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!

  

2011 Region 2 Summer Meeting Tour Gardens - First Look!

As an early Christmas present from the 2011 Region 2 Summer Meeting Planning Committee, here is the first look at the eight beautiful tour gardens that guests will enjoy during the July 15-17 event.

The folks from the Southern Michigan Daylily Society hope you enjoy the tease and mark your calendars for a “Great Lakes Gathering” in the Detroit suburbs.

If these gardens were not enough to entice you to run to your calendars and mark the date (July 15-17, 2011), I would guess telling you that we will have Jamie Gossard as the keynote speaker will. The Southern Michigan Daylily Society was your host for the 2002 AHS National Convention, and they sure haven’t forgotten how to throw a daylily shindig. They can’t wait to see you again!

Registration forms, detailed schedule of events and more special announcements regarding this ultimate Summer meeting coming in January.

Popularity Poll 2011

The American Hemerocallis Society's annual Popularity Poll is official! It has been posted to the AHS website. You can find Region 2 full results here!

Joyce Hersh, our wonderfully efficient (and retiring) Regional Publicity Director provided the following report:

H. 'Primal Scream' ran away with the lead this year!!   But, you can see, there was very close competition in other groupings.

In 2010, 24% (306 ballots) of the 1298 members participated in this poll.

With the prescribed ballot, voting took a bit of a turn this year. We started with 101 cultivars and had 581 in the end. A total of 372 cultivars received only one vote and 76 received only two votes. Thus, only 23% of the cultivars received three or more votes.

There was some very dramatic movement:

• H. 'Persian Ruby' went from 31 last year to number 7 this year!
• H. 'Shores of Time' went from 17 to 9 this year.
• The number 15 spot was shared by three cultivars that made pretty dramatic movement to get there: H. 'Michael Bennet' moved up from 35 the previous year; H. 'Peggy Jeffcoat' moved from 26; and H. 'Lavender Blue Baby' moved from 23 last year.  

Here are the TOP TEN for Region 2 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio:)

1. Primal Scream (101 votes)

2. Webster's Pink Wonder (73 votes)

3. All American Chief (72 votes)

4. Ruby Spider (67 votes)

5. Bela Lugosi (60 votes)

6. Heavenly Angel Ice (55 votes)

7. Persian Ruby (49 votes)

8. Swallow Tail Kite (46 votes)

9. Shores of Time (45 votes)

10. Beautiful Edgings and South Seas (tie) (41 votes)

Thank you for the awesome report, Joyce!

I am almost embarrassed to admit I only grow two of our regional winners, but they are the "top two" so I get some slack for that!  I have grown others from this list in the past, but for one reason or another, chose to move them out in favor of new and different daylilies.  Here is our winner, H. 'Primal Scream' in my Michigan garden this summer.  It is a past Stout Silver Medal winner, introduced by the amazing Curt Hanson from northern Ohio.  This is the first unusual form daylily to be awarded the societies highest individual cultivar award.

From the AHS Website:  As a service to its members and to the general public, each year the American Hemerocallis Society (AHS) conducts a popularity poll among its members to determine the favorite daylilies from each region. It is the hope of the AHS that this Popularity Poll presents a true picture of which daylilies perform well in a given area and which are best liked by the membership. Popularity polls are important to daylily growers -- both AHS members and nonmembers -- who make daylily selections for purchase.

Thanks to all who participated in the poll!

September Update from the President...

Hello and Happy September, Region 2-ers!

THE REAL STORY

Contrary to recent rumors, I am returning as the President of Region 2 for 2011-12. Detailed in the upcoming Region 2 newsletter, the elections to select a Regional President and AHS Director at the 2010 Summer Meeting were invalid. The procedures as outlined in the newly ratified regional bylaws was not followed and the result was a voided election. However, AHS has a procedure to insure the continuity of officers should anything out of the ordinary occur, and thanks to the help of the AHS President and AHS Counsel, the candidates selected by the Region 2 Nominating Committee will continue to serve into 2011. This procedure does require the resignation of current officers so that they may be reappointed by the AHS Board. At the request of the AHS President, I did provide this "procedural resignation" last week, and somehow the nature of the resignation was discovered by others and subsequently misinterpreted and miscommunicated. It has been an honor to serve as the President of the largest region in the AHS, and I intend to continue on in the office for a final two-year term. Bottom line- you're stuck with me!

