DAYLILIES IN THE FINGER LAKES
The Summer 2022 Program and Meeting for Region 4
of the American Daylily Society
OPEN GARDENS on Friday, July 22 and Sunday, July 24
You are invited to visit any or all of the following OPEN gardens listed below on Friday, July 22 and/or Sunday, July 24. The gardens will be open from 12 noon to 4 p.m. on Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, unless otherwise indicated.
The gardens are listed below in approximately a southeast to northwest flow, starting in Binghamton/Vestal, flowing northwest through Ithaca and Geneva, northeast to Jordan, northwest to Ontario, south to Honeoye Falls, north to Rochester, northwest to Spencerport, west to Medina, south to Corfu and west to Orchard Park. We hope that this will help to identify what gardens you may like to visit depending on the direction you are coming into and going home from the Finger Lakes region.
FieLDS has selected these gardens because they represent a wide range of excellent gardens that incorporate daylilies as major elements of the landscape - from intimate back-yard gardens to a large commercial gardens; from open fields to secluded woods. Each garden is a gem in its own right. Please feel free to linger in any of the gardens and visit them in any order, at your own pace. We know that It would take at least two full days to visit all of these gardens and do them justice. But we hope that you will feel free to explore as many as you can in your travels. And for those of you who are planning on spending more time in the area than just the weekend, please let us know what gardens you would like to visit. We will put you in touch with the hosts of those gardens to see if you can arrange a different time than the scheduled times listed above.
Please note – the Open gardens do not have public rest room facilities unless otherwise listed. However, each garden is located near businesses that serve the public.
Cutler Botanic Gardens
Hosts: Linda Svoboda, Director & Virginia Wirsing,
Team Leader of Hemerocallis Garden
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County
840 Upper Front Street
Binghamton, NY 13905
https://ccebroomecounty.com/gardening/cutler-botanic-gardens
Beginning development in 2010, the Hemerocallis Garden, is one of the more recent areas at Cutler Botanic Garden. Today the collection contains over 300 named cultivars of daylilies. A beautiful wood-chipped path meanders through the garden, inviting you to walk in and experience the radiance of its many daylily forms: rounds, spiders, doubles, and other unusual specimens. The garden is arranged in different sections, grouping like specimens together. Among these categories you’ll find Stout Medal Winners, Historical, and species daylilies. The collection is listed as an official AHS Display Garden and also an AHS Historical Daylily Display Garden. The gardens are free and open to the public year-round.
Hosts: Linda Svoboda, Director & Virginia Wirsing,
Team Leader of Hemerocallis Garden
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County
840 Upper Front Street
Binghamton, NY 13905
https://ccebroomecounty.com/gardening/cutler-botanic-gardens
Beginning development in 2010, the Hemerocallis Garden, is one of the more recent areas at Cutler Botanic Garden. Today the collection contains over 300 named cultivars of daylilies. A beautiful wood-chipped path meanders through the garden, inviting you to walk in and experience the radiance of its many daylily forms: rounds, spiders, doubles, and other unusual specimens. The garden is arranged in different sections, grouping like specimens together. Among these categories you’ll find Stout Medal Winners, Historical, and species daylilies. The collection is listed as an official AHS Display Garden and also an AHS Historical Daylily Display Garden. The gardens are free and open to the public year-round.
Weller Garden
Hosts: Cyril and Mary Weller
Address: 817 Annabelle St.
Vestal NY 13850
Our garden started innocently enough. I bought a few daylilies at a Club sale in Virginia. The next thing I knew there were 500 top daylilies in my National Display Garden. We focus more on newer intros, especially by C. Hanson, J. Davisson, K. Emmerich, Tim Herrington, MJ Meadows, P. Owen and P. Cochenour. We are a major donor to a local botanical garden. We also have provided daylilies for Master Gardeners, for other Display Gardens, and for Meadowlark Botanical Garden in northern VA. Many visitors come to the garden for quiet reflection. One lady said, “I’m just a girl standing in front of a salad asking it to be a donut.”
Cayuga Daylilies
Hosts: Ann Rider, Joan Adler, Linda Dickinson
Between 77 and 95 Halseyville Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850
Cayuga Daylilies is a selling garden with over 350 cold-hardy cultivars. The gardens are scattered over an easily traversed ½ acre. Browsers are not only welcomed but encouraged to revel in the beauty when the daylilies are at their peak. It’s a crime if nobody’s there to look. Our cultivars range from the classic to the recently introduced in all shapes, sizes and colors. Ann started the beds about 30 years ago and Joan and Linda, daylily lovers themselves, entered the scene about six years ago. Retirement has never been so much fun.
Grace Gardens
Hosts: Tom and Kathy Rood (Kathy went to be with her Lord in 2020)
1064 Angus Rd.
Penn Yan, NY 14524
https://www.gracegardens.com/
In its rural setting, Grace Gardens is one of the largest flower gardens in the very heart of the Finger Lakes Winery Region. (Ten wineries are located within two miles.) We specialize in daylilies with 2000 named cultivars including 150 of our own introductions. Grace Gardens (1994) is named for Tom’s mom, Grace, who loved daylilies. She began growing and hybridizing in 1957. We have fallen in love with the Finger Lakes, especially our neighbor, Seneca Lake. We invite R4 travelers who otherwise might miss seeing a single Finger Lake to visit. Refreshments and gift plants await. And, we know you’ll enjoy seeing the great lake-side scenic vistas along the way.
