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AHS Region 2/Great Lakes Newsletter
Region 2 Summer Meeting Tour Gardens
(continued from page 33 )
The Pat and Chuck Bell Garden (continued)
The large variety of plants ensure that visitors to the
garden will find a different emphasis during the seasons’
changes. One hundred year old Bur Oaks provide
a cool retreat area for resting and for enjoying the
changing views as the months progress from spring to
fall.
This garden also contains the large number of Year
2000 Region 2 Englerth Award candidates. It is located
in a choice part of the garden with good exposure
to the sun. By July, they should be ready to show
us their best features.
One of the beds in the front yard contains small- and
miniature-flowered cultivars.
This is not a hybridizer’s garden or a collector’s garden
per se. It is planned, planted, and cared for by an exfarm
girl who loves to grow things, especially those
plants that bloom. The Larsons take pride in growing
healthy clumps of hemerocallis that send up a good
number of scapes that bear well-formed, clear blossoms.
Older “tried and true” cultivars are compared with
newer ones. Most of the gardening chores are done by
the Larsons, who do not use chemicals; so, you may
Pat Bell in her Garden
The Larson Garden
Joanne and Gaylen Larson
49 Woodland Drive, Barrington, IL 60010
Since 1973, Joanne and Gaylen Larson have lived and
gardened along Flint Creek in Barrington, a northwest
suburb located about 45 miles from the city of Chicago.
Many mature oaks and the creek lend a parklike
atmosphere to the back yard of their two-acre property.
Carol McClintock, Joanne’s daylily mentor, advised her
to plant hybrids to aid in erosion control along the creek
bank. The first 14 plants were purchased at the
Chicagoland Daylily Society’s August sale, and 10 of
those plants are still growing along the creek.
The initial planting performed admirably in partial
shade, and a double row of plants soon stretched along
the creek. The creek-bank planting has been increased
to a triple row, and still there are clumps awaiting a
spot in one of the beds. Plants number over 500 at the
present time, with over 90 hybridizers represented.
Joanne Larson in the Larson Garden
see thrip damage. The battle with local critters, such
as beaver, woodchuck, muskrat, and deer, is always
an ongoing one.
No plants are marketed from this garden, but plants
are shared with “hem” friends, garden club members,
and they are donated for annual sales held by the local
society.
Visitors are always welcomed every summer in this
AHS Display Garden, especially in July.
The Garden of Rosemar
osemary Balazs
Rosemary Balazs
329 N. Oak Street, Hinsdale, IL 60521
Rosemary’s garden is located on a city-size lot in
Hinsdale, but over 500 cultivars have found a home
there. The owner’s love of daylilies has intensified since
she took early retirement eight years ago, and every
year there has been a new project to expand the daylily
garden wherever possible.
Last year, she grouped many of her hemerocallis by
Page 40 Spring/Summer 2000