Pink Asiatic lily in the garden at the Visitor Center of Lake Junaluska

Consider the Lilies 2021 

July 22,2021

 written by Dana Koogler 

Guest Contributors: 

 Retired State Park Ranger Wayne Morrison

Pam Gibson & her mom, Mrs. Oma Mills

Earline Watson-my mom

Billy B. Cupp-my uncle

Sherry Lee

Lisa Hibler

Beck King

Robin Hall

Heather Dobo Meszkotowicz

Amy & Alex Storie

Shannon Osborne

Lessie Erp Wilson

Angela Jordan

Jewell Goins-Wilson

Leah Fugate

Marie Beasley

Robert Waller

Sue Phillips

Violet Jean Martin

Consider the Lilies  2021 Photo Album 

  I usually write a blog piece each year about one of my favorite subjects... Lilies!

I enjoy the scenery, the sights and colors of display gardens.  I like learning about heirloom flowers, gardening, and horticulture.   I decided this year I'd do something different.  I wanted contributors from readers and friends. I was blessed to get lots of participation from family and friends. The many wonderful members of a group created by Robin Daniels, Tennessee Footprints & Beyond, blessed me with an abundance of photos of lilies, heirloom flowers and plants. I was thrilled!

The photo album is captioned telling a little bit about the flowers and the contributor if they wanted to share that with me.  I cannot thank them all enough.

It really does make this blog writing thing more fun for me. I believe it is more interesting this way also.  

             The Lily Barn 2021

  I did make it out to The Lily Barn for my yearly trip to see the daylilies. 

I enjoyed it, but I must say the lily fields themselves are deteriorating some.

  It appears they are not being tended as carefully as they once were.  It is always pretty, and each season has something different and special to see. Peak lily season in July is a good time to watch for mountain camellias in bloom also.  I went one evening when it was cooling down as the day had been blistering hot.  I had the place absolutely to myself.  It was quiet and tranquil except for the chugging of the bullfrogs in the pond, the bird songs, and the whirring of the cicadas.  

  

Atlanta Debutante lily

Carrs Creek flows through the grounds of The Lily Barn and is a tranquil stream.

Pair of Chamonix lilies

Corryton Pink lilies.. my favorites

Grouping of Smith Brothers cultivar lily. This variety was introduced in 1992 by a grower named Carr.   It is a tetraploid which means each bloom or cell has four sets of chromosomes.  This is done by treating the bloom ends with colchichine.. a gout medicine!  It causes the genetic material in the plant to double. This produces more robust plants with bolder colors on the blooms, thicker leaves and petals, deeper green foliage. It is also said to be a "dormant tetraploid". This means during dry seasons it will go dormant to protect itself. A great defense mechanism for any flower. 

Creamy yellow lily. No flower name given for this cultivar. Many of their signs are missing. 

Another beautiful grouping of yellow lilies with red rings. No label sign for the cultivar. 

Peachy colored daylilies. no other info 

Side view of the row of Orange Vol lilies

closer up of orange vol lilies

trio of purple lilies with yellow throats

Fields of lilies 2021. Not as prolific as in the past

I saw a bunny rabbit sitting very still across the creek this evening. 

Standing in Carr's Creek in the evening sunlight

Above: opening camellia bloom

above: mountain camellia bloom fully open. Note the pale lavender fuzz in the center!? 

colorful lilies line the path to the covered bridge at The Lily Barn

I loved how the evening visit provided a different look to everything here.

Old timey purple garden phlox. 

Lucifer Crocosmia bloom it is native to South Africa. It is beautiful and its bold red colors attract hummingbirds and butterflies. It's seed pods provide food for birds in Autumn. 

The swing at The Lily Barn surrounded by purple coneflower blooms, ferns and blackberry lilies. You can see an old timey gazing ball at the left front corner. 

Masses of purple coneflowers and purple phlox. This is new for 2021.

