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GSDG
The Garden State Daylily Growers Newsletter
April Meeting
President’s Message
Even though it doesn’t feel like it, spring has arrived at last!
After such a cold and snowy winter, I’m sure we are all looking
forward to the upcoming daylily season. Thank you to everyone
who attended our March meeting. We welcomed new
members, made lots of plans for new and exciting events and
shared pictures and stories about our daylilies and gardens. As
you begin your spring garden clean up, think about which
daylily clumps need to be divided and please donate the extra
fans to support our fund raising efforts this summer. Now is the
time to make plans to attend one of the many national, regional
or GSDG daylily events and join in the fun! Enjoy! - Jane
Save the Date!
GSDG Picnic
May 17, 2015
Falcon Turn Daylily
Garden Silent
Auction, Plant Swap
Daylily Prep Days
June 20 & 23, 2015
Daylily Day
Falcon Turn Daylily
Garden
Deep Cut Gardens
Prep Plants for Daylily
Day Sale
June 27, 2015
Bloom Exhibit and
Daylily Sale
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The Garden State Daylily Growers
will welcome Beth Creveling to our
April 12th meeting in the Heath
Room at the Red Hill Activity Center
in Tatum Park at 151 Red HIll Rd,
Middletown, NJ. She will share her
knowledge and experience about
gardening with daylilies and
companion plants. Our luncheon will
start at 12:30 PM with the
presentation following at 1:30 PM.
The meeting will conclude with a
50/50 auction of great garden daylilies
from Beth’s collection.
Beth’s AHS Display garden, located
nearby in Perkasie, Bucks County,
PA, holds a vast collection of
daylilies, which are incorporated into
her garden along with other
perennials. She is a board member of
the Delaware Valley Daylily Society,
a Garden Judge for AHS and has
published articles about perennials in
the Daylily Journal. What a perfect
way to start off the spring gardening
season!!
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Club News
Daylily Fans with Extra Daylily Fans!!
Donate to a Good Cause!
Submitted by Daru Sharp
The GSDG is collecting daylily donations for some very
good causes; Daylily Day and Rutgers Gardens Open House
– both GSDG club fund raisers, and our very exciting new
project: The Rutgers Gardens Daylily Demonstration Bed (see article on page 3). We
are happy to take whatever daylilies you can contribute either named varieties or seedlings that didn’t
make the cut. We have space to store the donated clumps whenever you are ready to dig them from
your garden or you can bring them to one of the Daylily Prep Days scheduled prior to the event. We
will even make arrangements to have someone come dig and collect the clumps from you if necessary.
Please send me information about the daylilies that you would like to donate. My email address is
[email protected]. Helpful information to include in your email: Daylily Name, Hybridizer, and Intro
year (if known). If you do not know the name of the daylily or if they are seedlings that you no longer
wish to keep, then just include some general information like the color, bloom season, and
approximate height. You might also want to tell me why you like this daylily. Include the size of the
clump you have to contribute. Small (2-4 fans), Medium (6 – 8 fans), a clump (well, it seems big to
you!!). If you happen to have a picture of this daylily in your garden, it would be really great if you
could send that along, too. If you don’t like email, you can mail
information to me at Daru Sharp, 38 Galloping Brook Rd,
Allentown, NJ 08501, or just call: (cell) 732 673 4005 or
(home) 609 223 0911.
I am looking forward to creating more fans with our fans –
(pun intended that time!).
Thanks for Your Help
And Generosity!
Daylily Prep Days at Falcon Turn Daylily Garden
In order to help collect and prepare daylily donations for our fund raising events, we have scheduled
several Daylily Prep Days. We will work together as a group to dig, split and label donated daylilies for
each fund raising event. Hopefully this will help increase the amount of plants we will have to offer for
sale! Workers will get a free daylily and the opportunity to shop from the donated assortment at
discounted prices.
Daylily Prep Days for Daylily Day - Saturday, June 20 & Tuesday, June 23, 2015 -10:00 to 2:00
Daylily Prep Days for Rutgers Open Garden - Sunday, July 19 & Tuesday, July 21, 2015 – 10:00 –
2:00.
