Canadian Hemerocallis Hemerocallis Society

The President's Letter

March, 2009

John P. Peat

    Here we are in another year hit by a particularly harsh winter with temperatures up and down like the New York stock exchange. We are being inundated with doom and gloom in the media from the financial sectors and governments from around the world and yet the Daylily world doesn’t seem to be affected that much. Sales are up as predicted as the specialty gardening sector apparently doesn’t get hit as hard as other areas during financial set-backs. The theory behind this is that gardening is an avenue for people to work and play and that it actually relieves the stresses of day to day life. This is not say that it can’t be hit when confidence is low, however, it tends not to as those people who garden usually garden to relax and take great pleasure in the beauty that they create. Turn that television off, ignore the sensationalism that the media has become, go out and putter around your gardens, you will feel much better for it.

    This winter was particularly bad for central Florida gardens and north, I lost approximately $500 worth of a variety of types of Banana Trees and I believe all of my citrus trees are dead. The watering system burst at the seems on three occasions due to the heavy cold (19F or -7.22C) that hit on numerous occasions this winter. The Daylilies of course were not killed but they looked pretty bad from Daytona Beach north to Orange Lake. Those gardens that are situated in forests close to lakes were protected from the brunt of the cold weather and will probably have better bloom season as a result. I am not worried about this cold snap that has turned the foliage yellow and stunted the growth of the daylilies as this means less spraying of expensive anti-fungals to keep the rust away. I am hoping that there was enough cold to kill off the rust in my location, however, that is probably wishful thinking.

    The upcoming Canadian-American Daylily Symposium at Niagara Falls, Ontario is going full steam ahead with 12 great speakers. Patrick Stamile, Grace Stamile, Christie Dixon, Herbie Phelps, Jack Kent, Nicole Harry, Barry Matthie, Tony Thompson, Jamie Gossard, Margaret Goode, Bob Stilson and Michael Holmes will be speaking on various topics with obviously a strong emphasis on daylilies. Over the past years I have had many requests for the Live Auction listing in advance of the meeting, this was too much work for me, due to the fact that many of plants are decided upon just prior to the meeting. However, due to the early pick-up of plants for the Live Auction, I have put online the images and descriptions of the vast majority of plants in the Live Auction for all to view or send proxy bidders to the meeting. Visit http://www.distinctly.on.ca/ and click on the link near the bottom of the page for this years live auctions.

    We are working behind the scenes on various projects for the club and the Canadian-American Daylily Symposium as always. We are now going to have special flower beds created on my property in Orange Lake Florida dedicated to propagation of modern Daylilies for future meetings of the CHS and Canadian-American Daylily Symposia. This project will allow us to build an inventory of plants that can be imported to Canada for the Live Auctions and possibly put on the new Canadian Daylily Auction site. I have not yet secured speakers for the Fall Extravaganza and I am encouraging all members to suggest speakers that they think our members would be most interested in seeing. Don’t hesitate to send suggestions my way, I will log your suggestions and contact the people that you suggest and invite them to speak. I am in discussions with Jack Looye of Niagara on the Lake and Barry Matthie with respect to again having club picnics during the bloom season. I ask that all members who might be interested in going to summer picnics contact me so that we may plan these dates over the summer of 2009.

    Andrew Oke, a young 23 year old from Whitby, Ontario has created an online Auction site for Canadians located at .http://www.daylilyauctions.com/ This auction is open to all Canadians and those American’s that ship to Canada to sell daylilies if they wish. Drop in and cruise what is available on the site. We hope that Andrew is very successful with this site as it will give Canadians a avenue to sell there tried and true daylilies to others in the Country without having to pay American exchange or have to deal with the CFIA.

    Well I haven’t got a lot say in today, so I’m really cutting this letter short this time around. I wish you all a fantastic season and may you get the same weather as last summer so you can really see your daylilies pumped up to their maximum potential.


John P. Peat
President
Canadian Hemerocallis Society