BY WENDY ELLIOTT
Kings County Advertiser/Register
The Canning Daylily Gardens is well worth a visit before August 15, as the bloom is at its peak.
The small, family-run business features a full acre of colorful daylilies. Peak bloom usually starts around mid-July and extends to mid-August.
“We currently have over 1,200 daylily cultivars in our garden,” says Wayne Ward. “There are about 500 on sale.”
The garden paths are easily accessible and several exotic breeds of bantam poultry poke about between the blooms. There is a mother hen with about eight chicks, some hers and some adopted, looking for grubs among the daylilies. Ward says the birds are almost as sought after as the plants.
Ward and his partner, Wayne Storrie, have set up a little village for the poultry scattered around the garden. Each variety, a rooster and several hens, has a miniature church, café or stately home to live in. The tiny store, complete with lottery symbols, has a sign saying “Chicken BBQ cancelled.”
Canning Daylily Gardens has produced an on-line catalogue for about nine years. All of the plants are field-grown.
Visitors come every summer from across Canada and many of the Eastern United States.
“We enjoy sharing our garden with visitors, and look forward each spring to rekindling friendships with our gardening friends.”