Borton Gardens
Hosts: Liza & Mike Borton
1721 Brick Church Road
Ontario, NY 14519
Liza and Mike's 1-1/2 acre garden slowly evolved over 27 years. It contains many trees and shrubs strategically placed to allow for sun. Liza's interest in daylillies began in 2005 and has grown to about 700 varieties. There is also a generous distribution of her own unregistered daylillies indicated with a blue marker. Don't forget to search out the "Secret Garden".
Coupe Garden
Host: Mary Coupe
68 Partridge Hill
Honeoye Falls, N.Y. 14472
My garden is eleven years old. It contains a combination of daylilies and native plants with some assorted butterfly loved non-natives. The garden is alive with bees, butterflies, moths, caterpillars, birds, rabbits, and chipmunks. I also have a rock garden along the drive way lined with daylilies. On one side of the property I planted a meadow with native grasses, plants and two red bud trees. Behind the house is a field with paths mowed through it for my dogs. Another of my gardening interests is container gardens. My house plants summer on the front porch, along with various containers of succulents and plants that attract humming birds.
Karla Krogstad Garden
Host: Karla Krogstad
97 Azalea Dr.
Rochester, NY 14620
Primarily a hybridizing garden, my collection has recently been updated with 150-200 newer tet. cultivars from 2010 or later. These include over 80 of Curt Hanson, 10 of Karol Emmerich, several from Bill Waldrop, Tim and Heather Herrington, Jamie Gossard, and Guy Pierce, and others. My most noteworthy introduction has been "Ruffles and Cream", DIP, 2020.
Cobbs Hill Daylily Garden
Hosts: Charlie and Judy Zettek
1 Hillside Avenue
Rochester, NY 14610
Cobbs Hill Daylily Garden is an oasis of color in a small one-quarter acre yard nestled in a park-like setting that looks up Cobbs Hill into Washington Grove, a 25 acre old-growth forest in the middle of Rochester. Daylily beds dominate the west and south gardens, while other perennials and annuals offer a different splash of color on the east bank. The best of Charlie’s hybridizing program for little earlies and big lates can be found throughout the gardens, along with about 200 registered favorites, especially including those from other FieLDS hybridizers. Artists love the garden’s dynamic interplay of colors and textures as the day progresses.
Ogden Historical Society Historic Daylily Display Garden
Host: Jean Colby
568 Colby Street
Spencerport, New York 14559
The Historic Daylily Display Garden was planted in 2018. In keeping with the educational mission of the Historical Society, the garden of 300 varieties is divided into six sections: NYS Hybridizers, Educational (showing different flower characteristics), Recent Varieties (2000-2021), Rainbow, Historic, and Hybridization (3 generations). In addition, a theme garden with daylilies whose names are all NYS locations (i.e. Buffalo Blizzard) was planted for the Regional visitors. The Historical Society invites you to visit our garden as well as view the displays in the house built in 1811 and barn. After visiting we hope you will share ideas with us for Daylily programs and activities.
Cottage Gardens
Hosts: Brent and Debbie Ross
4540 East Shelby Rd.
Medina, NY 14103
https://daylily.net/gardens/cottagegardens/
We started Cottage Gardens 25 years ago, and now have over 4000 registered cultivars . Our collection includes some of the newest from various hybrizers, so there is a lot to see. Our gardens include stone walls, arbors, a gold fish pond with waterfalls, many unique trees, lilacs, tree peonies, and many other perennials. We also hybridize and have many intros and future promising seedlings. Please stop by if you get a chance.
Diggersden Daylilies
Host: Ross Kenyon
580 Cohocton Road
Corfu, NY 14036
https://diggersden.net/
Visitors are in for a wonderful experience at Digger's Den Daylilies. I have packed a lot into my gardens. My five gardens are packed with over two hundred daylilies from many different hybridizers. As you travel thru my side garden you will see some of my registrations. The best part is my back yard with plenty of unusual forms and my seedling bed. It is hard not to feel the "WOW" factor as you walk through the wide variety of seedlings I am working on.
Lasting Dreams Daylilies
Hosts: Carol and Anthony Haj
6425 South Abbott Rd.
Orchard Park, NY 14127
https://www.lastingdreamsdaylilies.com/
Lasting Dreams Daylilies is a large commercial farm with over three acres devoted to daylilies. The Hajs grow over 2000 registered daylilies, including 11 of their own, and over 8,000 of their own seedlings both under evaluation and for sale. Their gardens feature spacious walkways on gently sloping grounds between parallel flowing beds of daylilies in lined out, field grown divisions. The garden also features mixed beds of annuals and perennials with various garden art. The sales area also includes a Gift Shoppe, restroom and shaded seating. We will have a special promotion for all Regional attendees who visit and place an order during the regional event.
Open Gardens Map
A Google map that includes all the Opens can be found here: https://goo.gl/maps/cGW9YUqG2utrF1yVA
Updated 7/14/22