Tour Gardens
Judy Deene - Exeter, NH
The garden of Judy Deene in Exeter, NH is an ever-expanding labor of love nestled amidst the buildings, field and woodlands of a family farm established in the mid 1700's. The bones of the garden consist of largely original colonial buildings; stone walls built by generations of family members, and the glacial erratics that characterize the NH seacoast. Here we garden on true "Yankee soil" which consists mostly of granite and clay.
Judy is a professional horticulturist and much of this garden began as a place to grow vegetables, store extra plants, and try out new cultivars for use in the gardens of customers. It has evolved into a collection of nearly 700 daylilies, plus hundreds of other perennials, and woody plants. The daylily collection in this garden is eclectic. Here you will find species daylilies, early hybrids and treasures from the 60's through the 90's as well as more recent introductions.
The collection leans to Region 4 hybrids but there are many Moldovans, Woodhalls, Reillys and many, many others. There is also a collection of seedlings selected from the gardens of friends. Most of the daylilies are interplanted with other perennials, shrubs, vines and small trees.The list of perennials is broad and includes some of everything from hostas and epimediums in more shaded areas to grasses, thalictrums, foxgloves, rudbeckias, and geraniums (to name just a few) in sunnier spots.
There are a number of hybrid rugosa roses, buddleias, and both bush and vining clematis. For those of you interested in variegated or red-leaf trees and shrubs, they are fairly well represented in this garden as well. This is an unusual garden in an unusual setting that has not been open to the public previously. You are cordially invited to come and enjoy.
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Carl and Marlene Harmon - Hudson, NH
Harmon Hill Farm (HHF) is a daylily garden managed by Carl and Marlene Harmon. We built our home in 1992 and started collecting daylilies in 1998. Since our property is located on Ledge Road, all of the stones you'll see in the walls built mostly by Carl came from the blasting we did to build the house. As our gardens expanded, we discovered daylilies and like many others, we soon became addicted to collecting daylilies. We became a selling garden in 2001 and currently have about 2,800 different cultivars growing here.
We have built a bed to host the 2008 Region 4 Stanley Saxton seedling competition and have over 20 entries planted. In our over 1 acre selling area we have
also built several hybridizer beds to display the work of various northern hybridizers such as Melanie
Mason, Darlyn Wilkinson, Ron Valente, Bob Sobek, Mike Huben, Steve Moldovan, Roy Woodhall, Phil Reilly,
Don Herr, Dan Bachman, George Doorakian , Don Marvin, Charles Douglas and my original mentor Dan Matzek.
While we grow a great deal of southern bred plants we try to display as many Region 4 and other northern
hybridized plants as possible.
For the last 3 summers Bill Chambers has grown all of his daylily
acquisitions in our garden and in these three large beds you will see approximately 400 of the latest
and greatest new cultivars available. Managing the selling garden has become in effect a second full
time job for most of the year and there is no time for any significant hybridizing. However Bill Chambers
and Robin Budd utilize the gardens here to make lots of crosses. I had the privilege of meeting and
working with Steve Moldovan and Roy Woodhall for the three years prior to Steve’s passing and between
Bill and myself we grow virtually all of Steve and Roy’s recent intros. As I was a collector of Steve’s
plants from the very beginning in 1998 we have well over 100 Moldovan daylilies on display.
In our Ron Valente bed we have every plant that Ron introduced as well as few others that he had given garden names
to and which have been subsequently introduced by Rod Kroemer. In 2006 and 2007 Dan Matzek made his first
releases for public offering and I was honored to be selected to introduce his plants. Mike Huben has
asked that HHF offer his new intros beginning in 2008 as well. Phil Reilly has made several generous
donations of his daylilies and they have been shared with all the tour gardens. Both Don Herr and Chuck
Douglas provided extra plants along with our recent purchases due to our being a tour garden and these
plants will in turn be offered at future NEDS and Region 4 auctions.