Obligatory shot of the Primrose Path to the barn

The barn top surrounded by a foreground of golden lilies. 

a dim path in the gathering gloom of evening makes the bright colored salmon and yellow lilies really stand out. 

Yellow trumpet flower bloom.

Greenhouse full of colorful annuals, perennials and herbs. 

One of my all time favorite lilies.. Siloam Cinderella. Not many of these left. 

turquoise bench and purple coneflowers & phlox. new for 2021

  I enjoyed my stroll around The Lily Barn.  I will never forget my first visit there and how welcoming the staff was.  I was told to please come enjoy the grounds often as long as there was not an event going on.  I have never happened to come over when one was taking place.  It is a little slice of Nirvana here in my own area. 

  If you are interested in visiting The Lily Barn yourself click the link for information.  Go anytime dawn to dusk, but if you arrive to find an event be prepared to visit another time.  As I said previously, I have never arrived to find an event in progress.   I think evenings are usually best avoided since that is the most likely time for an event.  

Directions: In Townsend, TN from the intersection of Hwy 321 and Webb Road... turn LEFT onto Webb Rd (there is Parkway Grocery gas station and convenience store on the corner) Drive 2.70 miles on Webb Road which turns into Carrs Creek Road.  The Lily Barn's first field of lilies will be visible on the RIGHT.  I always pull over here and walk the field of lilies and see the gazebo first if it is lily season.  Then pull on down about another 0.10 mile to the main entrance near the greenhouse, barn and covered bridge.   

Caballero Lilies at Thompson Brown House 

   I always enjoy driving past the Thompson Brown House in Maryville near Brown's Creek.  It is the site of the Cades Cove Preservation Society.  The Maryville Garden Club ladies planted irises and daylilies there many years back.   The selection of daylily they chose is an heirloom.  They planted lilies striped yellow and brown.   They are very striking and so different.   The cultivar is eighty years old!  They were first introduced in 1941 by Dr. Arlow Stout. Some of the lilies have a more reddish stripe than brown.  It is named for the caballeros or the gentlemen cowboys of old.  I like the brown saddle leather coloration.  I am a fan of earth tones like rust, gold, green and browns.

  Dr. Arlow Stout was a botanist and horticultural pioneer.  He was born 1876 and died in 1957.  He worked at the New York Botanical Garden. He pioneered the field of horticultural hybridization of daylilies.  The American Daylily Society has established the annual Stout Award in his honor.  His work brought great popularity to the daylily world because of the unusual forms he was able to create through his experiments.  He produced more than a hundred viable hemerocallis hybrids!  

Above: Dr. Arlow Stout

Above: pair of caballero heirloom lilies 80 years old. To be considered an heirloom a cultivar should be "at least 50 years old".  

Above: A caballero lily in a more reddish form.   Same batch of cultivars at Thompson Brown House.  One sort of lily these were crossed from was a spider form.. that has the longer, slender petals that curl back reminding one of spider legs.

Wayne Morrison's Garden 

Visited Tuesday July 10, 2021

     I was fortunate this season that one person responded to my request regarding both daylilies and heirloom gladiolus.   I got an email via my blog contact form from a gentleman named Wayne Morrison.  He lives about fifteen miles from me. He had questions regarding some gladiolus that came up in his garden voluntarily.  They were planted by the previous home owner.  He wondered if they were from Cades Cove?  Turned out they were not, but based upon the coloration of them I could certainly see why he suspected it!

They were a very beautiful bold color and it appeared to be a combination of Peter Pears, Carolina Primrose and a few others!  He invited me to come by to see his garden, and I readily took him up on it.   Kenny and I went by there one afternoon and visited. It was a lot of fun meeting Wayne.  It was a real treat.   His garden is amazing! He has two green thumbs! 

Above is the bloomed out gladiolus
Wayne had come up in his garden. 