REGIONAL PUBLICITY DIRECTOR SEARCH

I have a possible candidate for a new Regional Publicity Director, and I am waiting for them to finish "noodling" on taking over the job from Joyce Hersh. Joyce voiced her intent to move to Florida to be with her extended family (including grandbaby #2 coming this January) and we have been looking for a suitable replacement for her. Hopefully we can fill this position very soon.

REGIONAL NEWSLETTER EDITOR SEARCH

Narda Jones, our award-winning editor will retire at the end of this year as well, and a successor has not been named. Hopefully final decisions can be made in the coming months and the new editor can work with Narda on our winter edition- getting their feet wet and learning from the best in the process.

POPULARITY POLL RESULTS

Our Popularity Poll results are tabulated and are awaiting final approval from the AHS Popularity Poll chair. Once again, I believe the new way of voting and adding cultivars to the list is working! A few cultivars have dropped off our list for 2011, and several were added from write-in votes. Check the AHS website in the coming months for updates and announcements on this topic!

2011 WINTER SYMPOSIUM

The dates for the 2011 Region 2 Winter Symposium are February 25-27 and the location will once again be Blue Ash, Ohio (just outside Cincinnati, Ohio.) Plans are in the works as I write this, and registration forms and agendas will be posted to the regional website before the end of this year. Dan Bachman and JR Blanton are the co-chairs for the event, Mandy McMahon is the auction chair, Kimberly McCutcheon is handling the seedling/introduction slide show, and Diane Pruden is the new registrar. Any questions on the event can be directed to me or any one of those individuals. The speaker line-up is shaping up to be the best ever, so this is a perfect way to chase the winter blues away and get inspired to garden in 2011!

2011 SUMMER MEETING AND GARDEN TOURS

Speaking of 2011, our Region 2 Summer Meeting is hosted by the Southern Michigan Daylily Society and will be headquartered in Troy, Michigan (a northern suburb of Detroit.) The dates of this event are July 15-17. Mark you calendars. Eight tour gardens, many open gardens, an unprecedented boutique, FIVE meals, a massive live auction, unbelievable raffles, superb gift / bus plants, and Jamie Gossard as the keynote speaker make this the event of the year for Region 2. Please plan to attend.

As summer blows away in the autumn breeze, I hope you breathe a sigh of satisfaction in your gardens this year. Don't make your "to-buy" or "to-do" lists for 2011 too big - yet.

Wishing you blue skies and beautiful blooms,

~

Nikki

It couldn't be easier... | AHS Popularity Poll Deadline...

IT COULDN'T BE EASIER TO HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

The deadline for this year's AHS Popularity Poll is in one week. The deadline to cast your ballot is SEPTEMBER 1. You have less than seven days to vote, and it couldn't be easier.

Visit this link and vote. There is nothing to mail, no need to find just the right pen, and no paper ballot to find in that stack of to-do's on your desk.

Just visit the above link and cast YOUR vote for YOUR favorite daylilies.

Our regional publicity director has let us know that only 210 Region 2 members have voted so far. That number is down from last year and is only a small percentage of our membership. She says that our number one selection for "most popular" daylily is a runaway (so far) but the battle for the second through fifth spot is a tight race.

Here are our results from last year:

As a service to its members and to the general public, each year the American Hemerocallis Society (AHS) conducts a popularity poll among its members to determine the favorite daylilies from each region. It is the hope of the AHS that this Popularity Poll presents a true picture of which daylilies perform well in a given area and which are best liked by the membership.

