National Collection is also increasing rapidly and after all we said last year we have built yet another display bed to house all our new imports together with some of the really pretty, (in our eyes anyway), unusual and spidery seedlings which just had to have a new home so that we could grow them on and assess them with the future prospect of naming them and hopefully introducing them in the future. We are continuing to increase both our general collection of in excess of 1500 daylily cultivars in total of which well over 500 are part of my National Collection of spider and unusual form daylilies. Some of these are very new to this country and we continue to trial them for weather hardiness and performance in this country so that we can do our best to supply you with hardy plants that are really garden worthy. The field is a very unforgiving place in the winter and the plants stand out there in their pots all winter and just have to cope.

Now to the catalogue and again apologies as I am repeating myself from year to year by saying that we are still quite a modest concern so in some cases I do not have many plants available of the ones listed. This means that they will be sent out/sold on a first come, first served basis. I send out my orders bare rooted from mid March to June subject to weather conditions and again during September and October. Most of the daylilies I am offering are growing on in 2 litre pots at present and are, (with some exceptions), normally at least 2 fans. Occasionally the daylilies will be single fans only, sometimes because they are very strong fanned plants and will not increase in a 2 litre pot or sometimes because the plants, especially on the limited list, can be in very high demand. You will see that the prices of the plants vary a great deal. In some cases these are cultivars that I think are being offered for the very first time and the prices reflect their rarity and availability in this country. As far as the limited list is concerned if you do not order early it would probably be advisable to contact me first by telephone or e-mail to check that these are still available. In nearly all cases last year we were able to provide all daylilies requested and I never send substitutes unless you provide me with a list or I have discussed this with you first.

Now, an apology to any of you keen spidery collectors out there. I am afraid that I need to hold back some of the cultivars that were to be offered in the daylily list this Spring. The exciting news is that we have been offered a space in the National Collections tent at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in July this year. Because we need to optimise our chances of having a stunning display for every day of the show, (not always an easy thing with daylilies in pots), we need to have as many options as possible of plants that are going to flower at that time of the year as possible. However, I am enclosing an extra list of a few of the plants that will be available for splitting in August. If you are interested please let me know and I will put your name down for them. We are both so excited about the show although also rather concerned about all the work to be done to show our precious daylilies at their very best at this prestigious show. Wowee!

As before I am making an ever increasing list of special offer daylilies mostly from my older varieties of which I have larger numbers. Although lots of you have probably already got these, they might form a good basis for a new collection or perhaps just fill in a few gaps in your garden. As far as my mail order efforts go it is very reassuring and encouraging to receive all your lovely e-mails, cards and letters to tell me how happy you are with your plants and how well they are growing. As always, it is really kind of you to bother. To thank you for your kindness and continuing loyalty and support I am, as usual offering bonus plants to the value of 15% of your order, or alternatively a 10% cash discount for orders over £50. Please state your preference and pick bonuses where appropriate. (I am afraid, however, that because of the very small numbers on the limited list I would please ask you not to pick anything from here as your bonus.)

The catalogue is also available on the website as a PDF, (to be updated this month), and gives you the opportunity of looking at the pictures and bringing them up to full size if you wish. Great fun1 As usual I am also reminding you that the varieties listed represent just a small sample of the daylilies that can be seen growing here. If there is a daylily not listed that you particularly want please do not hesitate to ask. In 2010, as usual, many visitors admired the wonderful display and again left wish lists with me and I am always delighted to try and fulfil wishes as the plants become available. I love to see the response I get from a satisfied customer. Very many thanks to all of you who did come to visit last year and for a change having to brave the searing heat rather than the rain. There is no doubt about it the daylilies coped with the heat a lot better than we did although as I am sitting here typing this a little bit more heat would be very welcome.

Terry is still hybridising like mad and our new greenhouse is already completely full of last years germinations. I was right when I said that not all seed collected in 2009 would germinate but we now have well over 1,000 seedlings at various stages of development and looking at the new plants flowering each day was a real delight last year especially as some of them seemed, again, to us, rather special. As usual there are a few pictures of seedlings at the bottom of the page which flowered for the first time in 2010. We are currently looking for a daylily good enough to name after the first of the next generation of the Maasz family. Ruby Anne who was born to our niece and her partner on New Years Eve 2010. We will also be naming a selected seedling, if it continues to flourish, after our very dear friend and my daylily mentor, Diana Grenfell Grounds with her very kind permission.

We will be opening as usual this year for the local hospice and the Red Cross so that as ever I can do what I like most, showing the daylilies off to our visitors. Opening times are as follows:- Weekends from 18th June 2011 to 7th August 2011 inclusive 9-30am to 5-30pm and weekdays during that period 2-00pm to 5-30pm. Of course, you are also welcome at any time if you just give us a call first. If you are interested in supporting the Red Cross we are opening specifically for that Charity on Sunday 10th July same times.