Daylilies for Days…
A real-life Wonderland is in our backyard every June. With close to 1000 varieties of daylilies in bloom across 6 acres, pretty much everywhere you look is daylily-covered. To a daylily fan, (and even those that are just along for the ride) it’s nothing short of a Wonderland.
Our 18th Daylily Festival was the last weekend of June. I left it feeling the way I always do: Amazed. No matter how many Festivals I work, I am continually amazed by how much fun it is. Although I see daylilies nearly every day, I am still amazed by how beautiful they are, and although I have the great good fortune to “converse” with many of you through email and various forms of social media (hello blog readers!) I am, most of all, absolutely blown away by how amazing “daylily people” are. For some reason having everything and everyone all together in one place is just, well, amazing.
We are always thrilled to meet new people, say hello to familiar faces and reunite with customers who, over the years, have become family. This year we had a surprise guest in the form of Tropical Storm Cindy. She was expected to crash the party in a big way, but she must have been in awe of the daylilies as much as everybody else. She was kind to us. We experienced some rain showers off and on Friday morning and late that night, but that just led to fantastic pictures and the realization that, instead of basic black, I need a cute, cheery umbrella in my life!
Festivals happen rain or shine. The star of the show is actually growing in the ground so we can’t move indoors at the threat of rain. Since we don’t have a tent that is large enough to cover six acres, we are in , in a very true sense, at the mercy of Mother Nature. The very first Festival I worked was six years ago. It was 105 in the shade and we broke temperature breaking records left and right that weekend. Trust me: when given the choice between crazy heat or some rain, I’ll take the rain any day!
Teenagers were holding hands and laughing at their mud covered barefeet, children (and adults) rocked adorable rain boots, happy dogs with muddy paws practically skipped through rows of daylilies, beautiful umbrellas were used to shield their owners from rain and sun and, strangest of all, I saw a woman walking the fields in gorgeous white pants– without a speck of mud on them anywhere. Amazing.
Thank you, as always to those of you who visited or thought about visiting us. We hope you come see us again. Remember, our 2018 Daylily Bloom Festival is June 22nd and 23rd (so start planning to join us next year!)
I bet you’ll be amazed, too!
