Pages - AHS Region 2

growing near my purple spidery types like Hemerocallis ‘Roger
Grounds’ (King-Lamone 1997) and H. ‘Prince of Purple’ (G. Couturier
1993).
Caryopteris is a great small shrub that blooms clear blue flowers
in August. Most have a silvery foliage but one, C. ‘Worcester
Gold’ has a luminous gold foliage that is a great backdrop for
daylilies in July and a highlight in August on its own. I am fond of
putting lavender eyed daylilies with yellow throats near this one.
I don’t put up with fussy plants in my garden; my goal is to have
a beautiful garden, not baby-sit whiney plants. I don’t spray for
either disease or insects, fussy plants get shovel pruned here. There
are some small roses that fit the demands of my garden, with flowers
from May to October, few diseases or pests, and that don’t mind
jostling for space with other plants. Shocking but true, some are
actually less demanding than my daylilies. The polyantha types
are great flower producers but often have little scent, an advantage
because Japanese beetles are also not attracted to them. Rosa ‘The
Fairy’, blooms in pink trusses from mid-June until hard frost and is
hardy to Zone 4. R. ‘Little White Pet’ (sometimes listed as ‘White
Pet’) is another bloom machine and stays around 2', pink buds,
white flowers, perfect for blush pink daylilies like Hemerocallis
‘Susan Weber’ (Branch 1989) and H. ‘Lullaby Baby’ (W. Spalding
1975). Some of the smaller English roses work in the same way,
blooming frequently and staying compact, but these are usually
highly fragrant. My favorites are the white highly scented R. ‘Fair
Bianca’, peach colored R.‘Tamora’ and R. ‘Ambridge Rose’, blush
pink H. ‘Sharifa Asma’ and clear yellow H. ‘Golden Celebration’.
Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’ is a Japanese holly with small dark green leaves
that grows in a very slender columnar form. This is a wonderful
plant for an evergreen punctuation point; I placed two flanking the
Southern Michigan
Hemerocallis Society
By Nikki Schmith and Lee Alden
July always brings my favorite SMHS event, the
Exhibition Show. The show this year was held at
the First United Methodist Church in Birmingham.
We had the good fortune to have 3 full panels of
judges, most from out of state. Dave Bowman,
Debbie Smith, and Willi Graham traveled from
Kentucky, while JR Blanton came from southern Ohio to help make
our show a success. Dr. Virginia Winkler and Judith Shaltry came
once again from Illinois to judge as well. After carefully reviewing
almost 160 scapes, the winners selected as follows:
Best Extra Large: ....................... H. ‘Monster’ (Armand DeLisle)
Best Large: ................................ H. ‘Tuxedo Whiskers’ (Marietta
.................................................. Crabtree)
Best Small: ................................ H. ‘Coyote Moon’ (Becky Hutchins)
Best Miniature: ......................... H. ‘Cosmopolitan’ (Nikki Schmith)
Best Double: ............................. H. ‘Topgun Helen Jones’ (Armand
.................................................. DeLisle)
Best Unusual Form: .................. H. ‘Ginger Twist’ (Armand DeLisle)
Best Youth: ............................... H. ‘Hey Mister Blue’ (Kylie Newman)
Best Popularity Poll: ................ H. ’Primal Scream’ (Armand DeLisle)
Best Seedling: ............................ shown by Gary Faust
Best Stout Medal Winner: ........ H. ‘Ed Murray’ (Nikki Schmith)
Peoples Choice Winner: ............ H. ‘Blaze Away’ (Nikki Schmith)
Sweepstakes Winners: .............. Armand and Barbara DeLisle
We had a fabulous entry in the AHS Achievement Medal section
that just had the crowd ooohing and aaahing. Michigan hybridizer
Greg Schindler is a name you should try to remember in the near
future. I am sure you will all want the seedling he exhibited in this
category as well as his H. ‘Matchless Fire’ and H. Apples Peaches
Pumpkin Pie’/
Speaking of Michigan hybridizers, they were well represented by
exhibitors in our show. Registered cultivars by Martin Kamenski,
Pat Salk, Howard Hite, Gloria Hite, and Greg Schindler were shown
to perfection. It is such a joy to see members of our club have
success, both exhibiting and breeding, and sometimes both at the
same time.
Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’ with a
variety of daylilies in Lynn
Purse’s Garden.
entrance to my circular flower garden, with daylilies at their feet. It
does need some discrete tying in the winter to keep the upright
branches from splaying under the weight of snow, but its strong
presence in the garden is worth the little extra work required.
Since I’m greedy for color over the life of the gardening year, I
find using these small shrubs invaluable for adding interest and
structure to my garden. My daylilies thrive and look even lovelier
with shrubs as a foil for their flowers. For anyone who wishes to
read more about combining plants in a mixed garden style, I highly
recommend Anne Lovejoy’s book The American Mixed Border
and The Well Designed Mixed Garden by Ohio gardener and writer
Tracy DiSabato-Aust.
AHS Region 2/Great Lakes Newsletter
Region 2 RVP-Editor Message (continued from page 5)
plants, by contributing money, and by helping with sales—in short:
by serving our region.
True, color and glossy paper are not necessary to bring news to
our members, but today, almost all of us look forward to seeing
images of our daylily friends and flowers as they look in real life.
Also, color images and the printed characters
themselves do look better on glossy paper.
(By the way, did you know that we have
lowered the actual USPS bulk-rate postage
cost by using the glossy, but thinner paper)
I hope to see you at our Region 2 Symposium,
February 23-26, in Cleveland. If you
have not been there before, why not do so in
Thank You!
2006! Curt Hanson arranged for another excellent
lineup of speakers and activities.
Fall 2005 - Winter 2006 Page 41