A Daylily Breeder's Garden-Trenton

From In the Garden

'Steve Trimmer' Daylily

Mrs. Oakes (on right) and her sister (who came in from Chicago to help out with the tour).

I recently had the privilege of traveling to Mrs. Oakes lovely home in Trenton, Kentucky to view her daylilies during the Regional American Hemerocalis Society's Garden tour. Many of you who live in the local area are already familiar with Mrs. Oakes, she owns and operates The Tin Barn on Guthrie Highway. I've talked of the Tin Barn before when I posted about my daylily seedlings I purchased from Mrs. Oakes last summer, but did you know the blueberries are ready for picking at The Tin Barn too? Blackberries won't be far behind. Today's post is about her lovely garden surrounding her beautiful home in Kentucky.

My garden club (The Beachaven Garden Club) took a tour to see the daylilies this past Friday. What a treat we were in for as you all know, it IS daylily time here in Middle Tennessee. As soon as we parked and began the trek up the hill to the house, look at what we were greeted with! Huge beds of daylilies in all their glory.
There were quite a few visitors to Mrs. Oakes garden on this hot day. Not only was my garden club in attendance, but so was Dr. Matthews and my good friends Judie and Phil.
Here we are cooling off under a wonderful old oak tree and listening to Mrs. Oakes talk of her daylilies. She is a daylily breeder and sells many named and unnamed cultivars. Her prices can't be beat! It is always best to buy daylilies in bloom, so we here in the local area are most blessed to have her close by and open for business.
On this hot day these two Adirondack chairs looked most inviting. Can you relate the colors to a certain special flower we are talking of today? Of course, it's the sunny orange and yellow of most daylilies. Wonderful colors in the heat of summer.
And one last picture before I go. This is the Oakes home. A wonderful old farmhouse with lots of charm. When I see such awesome homes with the big porches I am instantly reminded of cool breezes and easy living.

in the garden....

The 'Steve Trimmer' daylily is a type I don't think I've ever seen before. It was my favorite and one I hope to purchase soon. Many of the ladies found some great cultivars of daylilies, but they were not for sale on this day. Visit the Tin Barn by appointment or on the weekend in order to purchase your own special daylily. While you are there, be sure to pick some blueberries and blackberries.

Garden Clubs and the Blue Star Memorial Program

I sometimes give lectures on gardening. Such was the case when the Les Candides Garden Club asked me lecture on Fall Gardening. I had such a good time!

The meeting was held at the Clarksville Country Club and the hostess did a great job of making everyone feel at home, including me. The two lovely ladies pictured on the right are Martha (left) and Minerva (right). Minerva was the hostess for this meeting.

Refreshments were delicious and served impeccably by the staff at the Country Club. The designs and decorations were even more lovely. Just take a look at the scrumptious food at the left!

Fall gardening is one of the most special times of the year for me in the garden. It is when the garden is full and lush, the leaves have not yet started falling, the harvest is bountiful, the weather is moderate, rains are plenty, and the Jimster heads back to school! (Ah, just kidding on the last part as I miss the Jimster when he is gone to school) Of course it is now winter, but winter can also be lots of fun in the garden too with lots of interest as well.

After my program was complete, the President of Les Candides invited me to stay for their meeting. I am the President of the Beachaven Garden Club and there was an item on the agenda that involved not only my garden club, but the Clarksville Garden Club as well.

Many of you may know Annette Shrader, one of the hosts of the Volunteer Gardener, our state gardening television program. She is also the President of the Tennessee Federation of Garden Clubs and has initiated a program that will involve all three garden clubs in Clarksville. Annette, and others, would like to see a Blue Star Memorial Marker installed in Clarksville. All three garden clubs have decided to participate in obtaining a Blue Star Marker in Clarksville and you should look for it sometime next year. I really enjoyed Les Candides Garden Club and all of their members.

I have to say a special HELLO to Jane. There she is on the left side of the table at the head of the row. Jane is a reader of blogs and had read mine in the past. I am not sure if she is still reading, but if so-Hello! She was so neat to talk to because she does read blogs! In my experience, most garden club members don't seem to read blogs-but that's okay.

Thanks Les Candides for having me at your meeting and for being such a good audience!

in the garden....

