Free garden tours through daylily paradise

REHOBOTH — Their heads poke up in vibrant orange, muted blush, and shades of red and yellow from the vast daylily fields at Tranquil Lake Nursery — New England’s largest grower of daylilies.

It’s a serene spot where the woods meet the Palmer River and visitors are invited to walk through eight acres and 2,500 blooming daylily varieties during peak season in July.

“It’s like an abstract painting,” said Tranquil Lake owner Warren Hogan. “It changes with the light.”

Tranquil Lake is offering guided garden and field tours this month to educate the public about growing daylilies to beautify home gardens. The tours are each Friday night at 6:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

The free tours are offered each year because gardens make people “happy,” Hogan said. Tranquil Lake offers various educational events, as well.

Walking through the production fields, Hogan pointed out some of the different varieties.

Holy Moses is a blood red daylily breed. The Vermillion Blush is a pinkish red with a yellow center. Then there’s the light yellow Kenneth Cobb daylily.

They all have a name — the Creepy Crawler, Princess Irene, Smoke Bush, Indigo Moon, Tetrina’s Daughter and Red Rooster, among many others.

The lavender-shaded daylily, Blueberry Breakfast, was created by Ron Rose of Taunton.

There are others from local daylily breeders like Donald Marvin of Mattapoisett and the late Bill and Eleanor Lachman of Amherst.

“We introduce for many New England breeders,” Hogan said.

Buyers visiting Tranquil Lake can simply pick a plant in the field and a worker will dig it up so they can take it home for their own garden.

“It’s instant gratification,” Hogan said.

All of the daylilies are edible and taste a bit like lettuce, Hogan explained while chewing on a yellow petal. “They have a little crunch,” he said. But the beauty of the daylily far outweighs its flavor.

All daylilies were bred from yellow and orange species, native to China, according to Hogan, and came to the United States in colonial times. Many of today’s hybrids were created in the 1940s and ‘50s.

He said there are no white or true blue daylily varieties. But there are many shades that have been cultivated by the yellow and orange flowers.

“We have a lot of diversity,” Hogan said.

For Hogan, planting and painstakingly caring for daylilies are labors of love.

“I grew up gardening in Maine,” Hogan said.

He purchased the business in 1986 and has expanded it steadily over the years with his wife, Debi. They married in 1991.

Besides daylilies, visitors will find irises and a plethora of trees and perennial plants — some easy to care for and drought-resistant — along with garden displays for lots of ideas. Landscape designers are available.

“Everything you see, we planted,” Hogan said, walking through the property where flowers and trees were lush and cared for by growers and the “many pollinators” buzzing around happily oblivious to people.

Hogan, who is also a photographer, lecturer, and teacher, is currently working on a book about the winter garden, to be published by Timber Press.

Gardening, he said, is a year-round process. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I cannot imagine not gardening,” Hogan said.

To learn more about Tranquil Lake Nursery, 45 River St., Rehoboth, call 508-252-4002 or visit http://www.tranquil-lake.com/

Email Deborah Allard at dallard@heraldnews.com.