As a non full time gardening
operation we could not have made the strides or provide the services necessary especially during peak
bloom season with out the help of many good friends such as the Mike and Julie Maher, Jay and Terri
Lafond, Mike Huben, Cameron Stern and Paul and Lisa Bourret. I expect there will be several others
who pitch in this year as well to make our 2008 tour stop a success. We are honored to have
been chosen to be one of the Region 4 tour gardens in 2008 and look forward to your visit.
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Jay and Theresa Lafond - Hudson, NH
Welcome to all our Daylily friends. Our garden is located 5 minutes from Nashua, NH in Hudson, NH. We have a half acre lot with over five hundred different daylilies and several garden ponds landscaped in a residential setting. We offer many well maintained display gardens and all are well labeled.
We grow a wide range of daylilies both older and newer varieties. Jay has an interest in the bitones and bicolors as well as the spiders. Terri’s interest lie in large flat flowers with eyes and patterns. We have managed to acquire several of Margo Reed’s and Steve Moldovan’s cultivars. Although we clearly enjoy multiple areas of daylily interest the one genre not represented is in the area of doubles.
We have just completed work on an additional garden, which will hold several hundred new daylilies and it takes the gardens to the border of our lot. This landscaping project was completed in the fall of 2007 and is an additional 3000 square feet of growing and display area.
Terri and Jay are both members of the American Hemerocallis Society and New England Daylily Society
and have been growing daylilies for the past six years. We have been selected as a tour garden for
the AHS Region 4 meeting in July 2008 and look forward to the many visitors that will arrive. The
garden is an AHS Display Garden trying to educate the general public on the various types of daylilies
and their use in a home garden. We never plan on becoming a sales garden and the gardens are laid
out to reflect our passion of growing and displaying daylilies.
If you are ever in the area please feel welcome to call and set up a visit, we are available to meet most Saturdays, Sundays and evenings after 5:30 pm. Our peak season is between the second and third weeks of July but there is always something going on in the garden. Happy Gardening, Jay and Terri Lafond
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Mike and Julie Maher - Hudson, NH
HEMS AND HAWSta is a small collection of informal gardens in a space-confined urban setting owned by Julie and Mike Maher in Hudson, New Hampshire. It represents a modest assortment of newer and older Daylilies with a recently directed attention to early early and very late cultivars that exhibit hardiness in zone 5 Southern New Hampshire.
Some introductions from New England hybridizers Matzek, Valente, Sobek, Wilkinson, Darrow, Saxton, Rose, Mason, Turner, and Marvin can be viewed here.
Over 100 different UFOs and spiders are on display and a leisurely effort at backyard hybridizing is in process.
A smattering of Hosta and miniature Hosta can also be seen in addition to various other perennials and a limited number of annuals. Hemming and hawing over where to plant new additions and seedlings is commonplace here – hence the name.
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Dan and Pam Matzek - Windham, NH
The garden of Dan and Pam Matzek occupies one-half acre of a two and one half acre wooded lot in a residential neighborhood in Windham, NH. Our interest in daylilies began when we were looking for a way of preventing erosion of the hillside that borders the street.
By that fall we had 80 varieties and were hooked on daylilies. The following year saw more flower beds being built.
Currently we grow about 400 named cultivars in circular shaped beds that are mix of older varieties and recent introductions of many different hybridizers. These flowers reflect our current hybridizing interests of attaining northern-hardy wide colored edges and some dabbling with unusual forms.
Dan plants between 500-1000 seedlings each year and these can be viewed in the sunniest flower beds at the side of the house. The seedlings are evaluated here over a course of three years and those that are introduced are then lined out and sold out of Harmon Hill Farm to the public. Carl and Marlene Harmon created a beautiful webpage for Dan’s intros and because of their help Dan has been able to get his plants into the gardens of fellow daylily fans.
The garden also features two large hosta beds that border the woods. A screened gazebo is the centerpiece of one of these gardens from where we can sit and look out onto the daylily gardens. There are currently about 50 varieties of hosta. We are looking forward to opening the garden for the tour and hope to have some interesting seedlings to share.
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Judy Deene | Carl and Marlene Harmon | Jay and Theresa Lafond | Mike and Julie Maher | Dan and Pam Matzek