Oakes Daylily Festival 2018

Oakes Daylily Festival 

Kenny & Dana Koogler 

Friday June 22, 2018

Oakes Daylily Festival Pix

   I am real bad to learn of an event, think its neat and want to go, only to have it take an

inordinate amount of time to follow through.  I am sure there will be destinations on my wish list

of hikes or field trips I will never take.   I long ago learned of a particularly pretty daylily festival in 

Corryton, Tennessee. I had wanted to go and since my longer trips have been curtailed this was my 

impetus to go.   One thing about unexpected changes of plans is that they can help force us out of ruts

in the routine if we let them!   Today was a blessing for sure.  Kenny was soon to return to work. He

agreed to go with me for a stroll around the display gardens at Oakes Lily Farm.  

Corryton is up Rutledge Pike north of Knoxville.   They have this event every June, but it only lasts a couple days.  

    We drove up to Corryton and got to the festival about 11:30 a.m.  Kenny asked what
we were going to do about lunch. I told him they had at least one food truck at the event. It
looked good. I had already eaten something light before we left so I could get started looking
around soon as we arrived.   I wanted to see everything and take lots of photos.  He stopped off
by the food truck and let me do my thing.  We'd meet up in a few minutes.

The food truck at the event was The Chicken Coop --Southern With Sass!  Kenny said it was very good.   

   It is worth mentioning that while this event was well attended that parking was not a problem.
It is a free event.  The provided food, light refreshments, shade, a play area for the kids, door prizes,
plant sale, wine tasting, and at some point during the event .. live entertainment.

  

Red barn when you first pull up to the display gardens at Oakes.



Giant rocking chair-- a bit of whimsy



More red barn and old truck. I'm an old truck kinda gal. I can still smell the horse hair stuffing
in my grandaddy's old pick up. I have fond memories of driving Old Gold.. our farm pickup
with the missing gas pedal. You had to use a board to lay over the throttle! 

I walked past several arbors on my stroll round the gardens.   Here is a shady view out from one of them. 

Above you can see an overview of what the grounds look like across the pond.  It is a very cheerful scene. 

One of the visitors to the festival was a beautiful golden winged dragonfly.  It really fit the Fairy Tale atmosphere of this place. I looked up what sort this is and it has a neat name.. "Halloween Pennant".   The binomial is Celithemis eponina.  

This is one very pretty view with tons of color in the scene. 


A pretty view of the gazebo. They were having some sort of nature walk and game in the gazebo for older kids. 

Above is an artsy combination of the fountain, the pond and the lilies. 

   I always walk round and take a photo of my favorite lilies. I get views of the flower and then follow it up with a photo of the name tag.  Some varieties today were marked Not for Sale. I am guessing they are still cultivating them and allowing them to mature before starting to divide them.     I always like the ones that have names of people. I can't help wondering where the name originated? 

Above is a view of the willow tree with wave upon wave of color in front of it. 


Here is one that is so pretty with a fitting name, "Up Mill Creek". Funny since it coincides with my having a renewed fascination with mills. 
This particularly bold colored lily is named Sparks Steve Taunton.


This cultivar has the odd name "Santa's Pants"  


Lily named Amber Rhum

Above is the little white bridge on the grounds.. it is very quaint.


Visitors stroll among the lily beds. 


Dark purple/black lilies.. Night Wings is the name.  

A view across the beds of the Oakes house and grounds.  

  It was getting rather hot as the afternoon went on, but it was a beautiful, bluebird day.

I was really pleased to finally have gotten to see this gorgeous place. It was all I hoped it would be.  I'd definitely go back.   Kenny even liked it.   We had some day left. We tried to stop in Blaine to see the Richland Creek mill.  I found another off limits place where all I could get was a small glimpse of the mill stream and works from the bridge.    We headed back toward Knoxville.  I had seen on Google Maps a country store that looked interesting.  We stopped by there. I realized that until today I had NEVER been in Fountain City portion of Knoxville. 

Below is a photo of the front of Pratt's Country Store. They sell an amazing variety of garden plants, bird houses, honey, local jams and jellies, baked goods and fresh local produce!  We bought some Knox County locally grown tomatoes and browsed around then headed home. 

All in all.. it was a good day.  I am glad we are finally getting round to seeing some of these nice places in our own area.  I'll be back to Pratt's store for certain. It is wonderful!  

Other Garden Related Dream Destinations

Below is a list of some other garden related destinations. I hope
I can get to see some of these before so long.  It would be a real shame not to.


Lewis Ginter Gardens --Richmond, Va.
Atlanta Botanical Gardens
Cheekwood in Nashville