   Wayne is a retired state park ranger who moved to this area a few years back from the Cumberland Plateau.   He has served in many different state parks around Tennessee.   He has an amazing knack for landscaping and gardening. He hybridizes daylilies.  He crosses two different cultivars to make different varieties.   I learned a lot from just talking to him.   I knew lilies produced seeds. I knew they could be divided from roots or bulbs.  I had never heard of "proliferations".  A new baby lily identical to the parent plant will crop up along the stem.  Once the root has begun to emerge you can snip it off and plant it and make more lilies.  Divisions from root stock and proliferations produce clones of the parent plant.   Hybridizing requires cross pollination from two different registered parents and then collecting that year's seeds.  They have to be put out and planted en masse.  You never can be sure what you're going to get that first go round.    All the new little plants will be slightly different.  I recently read that successfully hybridizing a plant resets the genetic master switch!  It puts the genes in neutral allowing for a great variety of forms!   The first two years or so of bloom it is anything goes.

As the years progress the phenotype or form of the plant will stabilize and you get consistent results.  Even then he pointed out to me examples of his hybrids where the same plant was producing blooms of slight color variations!

Above and below are shown some of his hybrids.  The bottom one has a paler color form! 

  I started off to just come over to see the lilies, but there was so much more. Wayne invited me in for a cup of coffee.  He has a cozy home he always seems to be working on some project.  Making things better and more colorful and interesting.  I told him we must be related that I could see he had a little bit of gypsy in him as I do.  I joke and say I'm like a magpie. Anything shiny and colorful gets my attention.  

  

Above: a colored glass shelter with lights and a seat.  Loved this.  

Above: Tiger lilies Wayne planted. They are very tall and healthy! This is an old timey flower. 

Above: Wayne points out some of the baby lilies he has grown.  

Above: container gardens of herbs, peppers, tomatoes surrounding the bird bath. 

Above: Wayne has used an old tree to create a focal point in the yard. It is filled with portulaca. Another old timey flower. 

Above: More portulaca or rose moss and a mill stone.  

Above: Some of the parent plants Wayne has used to cross his lilies. 

Below is another parent. 

Above: a cultivar offspring of some Wayne has hybridized.  Note the variability in the appearance. I am not sure how old this lily was, but it has to be older than two years.  It takes two or three years for one to bloom to allow the hybridizer to see what the result will be.  

Above: a purple parent lily.  He pointed out to me the throat colors, watermarks and other features I was not sure about. I'm still not sure, but I'm learning. 

Above: red parent lily with yellow throat. He reminded me that lilies are edible. I knew the bulbs were, but he said that even the bloom can be battered and fried and tastes just like squash. I will try it sometime. I did not know that! 

Above

Above: You can see my coffee I'm drinking in the bottom left corner of the frame. I set it down to take photos of this pretty waterfountain and sitting area.   He had tadpoles and frog eggs in the kiddy pool! 

Above: hens and chicks in teeny tiny pots.  He plans to sell these one day before too long.  Below: more examples of hens and chicks

Above: another thing Wayne has done that is amazing?  He has brought native plants into cultivation in his garden.  The above is a hanging basket made up of native stonecrop!  Look how prolific it is in cultivation!! The other nice thing is that if the seeds of this get out they won't hurt the ecosystem around it. 

Above: Herb garden Wayne put together for a renter who is also a friend. Who wouldn't want a land lord this creative and generous?  

Above: House plants and containers of very healthy hens and chicks.   These are very old timey.  

Above: a huge healthy pot of society garlic. It is beautiful and has a very mild chive taste. Great culinary uses as well as decorative!

Above: yellow form of red hot poker plants.  I have the typical orange and yellow. These are doing really well. 

    We enjoyed our visit with Wayne and meeting his roommate.  I hope to get some bulbs from him later this season after the flowers have had time to go dormant.  He is getting rid of gladiola bulbs so I will gladly adopt them.  What an interesting and intelligent fellow.  

Above: Mr. Wayne Morrison.. he is as easy on the eyes as his flowers.  He doesn't think so, but he is very modest.  What a nice smile.  

Thank you Wayne, for making us welcome.  I made a friend as well as had a good interview for this year's blog!  I'm blessed. I don't deserve it, but I am blessed. 

