Ashwood Gardens

Richard Norris's Ashwood Gardens is about a half hour drive from us, right here in Athens County Ohio. I wish we could get out there more often to see his plants, but unfortunately, when you have your own nursery, the time to visit other gardens is also the time people are visiting yours, and when there is so much work to do, that we rarely get to see other's gardens at their peak, and with daylilies, unfortunately, peak is the only time to see them. That's probably my only complaint with them (other than that the deer see them as a free lunch), that when they're not blooming, they don't hold much interest, whereas hostas are pretty all season long. I even know people who cut off the bloomscapes from their hostas because they think it detracts from the look of the plants. I happen to like the blooms and they also make good cut flowers.
Off track a bit there - sorry.
Richard has been hybridizing for awhile and since he retired has done some wonderful things with daylilies. Ths first one is Regal Shield.
Next is Kermit's Scream, one of his wide and flat ones which come out of his breeding with Lights of Detroit, a very wide flat yellow. I like how the darker color is almost hidden as the petals curve around.

This one is Flight of the Raven and is the first one of Richard's daylilies we got. It was registered in 1999 and was one of the first, if not the first, he registered. The color is often darker than this in the garden, with a correspondingly darker eye, but is always lovely.

These last two photos are in the 'Ashwood' series. This first one is Ashwood Still night...

and this is Ashwood Dark Side. Both are lovely dark blooms that don't see to fade in the heat and sun of the day and have increased to large clumps here.

Enough with these 90 degree temperatures. We can have summer and lovely flowers and delicious vegatables at 80 degrees just as well. No point in frying the gardener with this heat. Most of my real gardening is taking place before noon now and the vegatable garden has to be tended pretty much before 9 when the sun gets around there. Shady gardens are just getting lovlier and lovlier as my time is spend there rather than in the sunny spaces. Pretty normal for July, but this is only June . . .

Another Ohio hybridizer tomorrow.

Jane