Cherry Hill Garden

 For us, one of the interesting aspects of 'getting into daylilies' was finding out that the growers have a tradition of adding bonus plants to an order. We have had the pleasure over the years of being introduced to a number of varieties we would otherwise never have experienced if they had not been added to our order by the grower.  It didn't matter whether they were given to us free of charge because they weren't a big seller, were an older variety, or the seller just didn't like them or they grew 'too well' for him.  Some of these varieties have been wonderful additions to our hybridizing program and others haven't excited us and were given away or even sold locally.  Nonetheless, it is a generous gesture for a plant grower to add a free plant to your order. It usually results in an immediate 'trip' to the daylily database online to see what we had been gifted. Bonus plants we have received over the years that have turned out to be serendipit...

The other day, over lunch, my wife, Nancy and I were having a discussion about - what else- daylilies.  We wanted to head to the 'back 40', which is stretching it a bit since it is the back of our almost 2 acres.  We needed to see how many fans we had of a particular variety.  One of us suddenly remembered, we had 'no gator!'  meaning that we remembered that the John Deere Gator was in the shop for annual maintenance.  That meant we had to WALK out to the back of our property.  Only those over 65 or with bad back or knees can sympathize.  We felt almost as though we needed to go to the grocery store but had no car to get there.    This lead to a discussion of the tools we could no longer do without in the garden: John Deere Gator -  At our age we only begrudgingly trudge out to the beds when we can't ride out.  Lest you criticize our laziness, the gator hauls a spade, roundup, labeling supplies, tubs, recently dug plants and multip...

Cherry Hill Garden is actually more of a daylily farm than a daylily garden. It is the home of Nancy, Bob, and Elissa Watson who have been seriously growing daylilies since 2005 here in west-central Indiana.  We had a few daylilies prior to that, but they were just one of the perennials among many.  Now, they definitely dominate the landscape of our almost 2 acres. We grow approximately 1000 named varieties and maybe 5,000+ seedlings at any one time and about 600 plants under observation for possible introduction.    Nancy, Bob, and Elissa (sitting) with our wonderful dog, Riley, out among the daylilies. Our major outlet for sales is a local event called the Herb Faire, sponsored by the Wabash Valley Herb Society.  It is held in May every year and we sell bareroot daylilies that were 'lined out' the prior fall.  We do have about 15 introductions, which we sell, but we don't offer many intros by other growers since we want to spend our energies and gar...