        

Lake Junaluska 

Visited 6/24/2021

Lake Junaluska Info  

   I had heard of Lake Junaluska from friends and from seeing signs on the interstate while passing through.  I had never bothered to go visit. Quite honestly, I wasn't sure it was open to the public.  Secondly I had never looked into what was there enough to entice me to want to go.  Once I looked at the gardens there, that sealed it for me.  I was going!  On a recent camping trip to Cherokee, North Carolina I took a day to visit.  I realized it was around twenty miles from where I was staying.  It would be a curvy drive across Route 19, but it is at least a scenic drive.   I saw most of what I hoped to see, but I will definitely go back. 

      It is open to the public during the day.  It is a Methodist retreat center, but it is more.  It is a community.   Some folks live there. Some folks have a second home there. Other folks camp there or go on retreats there.   I met quite a few people there. Everyone was friendly and welcoming.   I had found a map on line.  I studied it the night before.  I made sure it was on my phone to review if I needed it.   I did need it a little bit to double check my bearings.

          

  I began my visit by driving the grounds in a clockwise fashion starting at the Bethea Visitor Center & Biblical Garden.  The visitor center was closed, but it was because I had gotten an early start.  It did not open for another 30 minutes.  I arrived around 9:30 a.m.   I wanted to get going before it was very hot.  The Biblical Garden is a wash of color and texture.  I was amazed. 

     

Above: my favorite image from all these flowers... peach lilies with yellow lilies and daisies.  

Asiatic lilies... chocolate cherry colored. 

Above: solid orange asian lilies

Above: Yellow Asiatic lily.  I had one like this but it died on me.  I need to try again. This is Tiny Nugget Dwarf Asiatic lily.  

Above: Italian Lords & Ladies are a type of "lily". They are Calla lilies. They are actually in the same family as Jack in the Pulpit.  Araceae.

Above: a close up of a yellow calla lily bloom. 

Italian Lords & Ladies are an old timey garden cultivar.  Believe it or not! 

They were popular from 1820 onward.  It shares the same gender bending characteristics as its relative Jack or Jill in the Pulpit.  It is a reproductive strategy that helps it thrive very well.  To the point that in some areas like Maryland... it is now considered an Invasive Species! 

Above: a fiery red orange pair of Calla lilies

Above: I loved this scene from the Biblical garden. Lupines, lilies, callas, and the red bronze foliage plant.  I'm not sure what the foliage plant is.  It reminds me of castor bean. 

Salmon colored daylily

Above: peach lilies, white calla lilies.  

Above: Cone flowers and daisies and lilies against the lake. 

 Above: yellow lilies against the blue lake.  Beautiful!

    Next on my list I wanted to visit the Corneille Bryan Native Garden. I found it with no problems.  I did not visit because it was literally in the middle of a residential area.  No place to park at the trail head.  I was unsure if it was really okay to go? I also was unsure where to park having never been here before until today.   I later talked to my friend Alice Petty who is very familiar with the place.  She says to park down at the lake and walk back up to the trail to visit.   I will certainly do this next trip.  I figured better safe than sorry. I did not want to start off on a bad foot with this retreat center.

     Since that fell through for me I moved on to the Rose Walk Colonnade.

It was right along the lake.  It is very popular with everyone who comes to visit or lives here.  Lots and lots of people out for a stroll many of them with pets.    It affords a view of the lake the entire length of it making it all the nicer.  I heard a lady telling her children the center keeps this nice by having someone come down and dead head the roses on a daily basis!

      It is a feast of color for the eyes. Many many shades of color and bloom types. Most of them have the cultivar name tagged on them.  Many of them are old timey varieties or classic types. 

  

Multi tone rose along the Rose Walk 

Above: this one reminds me of a Joseph's Coat rose, but I don't think that is what it was called.  My cousin Monty loved those and had one he grew.  Rest in Peace Cousin.  <3

Above: the lodgings at Lake Junaluska have an enormous bank laden with daylilies and wildflowers.  

