The Lovely Lilies

Cleo...This is a Persian lily. It's my favorite

In an earlier post (Close-ups, Jan. 25th, 06) I mentioned that I had a nice story to tell about lilies.
A couple of years ago, near my birthday, my husband, Ross found an ad in the Pennysaver (free local paper) about a day lily farm that was having an open house weekend. He proposed a Sunday afternoon outing (as my birthday present) to visit the farm, and then dinner at a very popular restaurant, which we rarely seem to get to even though it’s our favorite. It’s called Brook’s BBQ, and the chicken is out of this world.

Ruffled Apricot

Now you have to understand that this is a very unusual thing for my workaholic husband to propose……so unusual that it produced thoughts of awe and amazement!! He’s not much for socializing, and if we’re going out he’ll usually ask things like, "When are we coming home?" or, "How long do we have to stay?"
He’s always happy to stay home and work on the farm. But in his later years he seems to be changing a bit (for the better). I think he’s becoming quite a romantic :)

Janice Brown

We found the farm without difficulty and oh, what a glorious place! There were day lilies everywhere….big and small, short and tall, and such a wonderful array of colors. I’d originally thought about maybe buying a couple but when faced with all those beauties how does one choose just two? They were surprisingly inexpensive, beginning at $5, and there were a lot of beauties for that price. We ended up with five (a couple were a bit more expensive…$7 I think) and a freeby as well, a bonus for coming on open house weekend.

By Myself

There aren't usually a large number of hot days during our NY summers, but this day was quite hot. They had home made cookies and lemonade on a table under a canopy, with cozy chairs to plunk down in out of the sun. And books to look through with pictures of all the lilies they grew...just in case some weren’t blooming. The couple who owned the farm were very friendly and helpful.

Chicago Star

I love some of the names of the lilies…and there are so many! People are developing new hybrids by the thousands it seems. I think I have photos from this past summer of all 5 that we bought (I've already posted a pic of ‘Janice Brown’ in the 'Close-ups' post, but I've added another). We had 3 lilies growing already…a pinkish burgundy, a soft apricot and a pale pink (I don’t know their names). These were planted about 15 years ago.

Freeby...I don't know the name. This was our bonus lily

Needless to say, we spent about 3 or 4 hours wandering through the lovely gardens (there were other flowers and veges too), trying to choose which to buy, and never made it to the restaurant for dinner. We had to be at a church function at 6PM, so had to take a raincheck on the dinner.
We came home content and happy with our purchases, filled with the peace that descends when you’ve spent some precious time doing something you love with someone you love.

We'll certainly be going back for another visit when I've made room in the gardens for more lovely lilies!