CVIDS 2018 Garden Tour - July 14th
This year, our tour took us to the beautiful gardens of Diane Derganz (Maquoketa), Pete and Pat Connolly (Bellevue), and Sara Hankemeier (Miles). These hosts kindly provided introductions to their gardens (see below). We are endebted to our garden hosts, to Diane Derganz for making lunch arrangements and taking reservations, to Joyce Parsons for calling roll, to Spruce Harbor Inn for their delicious lunch, and to Lyle Moen for providing the following photographs.

The Garden of Diane and Larry Derganz
Welcome to our garden for the 2018 CVIDS Garden Tour! We've lived in our home near the center of Maquoketa for 45 years. We have an average-sized yard and would describe my garden as having a little bit of everything but lots of daylilies and hosta. I really got interested in hosta in 1992 and have continued to stick them wherever I could. There are about 150 varieties from dwarf to a few really large ones. After I ran out of shade, I began acquiring daylilies, which I’ve planted in a former vegetable garden in my back yard. Each year I’d cut out more vegetables and plant new daylilies. I now have about 200 daylily varieties around my yard as well as several Oriental and Asiatic lilies. I have a special little area, which I call my 'Halloween Garden' as the plants have names associated with that holiday.

We look forward to your visit on July 14. Our garden will be open at 9:30 a.m. until about 10:30 a.m. with some refreshments, water, juice, fruit and rolls.

Diane

	Photo to left: Halloween Garden

The Garden of Pete and Pat Connolly
First, we want to welcome you to our garden! Second, I’d like to tell you a little bit about us and our love of daylilies. We lived in Meridian, Mississippi, from 1999–2014. In the fall of 2001, we went to a club plant sale and bought six daylilies. The next month we joined the local daylily club and we later joined the Hattiesburg Area Daylily Society (HADS), which, in January of this year, became a Gold-Level AHS Daylily City. At one time, we grew more than 600 cultivars in our AHS Display Garden. I was fortunate to have a great mentor, Earl Watts, who taught me how to grow and select cultivars. Jeff Salter taught the Garden Judges class and he emphasized the importance of a strong plant, strong scapes, good bud count and increase. Over the years I have tried to adopt all of those principles in my daylily selections.

In 2015, Pat and I moved “back home” to Bellevue, Iowa, where we currently grow about 275 daylilies. Our garden is located on a high windy hill with poor clay soil, so we need strong plants. However, with compost and fertilizer, we are able to grow nice plants. In early spring I apply a slow-release 16-4-10 GRACO fertilizer and after I get scapes, I apply Miracle Grow Bloom Buster until the bloom begins. I also like to apply alfalfa pellets when I am planting a new plant.

My favorite flowers are large and extra-large bloomers. I don’t care for spiders, as so many look alike. I like to see a cultivar that is distinct and unusual. Over the years, some of our best plants have come from small hybridizers, so you will see plants that you probably haven’t seen before. I won’t buy single fans, as they don’t increase very fast. Besides, there are too many good plants that are available as double fans from other sources.

In closing, I would say that we have met many nice people through daylilies. CVIDS is a great club and many people make that possible. See you in July.

Pete and Pat

Special Note: One lucky tour attendee will receive a free double fan of his/her choice from Pete and Pat’s garden, excluding our CVIDS Club Plants.

The Garden of Sara and Marv Hankemeier
M&S Farms stands for Marv and Sara. Although some people really believe the S is for Sadie, the German Shepherd dog, who was Marv’s constant sidekick when the farm was “named.” At any rate, the farm is where my Dad was born and raised. The original house burned when he was a baby and the current house was built in the same spot. My Dad and Mom took over the farm and raised turkeys. Brooder houses lined the south lawn where my vegetable garden is now. The current patio started out as a cement slab for the walk-in freezer for the dressed turkeys. My start in gardening came in the vegetable garden, which at that time was between the house and turkey houses.

I have to credit my initial interest in gardening to Leora. My dad’s mother died when he was young and Leora came and helped his aunt raise the 5 kids. Leora took on the task of raising the second generation (me at 2-years old) when my mother passed away. Planting, weeding, canning, and freezing were all jobs Leora took on with me at her side. There were few flowers as the priority on the farm was raising food.

Marv and I took over the farm when we married, but lived a mile south of Miles. When my stepmother moved to Northeast Iowa in 1984, we moved onto the home place and I was again living in the house where I grew up, and our daughter, Dorice, took over what used to be my bedroom. We tilled up the grass so I could bring back the vegetable garden. I added a few flowers right south of the house. Over the years the vegetable garden got smaller and the flower bed got bigger and bigger.

My start with daylilies came when Diane Derganz shared several of her plants with me. All daylily enthusiasts know how that story goes. A few years later, she asked if I would join a daylily club with her so she would have someone to share the ride to the meetings. And that’s how we got started in CVIDS. What an eye opener for me. I never knew there were so many daylilies or that there were people so dedicated to daylilies. After seeing the variety and beautiful flowers of CVIDS members, I have started revamping my garden. Like most gardens, that will forever be a work in progress. There just isn’t room for every plant, so I am taking advice I was given and hope to focus on flowers that have that “wow factor.” Even so, it is hard to send some of the originals to the compost. The original daylily is still there. When I was a toddler, the back yard was fenced. The corner post had a lilac bush and some orange daylilies by it. Sometime when I was in elementary school, the fence, lilac, and daylilies were torn out. The corner post, being too hard to pull out, remained. About ten years ago, I began to notice daylilies would try to come up right next to that post. After mowing them off for several years, I finally decided I should see if they would bloom. It took a couple more years, but they did bloom in the original “road ditch orange” variety. If they have that much determination, I guess they can stay.

Besides my perennial garden, you may also want to take a look at my second-year butterfly garden, my worm composting system, and my potting shed where I raise seedlings for both the vegetable and flowerbeds. As you view my perennials, including the daylilies, be aware you are seeing a garden, which has been challenged this year. My flowerbed has expanded to surround the water well and pump. My husband (wise man) has always warned me that I would come to regret planting around the well if we ever had to pull the pump. I knew the risk, but planted away. May 4, we had to have the pump pulled. I had 24 hours to dig out all the plants in the path the truck would use to get to the pump. May 14, the carpenter came to put new shingles on the garage. As careful as he was, wayward shingles still landed on a few hostas and ferns. Vacations are great, but every gardener knows how things can get away from you when you are gone. I have not one but two 10-day vacations planned between now and the daylily tour. Can anyone say weeds and neglect! Come and enjoy anyway! Looking forward to seeing you July 14.

Sara