Classic old time red rose called Opening Night against the lake. 

Above: multi flora yellow rose. Looks like a ruffley yellow skirt!

Above: my favorite rose bush.  It is pink and purple of all shades.  It reminds me of old damask wallpaper from an 1800s house. 

Solid lavender rose 

pale pink and white rose side view

Above: ample parking at the Rose Walk.  

      Above: multi flora type hot pink rose. 

  Once I had my time at the rose walk I moved on to the Susanna Wesley Garden across the street.  It was up on a hill.  

Entry way to the Susanna Wesley Garden first set of steps. 

Bust of Susanna Wesley

Thou Shall Not Play in the Fountain. since it is not working currently... maybe someone DID break the commandment and play in it? 

Above: a pavilion at the top of a second set of steps in the Susanna Wesley Meditation Garden.  Flanked by blue hydrangeas. Very antique. 

Above: I am looking down the walking path in the Susanna Wesley Garden. View of the mountains in the distance. 

Above: to one side of the entryway at this garden is a covered shelter or grotto for prayer.   

        I only saw a few people in this part of the grounds.  It is a lovely spot to pray or meditate or just relax.  

    I moved on next to the Memorial Chapel.   It is by the lake shore as well. 

It reminds me of a scene from a fairy tale. 

  Above: front on view of the Memorial Chapel. 

Above: view of the side of the church with the breezeway. Beautiful rose bushes! 

Below: a look through the archways at the lake.  

Below: a closer view of the arches on the breezeway.  

Next door to the chapel was Inspiration Point pier.  It is a fishing pier that is quite attractive.  I met a man and his little boy there. They were both photographing a nesting pair of bald eagles. He pointed them out to me. I got a photo of them, but they were high in the top of a hemlock tree.  My photo was horrible so I am not posting it.  

  

The pedestrian bridge across Lake Junaluska

a blue form of Eryngium yuccifolium or Blue Rattlesnake Master. very pretty!  

Below: purple coneflowers

Above and below: yellow and red four o' clocks. Very old timey flowers. My grandma used to have them outside her backdoor. 

Be Still and Know that I am God! Psalms 46:10

above: old boat house next to the pretty pier.

Above: beautiful pier.  well constructed. 

Above: my favorite view across Lake Junaluska from near the inspiration point.  

  I did not tarry too long at Lake Junaluska.  I had a limited amount of time today owing to needing to check out of the campground by a certain time.  

I will definitely return. It is worth at least another visit.  I missed too many things not to go back!

  

 

   

Bullington Gardens

Visited Friday July 13, 2021

Bullington Gardens Info

  

    One place I went last week that I did not plan to visit was called Bullington Gardens.  It was a side trip for us while in the Hendersonville, North Carolina area.   We were on a camping trip to Brevard.  I had thought I'd make it to both Bullington Gardens and the Lake Lure flowering bridge in one day. Boy was I wrong.  Bullington Gardens is interesting and large enough to be a day trip unto itself.  It is free. They do take donations and have a couple boxes set up around the gardens.  Lots of beautiful focal points and walking paths. 

   It was a private residence and business of Bob and Sally Bullington. 

  He was a New York policeman who retired to Hendersonville and started a horticulture business full time. His second career was a great success in his forming "Flora Knoll Farm".  One of the noteworthy things he did was to introduce many exotic species of beautiful trees to the horticulture world. Many fascinating and beautiful trees of considerable age and size are to be seen on the grounds.  Some are massive native specimens. Others are huge examples of exotic species.   

  It is  set aside as a public garden for the community to enjoy and to educate.  Mr. Bullington passed on in 1989 and the place is kept going by volunteers.  I absolutely loved it.  I hope to return for other visits.  It was worth the time to see. The only bad part was that it was hotter than Hades so I did not see quite all of it.   It was 95 degrees with high humidity and no breeze.  They do have some good shady spots to escape the heat for a bit.   It would be more fun to visit in the evening, but they close at 4 p.m.   

