Clarke Farms

Barrie is located 90 kilometers north of Toronto, Canada and we are in zone 5. You can see from my winter garden shots that the area is in a snow belt that blows in off Georgian Bay. The one saving grace is the normal 3 feet of snow cover for the daylilies.

Clarke Farms is what I blissfully call my small backyard daylily hobby garden. Because of space restrictions, each year as more and more seedlings need to be kept for evaluation, it seems to leave less room for registered daylilies.

Finally, after 9 years of hybridizing daylilies in Barrie's growing conditions I have come to the conclusion that it takes 3 years from seed for a full circle of seedling blooms. I was expecting my best year ever, but was somewhat disappointed, not so much in the quality but in the quantity. I was expecting about 800 plants to bloom and enjoyed only about 500, it seems I must wait out the three years. Fortunately, I had a couple of what I consider break-through flowers for 3 of my 4 hybridizing goals. Again this year I gave my selected seedlings "garden names". I particularly liked Show Topper, Everyday Occurrence, Smokey the Bandit and Digital Image.

Over the past 3 years, seedling space has continued to be a major hurdle to my daylily dreams. However, with the co-operation of my daughter Kirsten I have begun to set up shop on her rural property. Together this summer we built 2 limestone raised beds (see shots in Garden Photos) and a tough first year seedling bed in the back of the house. The property has a natural stream running right past the raised beds and I intend to have "twice daily water service" on a timer, pumped direct from the creek.

For the past two summers I have been selling off my unwanted seedlings to friends and locals and donating half the proceeds to Gilda's Club Cancer Centre. As I walk through the neighbourhood I see many good-looking daylilies, some perhaps I should have kept for more observation.

For 2011, my hybridizing goals remain mostly focused on line-breeding my Clarke Farms seedlings. My changing goals are for large more distinctive reds, break-up in the eyes, and greeeeeen throats with patterns.