Don't Miss The 2012 Daylily Display
The blooms are peaking this week.....
The Mo Botanical Garden’s Jenkins Daylily Garden is proudly displaying more than 1600 varieties of daylilies and most are in full bloom this week. The daylilies are at their peak, a couple of weeks earlier that normally expected, but a very welcome addition to this week’s visit to the Botanical Garden and the Chinese Lantern Festival.
The Daylily garden is quietly tucked away on the east side of the garden, near Henry’s old gatehouse. During a visit to the garden you may find a group of dedicated volunteers working to maintain the daylilies. This group includes Master Gardeners Chick Buehrig and Bill Lenz, as they work with Jason Delaney and Sara Murphy of the Garden’s horticulture staff to maintain the garden and also to select the new hybrids added annually to the garden’s daylily collection.
Each year after the blooms have faded, the group will work with garden staff, the West County Daylily Club and some additional volunteers to begin the annual “Daylily Dig”. The dig is a well-orchestrated process. It’s fun to watch and if you had any questions about handling daylilies, they will have been answered before the “dig” is complete. The crew actually digs selected; existing plants, separates, washes, dries and packages them in preparation for the big Daylily Sale normally held the Saturday following the dig. All of the money raised from the sale is specifically channeled back into the daylily garden.
If you’re interested in adding to your current daylily collection, or maybe starting a new one, the sale is a fun opportunity that you won’t want to miss. Many newer cultivars not readily available at area commercial nurseries can be purchased for under catalogue prices. Mark your calendar now for the sale to be held later this year:
Sat., Sept. 15, 2012: MBG Daylily Sale at The Missouri Botanical Garden in Ridgeway Center’s Orthwein Hall – Beginning at 9 a.m.
Thanks to Chick and Bill for representing the Master Gardener organization so well….. We’re proud to call them St. Louis Master Gardeners.