   

Above is a look at a native wildflower garden at the end of the property. It features loads of mountain mint, New England Asters, cone flowers, daisy fleabane, and wild bergamot.  It is as nice for the nose as it is the eyes.  It is a pollinator garden. 

Purple Bergamot

New England  Asters...

    Right next to that were the lily beds.  It was really nice. Lots of cultivars most labeled clearly.  Some were past bloom so I was a bit late in the season to see them at their best especially as hot and dry as it has been.

Above and below two views of the lily beds. Up from them are vegetables and dahlias. 

Above: Little Red Dragon cultivar lily. Below is the tag labeling it. 

It gives a description of the lily so you know if you are looking at the correct one for the label.  It also lists the person who introduced it.. or hybridized it and registered it. In this case it is Trimmer and the year was 1999.  

It lists the characteristics of the flower. This one is listed as dormant which refers to the plant's ability to go dormant during drought or stress to protect itself.  I wish every garden would label them this way. It is so helpful. 

Above: One of my favorite lilies from the gardens today.  I could not find a tag for it.  

Above: a lily cultivar known as Lemon Madeline.  Very pretty!

Above: a lily known as Marsh Fire. This is one of my favorites also. I love the color and the shape and the name.  Its hybridizer was listed as Joiner-A. and it was registered in 2004.   It is listed here on this database and you can read other facts about it if you are interested. 

Below: Pirate's Promise hemerocallis.... hybridizer Salter year 1995.

This one is gorgeous and I love the name! 

Below: "Gram's Dream" hemerocallis hybridizer E. Olson 1994

Below: Carnival in Caracas hemerocallis hybridizer Santa Lucia 2007

Above: Carolina Yankeedoodle hemerocallis 

Hybridizer G. Tanner 2015

Above: Cherry Drop hemerocallis 

Hybridizer Stamile 1992

Above: Another of my favorites.. Final Touch hemerocallis 

Hybridizer Apps 1991. 30 years old. 

Above and below: two of my favorite dahlias from the gardens. 

Dahlias are a very old timey flower.  I remember in Summer on the way to church passing Mr. Pete Holbert's house. He had tires painted white turned into flower containers. Each one had a different, huge, healthy dahlia blooming! I loved them.

     

Above: pollinator garden snowball bush, fennel, zinnias, butterfly bush and more. 

Above the walking path past the pollinator garden.  What a scene. 

Above and below two scenes from along the paths at Bullington

Above: a look at the many beds of flowers

Below: phlox and bright eyes phlox paniculata a very old cultivar

Above: pink snowballs in the butterfly garden.  I had never seen a pink snowball bush. Wow! My mother in law would have had a fit over this. She was a whiz growing flowering shrubs.   She knew all sorts of tricks.  This is Kern's Pink Snowball bush. It is Viburnum plicatum. It was introduced by Carl Kern in 1957. It is an heirloom variety of shrub! It is 64 years old.

Below is a last look at Bullington Gardens for this edition.  It is of the raised beds and greenhouses. I am finding out as I type this up that if I include all of Bullington and then the contributor material this edition will be like a set of encyclopedias. I have gone way overboard.  I will write up a separate piece about the rest of Bullington in a different report that is coming.  I highly recommend you go see this place if you get the chance. 

  

Heirloom Lilies & Plants Guest Contributions

    Now comes the part of this edition for the guest contributors. I have included each and every one in the photo album.  I have labeled them all accordingly.  Each contributor is listed at the start of this edition under my name as the author.  I realize now that this thing is growing lengthy so I will not post each photo that was submitted. I will post highlights of them.  

   Heirloom flowers, plants or shrubs are technically supposed to be fifty years old or more.  I have read that most are like myself and they don't hold to that strictly.   It inspires me the way that flowers planted outdoors like lilies, gladiolus, dahlias, phlox and others can outlive us by so long.   I brought home my mother in law's hindu rope plant to care for when she passed away several weeks back.   I have never fooled with one before. This thing is huge and looks like it is a man-eater like Little Shop of Horrors.  I named it Lucretia.  I'll post a photo of it some time.   Tending to it and enjoying it is one way of coping with her passing.   She is the only person I ever knew who got one to bloom.  The bloom of this plant is exquisite.  I am sure many readers out there feel similarly about the flowers and plants left behind by loved ones.