At their Fall 2008 Meeting, the AHS Board of Directors voted to make several changes to the Popularity Poll to improve the quality of the results and to emphasize the regional nature of those results. Each Region will now have its own ballot based on past regional favorites. Each member will still have 10 votes, and up to 5 of these may still be write-ins. Garden Judges in particular are encouraged to use those write-ins to keep the ballot fresh with newer cultivars that have been observed to perform well in their region.

Will you please (pretty please with sugar on it) visit the AHS website here and vote in this year's AHS Popularity Poll?

End of Season Reminders...

Hello friends and fans of Region 2!

There are many important deadlines coming up that you should be aware of...

1.)  Club Presidents and regional members who donate money to the AHS Endowment funds (Memorial or To Honor) should send these checks to Mary Lou Lundblade at the following address:

Mary Lou Lundblade

Endowments Chair

511 W. Ness St.

Valley Center, KS 67147-4920

2.)  We've almost reached August, so the September 1st deadline for receiving your nomination letters for Service and Personal Awards is just around the corner. I encourage each of you to consider those worthy individuals who have performed outstanding service in Region 2 to take a moment to write a letter supporting their nomination for the Regional Service Award. Or perhaps you know of those who deserve to be nominated for either the Helen Field Fischer Award, the Bertrand Farr Medal or the Moldovan Mentoring Award. The specific requirements for all of these awards can be found on the AHS website and in the 'Judging Daylilies' Handbook. A list of previous winners is also available on the website.

3.)  If you are an AHS Garden Judge, your ballot is due in just a few weeks.  If you lost yours, you can get a new one here.  Get it mailed to the AHS ASAP.  To date, only 19 of our 158 Garden Judges in Region 2 have returned their ballots.

4.)  Popularity Poll voting is going on right now.  As a service to its members and to the general public, each year the American Hemerocallis Society (AHS) conducts a popularity poll among its members to determine the favorite daylilies from each region. It is the hope of the AHS that this Popularity Poll presents a true picture of which daylilies perform well in a given area and which are best liked by the membership. Popularity polls are important to daylily growers -- both AHS members and nonmembers -- who make daylily selections for purchase.

Although our blooms are waning, there is still lots going on in our daylily community!  Dont miss the deadlines!

Picture above is H. 'Granite City Belle,' bybridized by Region 2 hybridizer and resident from my hometown in southern Illinois, Agnes Miller.

Spotlight on the Wisconsin Daylily Society | Daylily Club in Action!

In past years, the Wisconsin Daylily Society (based in Madison, Wisconsin) has been a leader in financially supporting Region 2. 2010 is no exception. Ed Kraus, our regional treasurer recently received two donations from this group totaling $1600.00!

This brings many thoughts to mind: 

• How thoughtful. In the current economic times, when memberships and plant sale revenues are reportedly down, WDS still writes the region into its yearly budget and faithfully donates to the regional cause. Could they do other things with the money? Of course, but they choose to fund color in the regional newsletter, and allow us to more comfortably explore creative ways to get our membership engaged in regional and national activities.
   
• WOW- this is a lot of money. Some clubs do not have $1600.00 in their treasury, let alone that much to willingly donate to the region. This says a lot about their dedication to the overall educational mission of the AHS.
   
• Why don’t other societies donate to Region 2? Well, probably for many sensible and realistic reasons. It takes a focused budget to make donations like this possible. It also takes the support of the whole membership to raise the funds so the budget can be executed as planned.

Their website is colorful and well-thought out. It features some interesting content, including a picture gallery of WDS Top Ten Daylilies of 2009 and galleries of past photo contest winners. All of their newsletters are also available as PDF documents, as far back as 2005. At this link, visitors can find some awesome resources to picture galleries and scientific articles.

This group also has become known as the planners of the "Wisconsin Bus" at regional meetings. They often charter their own bus for trips to regional meetings and subsidize much of the cost for its members. The calendar of events is full of colorful, diverse programs for all levels of interest.

Thank you to the members of the Wisconsin Daylily Society! You should be very proud and the region appreciates your financial support!

