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nicely placed throughout the garden as well as all the structures we
were seeing. He even dug the pond with a back hoe.
As I moved along, the area became divided. There were the
daylily beds of course (several hundred plants), interrupted by a
wisteria covered pergola, shading some of the 350 hostas growing
here. On this hot and sunny day the shaded pond with mature
hostas, water plantings, and great rocks was very inviting. The
swimming pool, guest plant bed, gazebo, greenhouse, potting bench,
and a smaller pond also delightfully planted, were all beautifully
and functionally combined. I was to learn however that some things
divided were not to be combined! Dick has his daylilies and Carolyn
has hers! It seems Dick and three other unnamed men, nicknamed
the Cincinnati Mafia (I cannot reveal my source), travel to Florida
every year and come home with boxes of daylilies. Dick’s eyes
sparkled as he spoke of these trips and the love and joy of his
pastime. As he wants to keep his garden area on the small side, to
make room for the new he gives some of his older ones to Carolyn
who lines them out for sale. She was careful to say that she doesn’t
sell from his plants! She also makes cement troughs for herself and
for sale. This gives her income to buy more daylilies, of course.
Her favorite daylily is H. ‘Peacock Maiden’ which was blooming
beautifully this day.
Not everyone has a secret garden and not everyone who has
one will share it! But Carolyn took me down a short path behind
the pond to a very shaded area with a bench, also built by her son.
Hostas and boulders graced the edge of the clearing and sunshine
perennials, and annuals. Several frog sculptures were precursors
to the many whimsical touches to this beautiful garden. Those of
us in colder climes lusted over a beautiful Acer palmatum about
midway down the driveway.
As I approached the garage at the end of the driveway, I was
especially taken by a beautiful oldie but goodie—two large clumps
of Hemerocallis ‘Leebea Orange Crush’—which was planted next
to a seven foot holly. In front of the garage stood Abigail, a noted
Cincinnati master gardenener cleverly created by John out of plastic
pots of different shapes.
A Southern Belle playing
music on the Dukes’
porch so national tour
garden visitors could
enjoy the melodies.
Image: Karen Ciula
The line-out beds and stained glass hanging in the
Falconridge Garden. Image: Jacki Kropf
shot through little breaks in the leaf cover. I thought it a wonderful
place to sit and rest or just a cool respite from the hot days. It is
Carolyn’s special place. Here we talked about her grandchildren
and how they help her with special gardening projects. The children
also give their grandma gifts of little fairies and angels to
accent the garden. Her eyes too, sparkled as she spoke of the love
of family and her gardening.
Thank you both for sharing your love and joy with us.
AMY AND JOHN DUKE’S GARDEN
223 Kearney Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45216-1402
by Gene Dewey, Madison, Wisconsin.
As visitors walked past the sidewalk to the front entrance of the
Duke’s home and approached the driveway, a hint of the special
touches in this garden came into sight on the front lawn in the form
of a small cast iron table set with fine china, a goblet, flatware and
linens. Entering the driveway, we found a 6 to 7 foot border all
along the long side of the property. Here a complete collection of
the Stout Award winners was planted along with trees, shrubs,
AHS Region 2/Great Lakes Newsletter
H. ‘Candy Stripe Mountain’
(Herrington).
Image: Karen Ciula
As I strolled along the driveway bed, I was enjoying wonderful
instrumental music. At first I thought it was coming from a sound
system. I could not see that behind some of the plantings along the
open side porch of the house was a young musician friend of the
Dukes in a bright red “Southern Belle” formal gown playing live on
a soprano saxophone and other instruments.
Part of the garden had been completely renovated since Region
2 last visited this garden; a number of woody shrubs were added to
complement the AHS display garden of daylilies. Behind the house
in nearly full sun was a nice collection of Stevens Award Winners
for eyed hems; H. ‘Canadian Border Patrol’ was particularly beautiful
when I visited the garden.
I heard several compliments about the guest plant labels which
had a bright red background in some, if not all, of the convention
gardens. I enjoyed seeking out the guest plants at the Dukes’
garden and took note of H. ‘Land of Promise’ (Applegate 1994), H.
Candy Stripe Mountain’ (H. Herrington, 2000), H. ‘Mystical Merlin’
(L. James, 2001), H. ‘She Devil’ (J. Davisson, 2003), and H. ‘Strawberry
Cream Cupcake’ (T. Herrington, 2001).
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