     

Above is a picture of Pam Gibson. She is a Facebook friend as is her brother James Mills. They are the children of Mrs. Oma Mills. 

Below is a photo of Mrs. Mills checking out her surprise lilies!

Below: a photo close up of the surprise lilies of Oma Mills. 

I have never seen them this color and pattern before. They are pink and white with silver centers!  Amazing. This is a very old timey lily. My great grandmother had these and passed them on to my Mamaw... her daughter in law.  

Below: classic purple bearded iris by Amy & Alex Storie

A beautiful specimen and very old timey!  It is the state flower of Tennessee. 

Above: Red dahlias by Beck King. Another beautiful example of 

a very old timey flower.  They do great in Tennessee! 

Below is a photo of my mom, Earline Watson's patch of daylilies.

They are an old timey flower.  I think these may have come from my grandmother Edna.. Mom's mother, but I am not sure.

These are in a very pretty flower bed in the front yard. Mom lives in my great granny's house! It is really pretty there. 

Above: yellow and red asiatic lilies sent in by my mom Earline..

These were given by my Aunt Mike and Uncle Bill Cupp of Crimora.

They are beautiful!

Above: Bold orange asiatic lilies sent in by Jewell Goins Wilson!

These are a stunning set of blooms! 

Salmon pink lilies with a great spangled frittilary nectaring on them.

Sent in by Karen Greer. Wonderful lilies and perfect with the butterfly on there!  

Above: a huge patch of native Sundrops that are in cultivation by Leah Fugate.  Native plants are the way to go whenever possible.  Old timey for sure!  Little rays of sunshine!

Above some red hollyhocks with the stars and stripes in the background!

Sent in by Lisa Hibler. I love these and haven't had any luck growing them.

These are a classic old house garden flower.  I should try to grow them again.

Thanks Lisa! 

Above: pure white bearded iris sent in by Marie Beasley. I don't think I've ever seen an iris this pure white before! Beautiful! Well done you! 

Huge pink peony... sent in by Heather Dobo Meskotowicz

These are classic old timey flowers. "Cabbage roses".  I love them. My Aunt Mary Margaret always had these.   They speak to me of a more genteel time and place. Remind me of tea parties.  <3

Fuschia pink clematis sent in by Lessie Erp Wilson. They were her Mom's.

Rest in Peace Fayrene.  <3 

Magenta clematis sent in by Robert Waller. They like their feet in the shade and faces in the sun.  This is an old timey flower.  Folks way back grew these.

Above is a patch of very bold colored asiatic lilies sent in by Robin Hall.

They are yellow, orange and pink!  I love the color contrast.  Thank you Robin! 

Above are shown some heirloom rock lilies or yucca sent in by my Mom, Earline.  They are very old coming in at more than 150 yeard old! They were originally planted by Uncle Bill's grandparents!   They  later belonged to Uncle Billy Cupp's Aunt Edie.  They moved them when her house burned.

I remember where her home was and how the spot looked after the fire.

It was not far from Mommy and Pappy Cupp's home place.  Uncle Bill and Aunt Mike moved them to preserve them.  My Aunt Mike passed on during the covid from the ailment.   Rest in Peace Aunt Mike. I miss you, but I know she is with Jesus now. 

Above: pink dianthus.. a very old timey flower that is an easy grower and long lived.   Asiatic lilies of pink and orange.  Love this!

Above: This is a VERY old breed of flowering plant.. A red Hippeastrum sent in by Sherry Lee.  They are an ancient garden cultivar and well loved for centuries.  The cultivar dates back to 1735!  I think Sherry takes the award for oldest cultivar! 