 

A little more self promotion, please...

There are a plethora of awards for daylilies through the American Hemerocallis Society. You might wonder what these awards are, or how some daylilies get nominated and some others do not. Here is my interpretation of the AHS "Pyramid of Awards."  (click picture to see larger version)

I wanted to take a moment to explain the fact that the first step in path to a Stout Silver Medal is the Honorable Mention.

I was talking with Greg Schindler, hybridizer of H. 'Matchless Fire' and H. 'Morningcloud Marmalade,' and mentioned to him that he should definitely consider nominating H. 'Matchless Fire' for an HM next year. He asked me what the process was, and was unaware of one key fact:

Hybridizers nominate their own cultivars for both the Honorable Mention section of the ballot as well as the Specialty Awards.

Julie Covington, chair of AHS Awards and Honors sends out letters to hybridizers each November, asking them for nominations for the Honorable Mention and Specialty Awards. Anyone who wants to be added to the hybridizer's list may contact her to have their names added to the list. Approximately 10-15 new hybridizers are added each year. Once the letter goes out, it is also available on the AHS website and can be downloaded from there.

There are two items that are super important to note if you are a hybridizer considering nominating your own cultivars for an Honorable Mention (126 were awarded in 2009) or a Specialty Award. First, note that cultivars nominated for the HM section must have been registered for a minimum of three years. The date that you see for eligibility on the 2010 ballot will be moved back one year for the 2011 ballot. Many hybridizers (except for those perhaps in the Deep South) will actually wait 4-5 years before nominating cultivars to allow ample time for distribution. So first, you must have been registering cultivars for several years in order to have some cultivars which meet the time requirements. For the Special Awards, note that those must have been registered a minimum of 5 years before they can be placed on the ballot.

The second item - which I can't emphasize enough - is that anyone who nominates cultivars for the ballot should know that those nominated have fairly good distribution to OTHER regions of the country besides one's home region. For a daylily to win an HM Award, garden judges in at least 4 AHS regions must see it growing and be impressed enough to vote on it! Julie urges those who are nominating for the first time to start out small - perhaps only nominate two or three the first year to see how they will do.

So, in summary, if you are a hybridizer and think you'd like to get your daylilies on the ballot for Garden Judges to consider awarding an Honorable Mention to, you must nominate them yourself.

A little self-promotion never hurt anyone – that I know of!

Thank you to Julie Covington who provided some of the content for this post.  She does a thankless and hectic job managing Awards and Honors.  THANK YOU, JULIE!

A chance to strut your stuff…ENGLERTH AWARD

Attention pollen dabbers in Region 2! Two opportunities to strut your daylily kids to a regional and national audience in the next two years are here!

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. This summer, visitors to the Region 2 Summer Meeting will view the Englerth Seedling beds at the Kingwood Center gardens in Mansfield.

Each medallion is engraved with the winner's name and is awarded at the Awards Banquet on Saturday night of the summer meeting. Hybridizers who win this award are expected to register and introduce the daylily that is selected as the winner, so make sure you have enough of it to support this if you happen to win!

Previous Winners of this prestigious award:

2009- Martin Kamensky  (winner seen in photo at the top of this post)

2008- John Sheehan - Seedling 00-11-1

2007- Lea Ann Williams - Seedling 00WSXRH

2006- TIE - Ken Blanchard (Seedling BLA 01-1) and Charles Applegate (Seedling 21398A)

2005- Dan Bachman - Seedling 00-53

2004- Jamie Gossard - Seedling JG/00/2

For 2011:

The Englerth Bed for the 2011 Region 2 Summer Meeting, hosted by the Southern Michigan Daylily Society will be planted at the gorgeous country gardens of Ric and Lynn Adams.

Send the appropriately identified seedlings to:

Ric Adams

6117 S. State Road

Goodrich, MI 48438-9706

ricadams@charter.net

810-636-7416

For 2012:

Region 2 has the special treat of hosting the AHS National Convention, so a national audience will be viewing and voting on this award as part of the tours. What an honor! The Englerth Bed for 2012 will be hosted by Lee Miller, and being coordinated by Karen Ciula.

