Garden on Cedar Hill Road Has Hemerocallis

Visit a National Display Garden in Canal Winchester Ohio

Dec 31, 2008

National display gardens have reliable plant collections. In Canal Winchester, Ohio, Garden on Cedar Hill Road has more than 1000 daylilies growing.

Plant hybridizers with a fascination for a particular type of flower create trial gardens in private backyards. Garden on Cedar Hill Road, a national display garden, opens up the backyard to summer visitors who want to learn about daylilies.

Daylily Garden in Canal Winchester

Even before turning onto the gravel driveway, visitors to Garden on Cedar Hill Road are treated to a colorful scene of tall daylily scapes swaying in the Ohio breeze. This is a small visual taste of the gardens behind Bob and Sharon Fitzpatrick’s private residence.

As a national display garden for the American Hemerocallis Society, it is here visitors will see the results of a daylily hybridizer’s years of dedicated work. The extremely high fencing surrounding these daylily-only gardens easily identifies Fitzpatrick’s trial beds.

Visitors are welcome to stroll the display gardens. Enjoy a self-directed walking tour with Ollie, the friendly Sheltie companion, who patrols the property. Or, Sharon will take gardeners through, recounting the linage of each daylily. Of course, come prepared to take notes and be on the look out for potential gardening ideas.

Fitzpatrick’s display garden includes garden whimsy. At the far end of the property is a bridge crossing the property’s small creek, leading to a gazebo set among the tall canopy of trees. A miniaturized cottage garden with picket fence, an occupied outhouse and Mother Nature walking the woodland path is sure to make any gardener laugh.

Hemerocallis Cultivars

The best time to visit Garden on Cedar Hill Road is June through early August when massive amounts of flowers are on display. The over 1000 cultivars of daylilies are inter-planted among trees, shrubs, annuals and other perennials. The Fitzpatrick’s passion is for unusual form and spider daylilies. However, more traditional daylily forms, other specialty daylilies and unnamed seedlings are included in the collection, too.

The 2008 registrations of Hemerocallis hybridized by Bob and Sharon Fitzpatrick include ‘Bodacious Betty,’ ‘Fitzadilly’ and ‘Twilight Princess.’ Sometimes the strange sounding names convey a personal memory such as ‘Numchuck Nana’ named after a favorite neighbor and ‘Traveling Soldier’ for the Fitzpatrick’s son in the armed forces. The Fitzpatrick’s granddaughter, for her favorite rock music, named Hemerocallis ‘Snicker Knight.’

Public Display Gardens

There are many display gardens. Some are part of public botanical gardens with dedicated sections called trial gardens. In trial gardens, plants are tested for example on weather tolerance, reblooming reliability or are being saved to cross-pollinate with other plants. The All-America Selections organization lists display gardens in North America.

American Hemerocallis Society have many national display gardens. Summer garden tours incorporating visits to several small display gardens are easy to find and may be free. Good plant labeling and an enthusiastically knowledgeable gardener leading the tour are characteristics of a good display garden worth visiting.

More daylilies and companion plantings can be seen among artists and muscianas at Lily Fest in Hocking Hills

The copyright of the article Garden on Cedar Hill Road Has Hemerocallis in Public Gardens is owned by Christine Eirschele. Permission to republish Garden on Cedar Hill Road Has Hemerocallis in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.