The GWC will host our annualclub picnic at 6:00 onTuesday May 17th at Mark andJoanne Boone’s home. Theiraddress is 4401 Dewees Ct. inRaleigh, located just offEbenezer Church road. Thehouse at the end ofDewees Court isyour destination.

Catering is provid-ed by Pam’s FarmHouse. The menuusually includesbarbeque chicken, beef tipswith rice, cole slaw, stringbeans with new potatoes, sweetcorn, hush puppies, biscuits,ice tea and lemonade. If youhave not already paid GinnyParker you may do so at the pic-nic. The charge for memberswill be $6 per person, and $15

for non-members. You are invit-ed to bring either a dessert orappetizer to share.

There will be a plant exchangeand raffle. For the plantexchange, members typicallybring 2-3 plants, with a

note or label includ-ing a description.

The plants arelined up, the mem-bers line up, and we‘race’ to select ourfavorite. Most of us

‘race’ at a casual pace,although my 7 year old son maygo zipping past you. He hasbeen anticipating this event allyear.

Many of us have more to sharethan room to plant. This is anamazing opportunity for newgardeners to get robust plants

Volume 32 Edition 5 Gardeners of Wake County, Inc. – Raleigh, NC MAY 2016

CLUB MEETINGS

Meetings are at 7:30pm at theJC Raulston Arboretum every3rd Tuesday.

GARDENERS OF WAKE COUNTY PICNIC

GWC Picnic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1

Board Members. . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2

Committee Members . . . . . . . . . Page 2

How Many Plant Clubs to Join . . . Page 2

Hybridizing Daylilies . . . . . . . Page 3

Lakeview Daylily Farm . . . . . . Page 3

(continued on page 2)

Inside This Issue

that thrive locally for free.Ceramic or porcelain pots willbe raffled off with tickets soldfor $1 each or 6 for $5.

Raleigh Hemerocallis Club2016 Show

Thinking about all the freeplants at our GWC plantexchange reminded me aboutanother great way to get cheapplants, particularly if you likedaylilies. Last year we wereshopping at Crabtree Valley Malland stumbled upon the annualshow of the Raleigh Daylily Club.

Page 2 MAY 2016 The Clod-Hopper

The Clod-Hopper

Published monthly by The Gardenersof Wake County, Sherrill Johnson,President; Laine & Steven Thomas,Editors. Formatted and printed by Piedmont Litho, Inc.For membership information or tochange your address contactBarbara Brown, membershipchairman at the address publishedin the membership directory. Club Website:www.gardenersofwakecounty.org

BOARD MEMBERSPresident. . . . . . . Sherrill Johnson

Vice President . . . . Paul Hoffmann

Secretary . . . . . . . . Donna Farmer

Treasurer . . . . . . Norman LaRusch

Immed Past Pres. . . . . Mark Boone

At-large Board . . . . . . . . CJ Dykes,Paula Hoffman

Jim Moore

COMMITTEE MEMBERSActivities Chair . . . . . . . Mark Boone

Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gary Jewell

Azalea Sale . . Joann Hammerberg

Beautification Awards

Will & Donna Farmer

Club Awards . . . . . . . . . CJ Dykes

Endowment Investment . Rick Tate

Friendship . . . . . Bob & Judy Allen

Historical . . . . . . . . Dick Lankford

Membership . . . . . Barbara Brown

Newsletter Editors. . . . . . . . . . . .

Steven & Laine Thomas

Nominating . . . . Vivian Williamson

Programs . . . . . . . Paul Hoffmann

Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vacant

Publicity . . . . . . . . Charles Gilliam

Refreshments . . . Sharon LaRusch

Scholarship . . . . . . Joanne Boone

Telephone . . . . . . Johnny Johnson

Webmaster . . . . . . . . . Jim Wilson

It was the greatest surprise tofind something I really liked,plants, at the mall! The showhas hundreds of daylilies thatare grown by club members ondisplay, and they sell largebundles of daylilies for $5. Ithink they also threw in abunch of free plants when Istar ted spending big (like$20). All of the daylilies Iplanted are thriving and I can’t wait to see them flower this summer.

The show is coming back soon! It will be hosted again this year atCrabtree Mall on Saturday, June 25th, on the north end of the mall,below the food court. It will feature 200 to 250 specimens of someof the prettiest daylilies from member gardens. Many of the clubmembers are hybridizers with named cultivars. The array of optionsto view and purchase is pretty amazing!

HOW MANY PLANT CLUBS SHOULD APLANT GEEK JOIN?

I found the perfect club with GWC. The variety of programs andmember interests is just what I’m lookingfor. But the more I garden, the moreopportunities I find to explore special-ties. We are very lucky to live in WakeCounty where there are so many options.One could attend the North AmericanRock Garden Society or the TriangleBonsai Society. This month, I’m interested in Daylilies. So here issome information on the Daylily Club:

They meet the second Tuesday of each month from Februarythrough October, at Powell Drive Community Center. Meetings beginat 7:15. The May meeting includes a club auction of newer daylilies.This might be chance to get unique varieties at even better prices.