Calling all bloggers, tomorrow is the day of Shirl's Desert Island Challenge, if you want to participate do check out her post. Tomorrow's post here will be part of the challenge and I wanted to give you all a head's up in case you wanted to join in. tina

Garden Club

The third week of the month is a very busy week for me. I call it my Garden week. I not only attend the monthly Perennial Plant Society meetings in Nashville, but also attend my garden club meetings.

I have been a member of the Beachaven Garden Club for 3.5 years. I think in all that time I have missed only two meetings. When I first retired from the military I desperately sought out other gardeners through groups. Starting with the Master Gardener Association. I have attended and completed the course (with honors), but this association was not an option for me in Tennessee. I next tried some garden clubs. I was told garden clubs are social clubs and not really what I was looking for. Next, Karen of The Garden Place on Woodlawn Road directed me to the Perennial Plant Society. Just what I wanted but it meant a trip to Nashville each month. Bummer. I still wanted a local club.

In the summer of 2004 Stacy Smith-Segovia did a feature article on the way I garden, specifically the French Intensive method of gardening. This article was my first public exposure with gardening here in Clarksville. Obviously, I have much more public exposure since I started this blog, but more on that next week. That first article opened alot of doors for me back then in the Clarksville community.

Sandra Watson, the President of the Beachaven Garden Club, saw that article and called me to ask me if I would like to visit her club. I missed the meeting I was supposed to visit. Shame on me! But, made the next one. The ladies asked me to join and here I am still a proud member, and now the President. (I think no one else would do it-lol) This garden club has made me feel so very welcomed in Clarksville and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Not only do we socialize, because we are friends, but we also talk gardening, share plants and learn from one another. I often speak of my garden club friends on here; Sandra, Diann, Geri, Esther, and Nancy so far.

This week's meeting saw us treated to a really colorful and interesting program on a subject even I am not too terribly familiar with, Wildflowers. Charles and Vicki Moffitt (pictured) are a great team who pleased all present Thursday evening with the great pictures of the Applachian Mountain wildflowers. They have both personally hiked from Georgia to Maine, documenting the trip all along the way through some really wonderful pictures. Vicki especially loved Maine and had the opportunity to get down from the mountain to the coast where George Bush has a summer home. Anyone know what city that is in Maine? Besides my mother and sister who live in Maine. You can't answer.

Charles and Vicki are known on the trail as Papa Smurf and Flame. Can you guess why? We all had a great time enjoying the show and appreciate them traveling all the way from Springfield in the cold dreary rain last evening. Thanks! I believe they have a website under trail journals listed under their trail names, but I am not sure so I have not included a link. Sorry.

in the garden....

Garden Clubs

I have had a busy morning! The Clarksville Garden Club sponsored educational gardening seminars today, along with a plant sale. The picture at left shows some of my buys with the exception of the white mum, bagged plant to the right of the mum and the huge lantana. These three plants were gifts. The small bagged plant is Mexican heather, and the huge potted plant is lantana, both of which Skeeter gave me from her garden. Thanks Skeeter! The white mum was a door prize given away at the seminars this morning.

The Clarksville Garden Club is one of three garden clubs in Clarksville (to the best of my knowledge). The other two are Les Candides and the Beachhaven Garden Club. I am a member of the Beachhaven Garden Club. We are the only garden club that meets in the evening. I have been a member for three years now and have gained immeasureable knowledge about gardens and gardening friends who also attend monthly meetings. I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every meeting. Today's seminars sponsored by the Clarksville Garden Club included some local notables as follows: Jeremy Meyers on Landscaping with Native Trees and Shrubs, Karla Kean on Low Maintenance Landscaping, Jason Groppel on Where have the Honeybees Gone, and Byron Dumas on Orchids. All great subjects and presented very well. Garden clubs are different from the Master Gardener Association in that the master gardening program offers a lot of information in a relatively short period of time, then you have to volunteer hours back to the community. Garden clubs require no volunteer hours and provide more informational programs than instructional programs.

Garden clubs are always in search of new members and welcome everyone. As an enticement for people to attend, door prizes are sometimes raffled off. I am not one to win much of anything so when I finally found my ticket which had the winning number, I was overjoyed. Of course, even without door prizes I would attend meetings and programs but the door prizes help make it fun. It is sometimes very hard to make time to attend meetings (there is that TIME thing again), but well worth it. So why not get out in your community and join a garden club? Meet new friends and learn about all the varied aspects of gardening to boot!

in the garden....