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Garden State Daylily Growers
Demonstration Bed at Rutgers Gardens
Submitted by Peter McIntyre
The GSDG Daylily Demonstration Garden
at Rutgers Gardens is moving along. We have
been provided a bed along the vegetable garden
fence in Rutgers Garden that might be 180 feet
or so. This year we will start with the first 60
feet and we will make the bed 3 feet wide. The
purpose of this daylily demonstration garden is
three fold: to educate the public about the
wonderful world of the daylily, to show off
talented New Jersey
hybridizers, and to provide a beautiful display
of daylilies that will bloom from the very early
bloom season to the very late.
At this time, we are going to work on the first
60 feet in this garden. It is always better to start
slow, and work out the kinks in the project. We
are looking, for this first year, to put in 60
different varieties of daylilies. We are asking
for donations from or of NJ hybridizers, as well
as donations of plants that are extra early and
very late. We will then fill in the rest of the
season with beautiful examples of these
wonderful plants.
Bruce Crawford, the Director of Rutgers
Gardens, has made it very clear that the plants
we use are entirely up to us as a group. He will
accept our designs, and plant selections for the
garden with no restrictions. If certain plants do
not really belong, we are free to remove them or
substitute. Rutgers will kill the grass, prep the
location, have it ready for us after mid May and
provide the maintenance to keep the bed
beautiful throughout the growing season.
This Daylily Demonstration Garden will be our
design, today and in future.
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It’s Hummingbird Time!
Submitted by Lester Block
There is only one species of hummingbird that breeds in New
Jersey, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Relatively common
throughout New Jersey from spring through late summer, they
are among the smallest of migrating birds (3.5” from tip of
beak to tip of tail), traveling every year from their winter
homes in Mexico and Central America. Their journey takes them
525 miles, across the Gulf of Mexico, in 20 hours non-stop, to the United States and
Canada. A total distance over 2,500 miles! An incredible feat for a bird that generally weighs less than a
nickel.
The males arrive before the females and stake out their territories in
April. It is a good idea to have your feeders in place by April 15th.
A good way to remember this is to have them out by tax day.
It is easy to entice these gems to frequent your yard and gardens.
You must first buy a hummingbird feeder. These are relatively
inexpensive and can be found in the large, box stores, hardware
and feed supply stores, garden centers and online. Look for
feeders that have some red on them. The red will attract the bird’s
attention and help draw it to the
feeder. Also, it is wise to purchase one with bee guards
over the feeding stations and an ant trap. Once you find one
you like, look it over. Does it seem overly ornate? Does it
have openings large enough to get a bottle brush into? These
are important considerations because the feeder will need to
be cleaned frequently, especially during hot weather.
What do hummingbirds eat? In nature, their diet consists
primarily of energy rich food sources such as flower nectar and
small insects. These tiny birds burn a
lot of energy and must eat their weight in food daily.
A hummingbird feeder serves as a supplement to any
natural food sources. They are not really vital to the
survival of the birds with the possible exceptions of
times of bad weather or a very late, or very early cold
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It’s Humming Bird Time (cont. from page 4)
snap that kills the flowers and insects. In these
instances, a clean, filled feeder can make a
difference in the bird’s survival.
feeder will hasten fermentation of the
sugar/water solution and the feeder will have to
be cleaned more frequently. Finally, the feeders
need to be where you can see and enjoy them.
Easy access will allow for easy filling and
cleaning during the season. Once the birds
become accustomed to your feeders, you can
move them to almost any position and enjoy the
birds. Hummingbirds remember a reliable food
source. They have been known to return to the
same spot, year after year, even if the feeder
hasn’t been hung yet.
Take your newly purchased feeder and wash it
out with hot, soapy water. Then rinse it clean.
It is now ready to fill with hummingbird food.
What will you feed the hummingbirds? At the
beginning of the season, the birds will be
looking for nectar sources. Where do you buy
nectar? You can find it in many of the same
places that sell hummingbird feeders. Avoid the
nectar mixes that are artificially colored red.
