Annoucing the new Editor... | Daylily News!!

It is indeed a happy Monday as I can announce that as of last night, Winnie Garabis of the Columbus, Ohio area is the new Editor for Region 2!

Winnie brings with her a refreshing enthusiasm and a designer's eye for daylilies that will serve our membership well. We are very lucky to have her on board in this capacity. Right now she feels like a kid at Christmas with all the new equipment, software and information she is receiving.  I am so excited about this opportunity because she is very open to new ideas and is thrilled to be part of the team.  That is a recipe for success!  You can email her by clicking here.

As soon as this week she will begin assembling the Spring edition of the Region 2 Daylily. Winnie's first issues will require us all to pitch in and help as much as possible - providing articles, photos and proofreading support for Winnie. I hope that if she reaches out to you for assistance, you will be quick to respond and deliver help. We expect the Spring issue to mail the first weeks of May.  Click here to see past issues of the Region 2 Daylily.

 

Developing, growing and publishing a regional newsletter is a job that takes patience and dedication. Region 2 has been very lucky over the last five years to have had Narda Jones as editor of our Daylily. With a budget of over $20,000, five states and 28 local clubs to work with, Narda has stitched our region together three times a year with a stellar publication we are all proud of. Her efforts at leading a quality publication have been recognized twice by the AHS with the "Best Newsletter Award" from all 15 AHS regions. Thank you, Narda for your years of service and good luck with your next journey. We will miss you at the helm!

We are eager to take Narda's foundation to the next level. If you have any questions, concerns or comment regarding this announcement, please let me know.  You can call or email anytime.

Welcome to the team, Winnie!

New Regional Publicity Director!

Meet Dorothian Meyer! 

She has accepted the challenge to be the Regional Publicity Director for the largest region in AHS!   The primary responsibilities of the RPD are to be the champion of the Popularity Poll in our region, maintain good communications between the local clubs and the AHS and contribute to the regional newsletter and events.  The RPD also generally promotes events in our region to our regional membership and the regional community at-large.  Local clubs should send a copy of their local newsletter to her, as she is a voting member of the board who chooses the Newsletter Award each year!  If you are a president of a Region 2 local club, please contact her with your updated officers for 2011.  Whew!  Being the RPD is a very important job! 

Dorothian sent in this bio, letting us get to know her a bit better.  You can meet her at this years National Convention or this summers Region 2 Summer Meeting being hosted in her home state of Michigan.  Her garden is listed as an open garden for the event. 

BIOGRAPHY:  I grew up in a small town in western Michigan and we always had a small garden.  There were some vegetables and mostly flowers, usually annuals.  When I got married and moved to Bad Axe, Michigan had children I started a fairly large vegetable garden to help with the expense of feeding the family.  After my children were grown I took a couple years off from gardening.  My sister asked me to come to her house in 1982 and help her get her garden ready for the Region 11 garden tour and I came home with an extra suitcase full of daylilies. The addiction just kept growing from there.  I grow 700 varieties both older and newer varieties on my 100x200 foot property in the country and it is an AHS Display Garden.  I am a Michigan Advanced Master Gardener, a Daylily Exhibition Judge and a Garden Judge.  I also belong to 3 daylily clubs, 2 in Michigan and 1 in Florida. I am a plant collector and love to collect unusual perennials and shrubs that will grow in my zone 5 garden (where I am fast running out of room). I belong to the Rose Society and also a local garden club in Florida where I spend the winter. 

 

My garden is open for visits in July and August, but please call ahead to make sure I will be home. 

Dorothian Meyer

1963 Van Dyke

Bad Axe, Michigan

48413

863-273-9335

dorothian@msn.com

Thank you for volunteering, Dorothian!  And an extra special thank you to the outgoing RPD, Joyce Hersh.  She has been a real asset to this region for several years, and we will miss her greatly when she moves to Florida!  Thank you, Joyce - from all of us!

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!