“Daylily Detour”

c. 2011 Rod Ice
All rights reserved
(5-11)




The subject of popular music is a frequent topic for installments of this column.

In past issues, I have written about the efforts of area resident Eric Moore to have legendary guitarist Link Wray inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But a recent Internet encounter with this energetic fellow uncovered a different side of his personality.

On a fan forum dedicated to another plectrum icon, Davie Allan, Moore mentioned speaking at the public library in Chardon.

Since this online group included members from around the world, I was stunned at the mention of a locale so close to home.

I contacted Moore directly, and asked about his appearance. It seemed likely that he would have visited to discuss Rock music, or some facet of popular culture. But instead, he mentioned a club I’d never heard of before – the Western Reserve Daylily Society.

When I wondered about their activities, he connected me with fellow member Rae Dickens. She cheerfully explained the association in greater detail:

“A group of daylily lovers got together last spring and decided that we wanted to form a new club with members who love the flower and are interested in being involved in their organization. We decided to measure our success on how well we work together rather than the number of members in the club. To accomplish this we are trying something different: an Associate Membership program. Prospective members are invited to attend a meeting, receive a packet of information and have a mentor assigned to them. They join a committee and are invited to try the club out for a year. They are welcome to participate in all activities and events, however, they are restricted on voting on club issues. After a year, they have the opportunity to become a full member. The club is open to anyone who is interested in what we do and can commit to attending the majority of meetings and events. We fund the club by selling plants donated by members to the public rather than counting on members for monetary donations. Members also receive lots of free plants so we all have great looking daylily gardens! We see ourselves as daylily ambassadors and are committed to education. We teach daylily basics, give demonstrations, and provide literature and hands on experience. We are a non-profit 501c3 organization and affiliated with the American Hemerocallis Society, Region 2. I love working on our projects and working along with the others in our group. We never get tired of talking about daylilies! We are involved in building daylily gardens in the community. Our first is at Burton Century Village… club members are donating over 100 hybrid daylilies from their own gardens for the display. We are working on setting up another community garden at the Senior Center in Perry; we travel and visit hybridizers to see their gardens, talk to them and learn how they create and grow beautiful plants, and of course buy lots of plants; we offered classes at the Chardon library (open to the public) on how to use botanical software called Plantstep and how to use Excel and Word to create a garden catalog for your own garden; we have plant sales coming up at the Chardon Square Farmer's Market in June, a sale at the Chesterland Historic Village in August, and one with OSU Master Gardeners in Painesville in September. At plant sales, we raise funds for the club, but most importantly meet the public, provide information, and introduce daylilies to the pubic; we invite guest speakers - our first was Eric. He spoke to us about his hybridizing program. June 3 is our first birthday. Daylily season in our area begins at the end of June, peak bloom is in July.”

The WRDS website is located at www.westernreservedaylilysociety.org

Note: The club will be selling locally grown hybrid daylilies, distributing daylily information, demonstrating how to plant daylilies, and answering daylily questions at the Farmer's Market in Chardon Square on Friday evenings in June from 4-8PM. (June 3, 10, 17, 24). They also have a club sale planned in Chesterland on August 20th. Additionally, they have volunteered to help with a garden restoration project in Burton at Century Village by creating a daylily garden for the community.

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