Keep the feeders clean and full. When
temperatures are about 75 degrees F, you can
clean them every 2 or three days. Much hotter
than that, it becomes necessary to clean them
daily. Use warm soapy water and a bottle
brush. Sometimes a 10% bleach and water
solution is helpful. White vinegar (undiluted) is
sometimes used instead of bleach.
The red coloring on your feeder should be
enough to attract the birds. If your feeder is
lacking red colors, just add some yourself with
some red paint, nail polish or decals.
You can save yourself some money by making
your own “nectar” by mixing four parts of
water with one part of white, table sugar. Boil
it for about two minutes to dissolve it, and store
it in the refrigerator until needed. This mixture
is a replication of the natural sugar in flowers, is
easy to digest, nutritious and provides the birds
with energy and calories. There are
supplements available that add extra protein
and vitamins but, it has been my experience
that the hummingbirds generally avoid these
mixtures.
As gardeners, we can all plant nectar rich
flowers to attract hummers. Salvia coccinea is
particularly attractive as are some of the blue
salvias. Agastache, honeysuckles, columbine,
morning glory, four o’clocks, trumpet vine,
cardinal vine, fuchsia, impatiens, kniphopia,
lobelia, bee balm, monarda, horse mint,
penstemons…almost any tubular flower. I’ve
even seen hummers feed on cannas and
petunias. Unfortunately, for us daylily growers,
the daylily flowers do not provide enough
nectar to entice hummingbirds. If you see them
feeding around your daylily beds, they are most
likely gleaning small insects.
The feeders need to be located where the birds
can easily find them. Try tying a piece of red or
orange ribbon or tape to the tree or branch you
are hanging your feeder from. This provides a
long distance visual cue to migrating
hummingbirds and they will come in for a
closer look. If you have some flowering plants,
try placing it nearby. Avoid locations that are
in direct sunlight. The sun beating down on the
Now sit back and enjoy your hummingbirds.
Lester Block
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GSDG
SPRING 2015
New Members
Martin Barry – A member of AHS and interested in collecting
daylilies.
Curtis Cerillo – Is interested in collecting, hybridizing and organic
gardening with daylilies. Bud builders, spiders and unusual forms
are favorites.
John Hamilton – Hybridizing and gardening daylilies with tall,
strong scapes and rapid increase. Yellows with bold eyes and edges
are favorites.
Susan Kauffman – Loves all daylily forms in her garden. Favorite
colors include peach, yellows and reds.
Donna Mottola – Enjoys gardening with pastel daylilies.
Welcome!
Adria Narke – Loves all forms of purple, yellow and red daylilies. She wants to learn more about
hybridizing for fun.
Mary Lou Newborg – Garden includes all forms of daylilies. Loves the yellows!
Charlotte Pritchard – Interested in hybridizing, collecting and gardening with doubles and unusual
forms as favorites.
Mary Lou Rossi – Gardens and collects daylilies with bold bright eyes, tall scapes and high bud
count.
Joseph Rossi – Likes all forms of daylilies especially ones with teeth, ruffles, rebloom and high bud
count. White, pink and orange are his favorites.
Photo Credits – All photos by Jane Guillard unless otherwise noted
Pg. 1 top left – provided by Daru Sharp, bottom right – provided by Beth Creveling, Pg. 2 top left –
provided by Curtis Cerillo, bottom right – provided by Lynn Hopkins, Pg. 3 bottom left- provided by
Richard Haynes, Pg.6 – Provided by Melissa Rozecki
President: Jane Guillard - 609-330-2933 - [email protected]
Board
Members
Vice-President: John Monschauer – 973-764-6048 – [email protected]
Treasurer: Patricia Scarano – 732-257-6246 – [email protected]
Secretary: Mary Pabst – 732-270-5878 – [email protected]
Daylily Day Coordinator: Mary Lovasz – 732-787-2794 – [email protected]
Additional Board Members: Mike Oliver, Rosemary Staba Webmaster: Terry McGarty
GSDG Website – www.gsdaylily.net
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