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.

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

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!