In June they have a Garden Picnic, at the home of Richard and JanetWarren. Interestingly, their home was in the path of the tornado thathit Raleigh a few years back. They lost a number of trees which pro-vided more sunshine and allowed them to extend their daylily gar-den. Their home is also likely to be on a club garden tour in 2017.The August meeting will feature Raymond and Wanda Quinn whohave been turning 10 acres above the Cape Fear River into gardenswith emphasis on daylilies. Wanda focuses on hybridizing dayliliesfor the perennial garden, and Raymond focuses on creating unusu-al forms, bold and unusual color. They will share the experiencefrom the recent season of hybridizing and garden development.

The Clod-Hopper APRIL 2016 Page 3

HYBRIDIZING DAYLILIES

Step 1: Select the flowers youwant to cross. There are twotypes of daylilies, diploid andtetraploid. They are hard to tellapart and they don’t mix, so takenote when you buy something.Otherwise you have to experi-ment and expect some failure. Ifyou become an expert you mightselect plants to cross based onvery technical attributes. If youare reading this, you are probablynot an expert. So start with theadvice of the late Elsie Spalding(a famous hybridizer) and “justput pretty on pretty”.

Step 2: Make a cross. Theflower needs to be fertilized tomake seeds. Take pollen fromone of 6 stamens on the firstflower and place on the tip ofthe pistil of another flower thatyou would like to cross. It isbest to do this when the pollenis dry and fluffy, around mid-morning. Do not remove the oldbloom, but let if fall off on itsown, leaving a green seed pod.

Step 3: Harvest the seeds.Leave the pod alone until itbegins to split open (40 – 60days after the flower drops).

Seeds that are harvested tooearly will not germinate. Removethe seeds and let them air dryovernight. Put in them in smallcontainers in the refrigerator for4-6 weeks. Don’t freeze them.

Step 4: Plant the seedsbetween ¼ and ½ inch deep.Seeds require fairly warm soiltemperatures to germinate, soin North Carolina we would prob-ably start the seeds indoors,under lights or windows, duringthe winter and then transplantthem outside in spring.

Step 5: Wait…Does this process seem easyenough for a 7 year old? Ithought so, until I learned thatdaylilies grown from seed maynot bloom until the second orthird spring. I’m not even sure Ihave the patience to work thishard and wait 2 years to see theresult. Will my 7 year old give ita shot? He intends to. I finishedthis article and the newsletteraround 11:30 pm and fellasleep at 1:00 am. I awoke at6:30 to the sound of scamper-ing feet. Greyson ran right up tomy bed and exclaimed“How?!!!” Through a fog I indi-cated no idea what he was talk-ing about. “How?!!” he nearlyshouted, bouncing up and downnext to the bed like it wasChristmas. “What are you talk-ing about? How what?” I finallymustered. “How do you makethe plants????” he explained.Oh sigh!! “Let me get a pot ofcoffee going and we can dis-cuss hemerocallis hybridizationat breakfast.”

Iusually work on my laptop next to my son, while he falls asleep.Tonight I was working on the Clodhopper. In fact, I was scrollingthrough daylily hybrids when he popped up from half-slumber andsaid “Mom, you’re not working! You’re looking at flowers!” I cor-rected him; it was important research for the newsletter. Iexplained that local gardeners created these hybrids by mixing twodaylilies with each other. “Wow! How do they do that?” he asked.“I don’t know. How about I write an article about it and tell you inthe morning?” I suggested. We agreed. The following is adaptedfrom http://www.ofts.com/bill/hybrdize.html.

Page 4 MAY 2016 The Clod-Hopper

Mac Williamson1408 Lake Pine Drive

Cary, NC 27511

Change Service Requested

This daylily farm, located inGarner NC, is open only inthe coming months of June andJuly, on Fridays through Sunday9:00-4:00 or by appointment.Noel Weston hasn’t been grow-ing daylilies all his life, butsometimes it seems that way!

After 30 years with the City ofRaleigh, NC, he retired as itshorticulturist. During his tenurewith the City, he found that ofall the parks and highways heplanted, daylilies were mostrewarding landscape plant.

Lakeview Daylily Farm was begunwith large quantities of cultivarsthat Noel liked best for largeplantings and with fewer of hand-selected cultivars from the gar-den of Ray and Wanda Quinn.After several years of multiplica-tion, they opened the gardencommercially in 1989. After fiveyears of working all week anddigging flowers on weekends,

Ray and Wanda have retiredfrom the garden to concentrateon hybridizing (and their dayjobs!). Now Lakeview DaylilyFarm is a family operation withapproximately 1000 cultivars.

I’m really looking forward to vis-iting Lakeview this summer.Daylilies thrive in our yard,despite clay soil and too muchshade. Yes, daylilies are sup-posed to be sun loving plants,but I’m impressed with howbeautiful and productive ourplants are, even in part shade.I’m hoping to add fragrantdaylilies, which are abundant atLakeview.

LAKEVIEW DAYLILY FARM