Below is a photo of peach and lavender iris and ruby red iris by Sherry Lee.

These peach and lavender iris look like a spun sugar daydream!  

A passion flower bloom sent in by Sue Phillips. A native plant in cultivation!

This one looks perfect.  It appears to be a blending of  a couple varieties of passion flower!  Particularly beautiful. 

Above: sent in by mom Earline Watson... this is at Granny's house where mom lives now.  My Uncle Hale used to rent that house from her. He planted these Star Gazer lilies.  He was quite a unique man.  He was a mixture of cowboy, heavy equipment operator and gardener.   A quiet man who could run a backhoe all day at work then come home and sip a beer and tend to flowers and feed cats.  Rest In Peace Uncle Hale.  When he was dying of cancer he was witnessing to the hospice nurses and everyone to make sure they all knew Jesus.  <3  He was a beautiful soul. Sadly missed. 

Above: Hens and Chicks a massive patch of them sent in by Violet Jean Martin.  She got these from her mother in law who in turn got them from HER mother.  She can date them back 100 years! That is an heirloom to beat all! 

Above: a photo of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Maryville. They always have lovely daylilies out front in Summer.  

Below is a very old heirloom... these are the blackberry lilies in Cades Cove near one of the homesites.   

Above is a photo of some of the prettiest, healthiest heirloom tiger lilies ever. These were grown by Clarice Koger of Boatland Road in Jamestown, Tennessee. They are huge. Probably nine feet tall.  I'd love to get a bulb from these if her son would let me.   She passed away a couple years back. Rest in Peace. 

Above is a close up photo of a Kwanzo double daylily that are probably hundred years old or more.  They may be from the Evan's family along Boatland Road.  They were growing in a ditch. We dug up a couple before the highway department could destroy them by doing road work.  Sharon has some doing great and I do  too! These are 'diploid" meaning the chromosomes are doubled in them by hybridizing.   They produce double blooms, but stay true to form and color.  They are otherwise similar to regular ditch lilies.

Wayne Morrison told me these are now considered collectible! 

Below is a photo of red surprise lilies at Redcliffe Plantation in Beech Island, South Carolina. They are September bloomers.  These are a very old cultivar.  They are also called Hurricane lilies because they bloom around the peak of hurricane season in the South.   They were cultivated since recorded history in China.  They made it to the USA in the early 1800s. They are a classic southern old house garden plant. 

Below:  a beautiful white spider lily in Scotts Gulf at the old Davis home site. 

These are an heirloom cultivar, but they are also native to the state. They are a native in cultivation.   They are way taller than I imagined. They were chest high. 

        Last But Certainly Not Least-- Lily Thomas for my brother in law, Brian. 

Lily Thomas my niece.

 My brother-in-law, Brian Thomas is a great person. He wanted to know what would be wrong with putting his Lily in this edition?  I said not a thing in this world. He is a wonderful husband and father and a Marine.   He and my sister Erica have three fine children. Joshua who is soon to graduate college, Cody who is in high school, and Lily their youngest and only girl who is 13.   Middle School age and is pretty as a picture. 

She is tough from having the parents and brothers she does.   Smart young lady who is on the honor roll and woe unto any and all potential boyfriends.  She ain't taking nothing off nobody.  Add to that her father and mother who I would not trifle with..... Lily and kids like her give us hope for tomorrow.  She is a good Christian young lady.  

Below is a video of a singing group called Hinge Point singing a lovely harmonic version of Consider the Lilies.  It is very easy on the ears.  They are a new group of sisters ages 14 through 16 years old who are Christian young ladies.  Hope for today and tomorrow are young people like these girls and my niece Lily. (and her brothers too, but they are not lilies) 

Future Trip Ideas

Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground, Georgia

Sunshine Hollow Gardens in Athens, Tn

Blue Ridge Daylilies in Weaverville, NC

and below..... to prove lilies are truly sexy.... Candy Dulfer and David Stewart collaboration on "Lily Was Here". They bad! 😎