Englerth Bed Coordinator: Karen Ciula (kciula@columbus.rr.com; 614-471-3246)

Send the appropriately identified seedlings to:

Lee Miller

6221 Condit Road

Centerburg, OH 43011

miller.lee.1000@earthlink.net

740-965-3940

Both of these gardens are ready and waiting for your entries!

There is no limit on the number of seedlings one hybridizer can send, and hybridizers should contact the garden owners prior to sending plants with any questions.

Plants sent for this contest can be returned at the request of the sender, and arrangements for such return should be made at the time of sending the plants. It is always good to clarify expectations before sending your seedling(s) in!

I just sent my seedling for 2012 and am still considering what to put in for 2011.  I hope you will consider doing so, too!

Howard Hite Award for Hybridizing Excellence...DEADLINE!

Only a few more days to get your nominations in for the 2010 winner of the Howard Hite Award for Hybridizing Excellence!! 

You can download the nomination form, see a list of past winners and get more information here.

The Howard Hite Award for Hybridizing Excellence was started in 1989 at the Region 2 Summer Meeting. It is sponsored by the Southern Michigan Daylily Society. The winner receives a sand-etched glass plate showing an engraved image of Hite’s H. ‘Indonesia’ (1978.)

The 2009 winner was Jamie Gossard, pictured below receiving his award from AHS Region 2 Director, Gisela Meckstroth last Fall.

The award is meant to honor years of effort on the part of a hybridizer to improve daylily cultivars. Any Region 2 member, including members of the Awards and Honors Committee may submit names of candidates for the award to the Regional President before March 1 of each year.  This year, the deadline has been extended to April 1, to allow for more nominations.

Visit the link above, download a nomination form and get it to me ASAP.  I will forward all the received nominations to the head of the Awards and Honors Committee 7 days after April 1, to allow for the post office to deliver all nominations postmarked by April 1.

The criteria for selection of a recipient are as follows:

1.)  The award is to honor a region 2 AHS member who has contributed notable achievements in the field of hybridizing from years of a dedicated hybridizing program.

2.)  The award may be given each year only if a recipient is selected.

3.)  A person may receive the award only one time.

4.)  Deceased hybridizers may be considered for the award.

5.)  Any region 2 member, (including committee members) may submit names of possible recipients to the RP before March 1 of each year. The final selection will be determined by the Hite Award Committee composed of four members and the current RP representing the five states in the region.

6.)  Names of past nominees may be considered as possible candidates for future years.

7.)  The selection committee needs to notify the president of SMDS as soon as the candidate is selected, but no later than one month preceding the annual Region 2 Summer Meeting as to give ample time for the award to be engraved for presentation at the Region 2 Summer Meeting.

8.)  The committee members will be appointed by the current RP to serve a two-year term (a) four members will be carried over by each succeeding RP (b) in the event that the choice of a new RP creates a vacancy in one of the five states that the committee represents, the new RP will select and appoint a replacement to complete the unexpired term.

9.)  The new RP will choose new committee members for his or her second year of term in office.

The most important things to note are the facts that previous winners are not eligible and previous nominees are automatically "in the pool" of candidates for the following years.

You can download the nomination form here.

Get in your nominations now!!  Don't delay!! 

New Members for Region 2!

I have received the latest AHS membership rosters from the wonderful AHS Executive Secretary, Pat Mercer.  I get these lists a few times a year and they are very useful.  It shows me how many members are in our region, how many new members have joined and how many have not renewed.

This information is available for any local club president or representative who may want to use this information to communicate to new members in their area.  Please contact me if you are interested in receiving a copy.  Today (March 3) I will email it to the local club contacts I have for just this purpose.  If you do not receive it, or would like a new copy, please let me know.

