A Video Invitation...

Click on the image below to watch (and listen) to a video invitation to join your Region 2 daylily friends at an amazing winter event.   Registration forms and more details are at: www.region2daylily.com and www.daylilies.org! You may also contact the registrar, Diane Pruden at dianepruden@gmail.com for more information. 

I hope you can join us!

Englerth Winners of Years Past...

I spent a bit of time on this 3-day weekend organizing my personal collection of past Region 2 newsletters.  Each year, attendees of the summer meeting are asked to vote on which seedling is their favorite from a specific bed in a specific tour garden.  Years before the summer meeting takes place, hybridizers from all over the region send their seedlings to compete. 

At the Saturday banquet, a wonderful medal is presented to the winning hybridizer. These are a few of my favorites from years past.  I can remember voting in each one of these years, except the first two, but I have seen H. 'Morning Is Broken' and I understand how the attendees picked this one to win.

Dan Bachman is a multiple winner of the Englerth Award, seen here on the left are three of his wins and all three are now registered cultivars you can buy from his Valley of the Daylilies in Ohio.  Charles Applegate is another multiple winner of this award.  John Sheehan and Ed Myers, both past Region 2 presidents, are also Englerth winners. 

Since 1987, Region 2 hybridizers have competed for the Englerth Award for Hybridizing Excellence. The purpose of this award is to encourage and promote Region 2 hybridizers. The award is named in memory of Lawrence and Winifred Englerth of Hopkins, MI. Winifred was known for introducing daylilies with high bud count such as 'Mini Minx', 'Skippy Skeezix' and 'Pinkie Pinkerton'. Visitors at the Summer Meeting view seedlings in a special bed designated the "Englerth Bed," and vote on which submitted seedling they think is the most outstanding. 

The award medallions have been donated by John and Geraldine Couturier, who now reside in Region 10. Each medallion is engraved with the winner's name and is awarded at the Awards Banquet on Saturday night of the summer meeting.

If you are interested in entering your seedlings in this competition, please contact the regional president.

I really enjoyed travelling in time to view the winners over the past 15 years.  There are many winners that I didn't capture here, and you can see the whole list on the Region 2 website.

  

 The choices are always different and the result is always the same.  The people use their votes to say what moved them in the garden on this particular day.  In 2012, the competition goes to a whole new level because a Region 2 club is hosting the AHS National Convention and all the attendees of that meeting will have a chance to vote on our Englerth winner.  That triples the number of people who usually vote, so the competition is sure to be HOT HOT HOT! 

If you still would like to send an entry for the 2012 Englerth Seedling bed, you can still do so!  Consult your most recent Region 2 newsletter for contact information for the person hosting the bed in 2012.   In 2009, I especially enjoyed seeing Martin Kamensky's wonderfully white with pink blush edged seedling take winning honors.  His seedling is shown here on the right.  I have three fans of this growing in my own garden now, and it should bloom wonderfully this summer.  

Last year at the 2010 Summer Meeting, I think I saw 54 seedlings entered in the competition at Kingwood Garden.  It was a really hard choice to select, and the voting was close.  I would have paid money for many of the seedlings on display! 

You can see the 2010 winner just below.  Wow.

The 2011 Englerth Bed is hosted by Laid Back Gardens, the home/garden of Ric and Lynne Adams in Goodrich, Michigan.  Please plan on coming to the "Great Lakes Gathering" this summer!