Parkman Plant Swap 2020
Virtual Connections
(Keeping our socially acceptable distance!)

Garden Gate Gazette
May 2, 2020

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Open the Garden Gate and see what’s inside!



In this issue:

•No Parkman Plant Swap This Year
•Plant Swap Email List - Help!
•Daylilies for a Prayer Garden - by Marie Williams

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No Parkman Plant Swap This Year
The Parkman Plant Swap has been canceled for this year.
I know that many of you have been looking forward to it, but it's just not going to be safe to go on with the plant swap this year because of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The good news is that I have already scheduled our plant swap for 2021. It will be held on the first Saturday of June next year. I'll see you then!
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Plant Swap Email List - Help!

What happens when your computer crashes and you didn't save your contacts list in advance? You lose all of your email contacts! Yep! That's what happened. All of my contacts... *poof!* Gone! And that includes the plant swap email list! YIKES!!! Thankfully, I was able to retrieve a very old email list, but I know that I lost some names and email addresses when my computer crashed. Thankfully, Marie was able to fill in some names and addresses of people she knows were on the plant swap email list.

If you received this email, then you will know that your email address is on my new Plant Swap List, and you don't need to do anything. But if you know someone who should be on the list who did NOT receive this email, then please let me know.

As I was re-constructing my plant swap email list, I may have added some friends' names that were not on the original plant swap list. If you do NOT want to be included on the plant swap list, just let me know. I'm sorry about this inconvenience! Computers are a real time saver, but when they crash, it's a nightmare to salvage any information.

Let this be a lesson to all of us: Save your contacts list! Print out a copy of your contacts list, and put it someplace safe. I hope you'll never need it, but it's a good thing to have, just in case.

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Daylilies for a Prayer Garden
by Marie Williams

It will soon be time for gardening, and my thoughts turn to my flower beds.

Quite a few years ago, I became enamored by daylilies, or Hemerocallis. They are a terrific addition to any flower bed for several reasons:

1.Daylilies are perennials. They come back every year. No need to re-buy or replant.
2.They are inexpensive. There are exceptions - but most are reasonably priced.
3.They require very little care, aside from dividing them every few years. They spread, but are not invasive. (Unlike common, wild ‘ditch lilies’)
4.There are varieties that bloom early, mid-season, and late. With a little planning, you can have daylilies blooming all summer long.
5.Daylilies are readily available in many, many colors and color combinations, some with spots or stripes.
6.Registered daylilies come with some interesting names, which adds to the fun, and which led me to creating my prayer garden.

Over the years, I found many daylilies that went together well in my themed flower bed. And some came with interesting and inspirational stories as well:

Brother Charles Reckamp, a member of the Society of the Divine Word Missionaries, was also a horticulturist who specialized in hybridizing daylilies and irises. He developed over 140 varieties of daylilies and received awards for his efforts. Brother Charles passed away in 1996 at the age of 91, but was still working with his flowers until he went to his eternal rest. Many of his daylilies have ruffled and/or ‘toothed’ edges and come in exquisite shades of yellow, gold, peach, and pale pink.


Brother Charles assigned religious or Biblical names to a number of his daylilies, such as ‘Hosanna’, ‘Blessed Peace’, ‘Holy Grail’, ‘Heavenly Crown’, ‘Angels Sing’, and ‘Divine Word’ to name a very few.
 

Another daylily specialist was Steve Moldovan, of Avon, Ohio, who hybridized daylilies for fifty years and registered hundreds of varieties. A good deal of Moldovan’s daylilies come in shades of reds and purples. He, too, was fond of bestowing his plants with names that fit well in a prayer garden, some of them in honor of his own mother, Mary. A few of Moldovan’s daylilies are ‘Mariska’, ‘Hail Mary’, ‘Blessed Art Thou’, ‘Vatican City', ‘Abba’, and ‘Francis of Assisi’.

 

When I looked up Steve Moldovan on the internet, I found a photo of him and his mother, in front of the Mission Church in Techny, Illinois, taken when they visited Brother Charles Reckamp in the 1960’s.
Mr. Moldovan certainly learned from a master!

John and Faye Shooter of Marietta Gardens of Marietta, North Carolina, named some of their 800 daylilies ‘A Day of Rest’, ‘Angels Keep Their Watch’, ‘Cradle of Bethlehem’, ‘Sister Wanda’s Blessing’, and ‘Pray for Me’. They, too, have numerous varieties with names that would fit our theme.

There is a plethora of daylilies with prayerful and reverent names that were developed by other hybridizers as well. Besides Moldovan’s ‘Hail Mary’ and ‘Blessed Art Thou’, some others that I have in my own prayer garden include ‘Angelus Angel’, ‘Sangre de Cristo’, ‘Seven Angels’, ‘Queen of Roses’, and ‘San Ignacio’.

 

Two of my favorites (from Marietta Gardens) are planted side by side:

‘Oh Lord Help Me I Pray’ was so named because Faye Shooter’s grandmother said this phrase frequently. And right beside it, in my flower bed, is ‘God Is Listening’.

I hope you can put a few of these daylilies together in a sunny corner of your yard.
You are guaranteed a sense of wonder at their colorful display, and a calmness as you walk or work around the garden.
You can’t help but be drawn to prayer, simply by looking at the plants’ names.

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Thank you, Marie, for that uplifting article about the daylilies in your prayer garden. During this time, we can all use some extra prayers.

Some of the daylilies that Marie mentioned would make excellent gifts for someone going through a tough time, or just to let someone know that you care.
Perhaps you know a doctor, nurse, postal worker, garbage collector, or someone else whose work requires them to be in public right now.
They might enjoy the gift of a plant with a special name.
I am thinking in particular about what a thoughtful gift the daylily named ‘Oh Lord Help Me I Pray’ would make for someone who is providing an essential service during these dangerous times.

You can start your own theme garden.
The daylily is a good plant with which to start a theme garden because there are thousands of registered daylilies with interesting names.
 

For example, if you want a garden with an animal theme, you can plant daylilies with these names:

 'Adorable Tiger', 'After Awhile Crocodile', 'A Moose Fishing On A Pond On Monday' (Honest! That's what the registered name is!),
 'Bobbing for Poodles' (ask Marie about that one!), 'Itsy Bitsy Spider', 'Panda Bear', or 'Wild Horses'.

There are many more daylilies with animals in their names.

There are so many registered daylilies, there is bound to be at least one that will fit whatever idea you have for your theme garden.

Until the next issue, the Garden Gate is closed.

Jane and Marie