The good news is that renewals are up for AHS and for Region 2.  So far for 2010 there are 10 new members in Illinois, 6 in Indiana, 9 in Michigan, 16 in Ohio, and 6 in Wisconsin.  Club presidents and membership chairs, please reach out to these folks.  Send them a flyer, send them a voucher for your next plant sale, send them a set of your clubs newsletters from last year...send them some daylily love!  We all remember what it felt like to be a new member, and for some of us, that experience was not all hearts and flowers - do your best to make it awesome for someone else!

Speaking of hearts and flowers, here is David Kirchhoff's H. 'Hearts and Flowers.'  Stunning, stunning, stunning, and not typical of a daylily done by "the David."  I have grown this since 2002 and it gets better every year.  This last summer it decided to exhibit polymerous characteristics on many of its blooms, which made for a real interesting display.

And speaking of David, he is the featured speaker at the SMDS Spring Banquet coming up on April 18th in southeast Michigan.  For more details, please visit http://www.daylilyclub.net/.  All are welcome and encouraged to attend.  I know I will not miss it.  They have a raffle and auction to die for!

Back on topic, I would encourage you to reach out to the folks on the "New member" list in your area and invite them to your next club event, or your next open garden. 

Friends are found everywhere...

Here's me (far left) clerking at the 2008 Southern Michigan Daylily Society Exhibition Show.  I look like I'm in deep thought, don't I?  In the photo with me are L-R: AHS Helen Field Fischer Medal Winner Hal Rice, Pam Klein and Elaine Schultz.  Clerking is a great way to learn about judging, exhibiting and most of all, patience!  It sure is hard to keep your mouth shut while clerking when you also are an accredited judge and seasoned exhibitor.

That's all for now, friends.  I hope to see you along the garden path sometime this summer.

Regional Newsletter Award

Hello Daylily Friends and Fans!

Did you remember that Region 2 offers a "Best Newsletter Award" to local societies? Any group who provides copies of their newsletters to the Regional President, Regional Publicity Director and Editor are considered for this annual award!! A gorgeous glass, engraved trophy is awarded to the winner at the banquet of the Summer Meeting!

Voting criteria includes diversity and quality of content, timeliness of information, timeliness and consistency of publication. It may also include graphic layout, incorporation of pertinent photos, and incorporation of other graphics (logos, etc.)

I have only received newsletters from 3 clubs for 2009.

If you are interested in having your local societies newsletter considered for the 2009 award, please forward copies, to the three of us immediately.  Contact me for email addresses, or see the regional website.  If you need our mailing addresses, please check the latest newsletter.

If you believe your club has already submitted newsletters for consideration, please email me to confirm receipt.

Previous Winners of this award:

2008- Bette Alden, Southern Michigan Daylily Society

2007- Kim Issacson, Chicagoland Daylily Society

2006- Tim Bleichroth, Daylily Enthusiasts of Southern Indiana

2005- Sandy Veurink and Connie Hall, Grand Valley Daylily Society

2004- Rosemary Kleinheintz, Wisconsin Daylily Society

2003- Bill Johannes, Metropolitan Columbus Daylily Society

2002- Harold Steen, Daylily Society of Southeast Wisconsin

2001- Marcia Razor, Southwestern Indiana Daylily Society

These clubs are eligible for the award again only with a new editor. Any one person can only win this award once.

The winner of this award will be announced at the Region 2 Summer Meeting Banquet this July.

I look forward to receiving more newsletters. Please send them to the three of us by March 1 so that we may have plenty of time to review and discuss.

Region 2 Action Requested - JAN 31 Deadline

Hello, daylily friends!

 

On page 9 of the most recent Region 2 Newsletter, there is an action item that requires you to send in a ballot to the Regional President by the end of January.

 

This ballot is to clarify the election of the committee to select the next RP as the same committee that will select a nominee for the AHS Region 2 Director's position, which comes vacant in 2011. The election of this committee was not clear at the 2009 Region 2 Summer Meeting, in the regard that this committee would be searching for two candidates to fill two different positions. Because of this oversight, we wanted to make sure the membership has a chance to properly elect this committee to do this important job.

At the upcoming summer meeting in northern Ohio both seats need a nominee for the term beginning in 2011. At the summer 2009 meeting, we only specified that this committee would look for a RP, but not for a Director. That is where the oversight occurred. We did not note both positions in the election motion made and passed at last year's summer meeting.

 

In summary,

• According to the bylaws, the nominating committee is elected by the membership.
• Therefore, since we did not specify that this committee would also be nominating a Director, we needed to clarify.
• Both ballots in the recent newsletter should have read Director; there was no typo. There are two ballots to support two votes in one home for family memberships.
• We have already elected the committee to nominate an RP, we just need to formally clarify that this same committee will be nominating a Director, too.

Please see page 9 of your newsletter now. Tear out page 9 or photocopy page 9 or electronically reproduce your votes and email them to me immediately. The action item requires a certain percentage of the region to return ballots, so they all count!

 

I hope those statements clear up the mud a bit. Please let me know if you have any other thoughts or comment and please forward this information to your local memberships as soon as you can.

 

Don't delay! Spread the word to your local clubs and fellow Region 2 members.

 

I hope you have also had a chance to check out our new regional website.  It's HERE if you haven't.  Here is the gorgeous home page - enjoy!

 

 

Thank you for your time and continued efforts on behalf of the region and the AHS!

 

Seeds of Encouragement

ATTENTION REGION 2 MEMBERS

GET YOUR FREE 'SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT'

In 2011, the Southern Michigan Daylily Society will host the Region 2 Summer Meeting.

To encourage people to come to the 2011 Summer Meeting and to
encourage them to grow daylilies from seeds, Michigan daylily hybridizer and accomplished hosta hybridizer John Kulpa is giving away over 6,000 daylily seeds!!

If you are interested in receiving a packet of seeds, please contact your club president or designated representative as soon as possible. Someone from your club should contact me at schmiths@sbcglobal.net or 248-739-9006 and tell me the number of seed packets that are needed by your club.

This offer is only available to Region 2 members at this time. This is a great opportunity to get some fantastic seeds for free. Only the pod parent is marked on all of the seed packets. However, John only used about 15 great plants for pollen parents. Some of the pollen parents were: LARRYS OBSESSION, WORTHY OF DISTINCTION, WREATHED IN TEETH, VENUS FLYTRAP, RANDY STEPHENS, RED FRIDAY, ALAN LANE AGIN and two very toothy unregistered seedlings.

Some of the seeds have started to germinate in the refrigerator, so please contact your daylily club president or representative as soon as possible. The seeds will be distributed on a first come, first serve basis.

The Southern Michigan Daylily Society is looking forward to sharing its gardens and hospitality with you in 2011. This is one summer meeting that you will not want to miss! See you in 2011!

Hundreds of seeds have already been requested, mailed, received and even planted! 

Get yours today!

Youth Memberships- What's the Deal?

It is membership renewal time for the AHS.

The official position is that yes, Region 2 has temporarily discontinued paying the AHS $1500 each year to cover the cost of all youth memberships.


However, as RP I want to reimburse Region 2 youth members who pay their dues. I have not worked an official policy up about this yet, so for now it is only by word of mouth. Here's how it will work until an official policy can be drafted and approved: you let me know you have a youth who needs to pay dues. I will ask you to send me their name and address and I will reimburse for their AHS membership, along with a note thanking them for continuing to be a member. 


I'll send out a more formal email in the coming months, after the board meets in Cincinnati at the end of February and I have a chance to talk with them about this "youth situation."


In the meantime, if you have ideas on an administratively sound way to handle paying for youth memberships, offering scholarships, paying for national/regional registrations, and spend about $1500-$2000 doing it, please bring your ideas to the table! You can talk with Wendy Schwall, who is our incoming Youth Liaison, at jschwall-at-neo-dot-rr-dot-com or can email them to me at schmiths-at-sbcglobal-dot-net. (can't insert the real email addys here or nasty spammers may pick up the addresses...)

Here is the Youth Meeting at the 2009 Region 2 Summer Meeting
That's me helping them make Garden Journals!

Or, even more exciting, we can use the comments section discuss them publicly here.


What programs could Region 2 implement to benefit our youth members?

September events that are still on my mind...

Two daylily events that I must mention before time takes the sparkle off the memories of these events! Too often I start posts in my head, thinking what a wonderful story this will make, and by the time I sit to write, so much more has happened that I can't do the previous events justice anymore!
Everyone who is anyone, and anyone who thinks they are everyone, has been to see SMDS in the last couple of years, and are planned through 2011 when we host the Region 2 summer meeting for AHS.  In September 2009, the Southern Michigan Daylily Society hosted Region 2's own Bob Faulkner of Natural Selection Daylilies. Here are some of his seedlings. 

   

Bob's program fit right in with the best of them; each program we see is a joy for a different reason. I like to say Bob is a man who "does daylilies" on his own terms. Not other hybridizers, not popular fads and not always conventional wisdom. His program shows his passion to go against the grain to make breaks that have never been seen. 200 + digital images later (our deepest apologies, Bob for our projector issues...) the room was collectively shaking our heads.

The patterns are, well, unlike any other patterns out there. Yes, I said unlike ANY other. He is a modest guy who doesnt throw around big words and big names and big plans and big egos. He tells it like he knows it, and also tells you if he doesnt know it. About 5 years ago or so, I got to see some of his first digital images while I was visiting Mike and Sandy Holmes' at their fabulous River Bend Gardens. We chatted about unnoticed intricacies and the desire for something else. Word on his first introductions and releases is they are coming sooooon. Very soon. Get. In. Line.   The Winter edition of the AHS Journal arrived yesterday (December 21) and his full page color ad sure caught my eye.

   

If you missed it, here are my personal photos of my visit to his garden this summer for Northern Mecca. It is 100MB worth of reasons to believe the hype about Bob.  Please contact me if you plan to use this for reasons other than viewing it personally on your own computer. You can most certainly share this at a club meeting, or post it on a website for others to view, but I would like appropriate editorial right to speak on such requests first (thank you!) In September, I had other business in Georgia and so just happened to be in town to crash the Region 5 Fall meeting in Macon, Georgia. As a new regional president, it is good for me to see how other regions handle their business.

I knew it was going to be a heck of a meeting when I saw the gorgeous flower arrangement on the registration table filled with daylily blooms. Then I saw Tim Bell. And Charlie Shaw. And Barbara Kirby. And Joann Stewart. Then I saw the 'bargain daylily table.' Now when you usually think of 'bargain' daylilies, you think of typical Eureka valued plants around $10-20, marked down to maybe $5 or so. Apparently I have never seen a bargain table Georgia-style. They do it up ca-razy!! Huge clumps of daylilies, NEW daylilies for not more than $15 per division, all to help fund the Valdosta-hosted AHS National. 


The business was efficient and thorough, awards were bestowed, hugs were given, reports were made, and plants were traded. I liked how Ms. Barbara showed digital slides of all the new display gardens in their region since the last meeting. I will think about using that for Region 2. It was nice to see the new additions. I heard about the plans for the Valdosta AHS National and OH BOY are we in for some amazing stuff next year. Apparently registrations are already coming in. They have some wonderful incentives (unlike any other) to get registered early. Check it out from the AHS website. I have never sent in a registration this early before, but I seriously am considering it. On top of all that, there were refreshments and an auction; Tim Bell is a hilarious auctioneer and among many members down there, a very generous angel to Region 5. I enjoyed it all very much and am thankful to RP Barbara Kirby and the friendly folks of Region 5 for allowing me to crash the party unexpectedly. You just never know where I'll show up...


As for the daylilies in my own yard, the turnover in my garden this year was about 40%, so I am already really looking forward to next season when nearly half of my collection will be blooming for the first time in my yard. How fun is that??!

Enjoy yourselves today!