Gotta Garden

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

2008 AHS National Convention...Garden Eight

We've arrived at the garden of Harvey & Nell Shimek and let me just go ahead and say: This garden most definitely wins BEST FOOD IN A TOUR GARDEN! Yum! Just wait until you get a taste...errr, get a look ...(sorry, you'll just have to take my word on it!)...But, first, it's the flowers we're here for...

By the way, the Shimeks' place is an AHS display garden called Shimek Gardens...


Want to see that boot closer?


Here's just an entry taste...to give you some idea...the Shimeks do some interesting things...like have long borders of daylilies...


Decisions, decisions...which way should we go...


NORDIC NIGHT:


ANATASIA:


COLLECTORS CHOICE:


There are many wonderful borders here...


HANDSOME ROSS CARTER:


HAPPY HOOLIGAN:


NEW JOURNEY:


We'll see lots of daylily borders here, like these...




But the food...


which they very kindly actually served to us as we walked their gardens...




Oh. My. Gosh. It was SO good!

Back to the flowers...PAINT YOUR WAGON:


REGAL PROCESSION:


BERTIE:




ELSIE SPAULDING:


ROSABELLE VAN VALKENBURG:


CYNTHIA JANE SCOTT:


Some garden views (of which there are many):




QUIET REFLECTIONS:


CZECH IT OUT (a Shimek introduction):


Yikes, I took the wrong label for this one...but it is pretty:


Very opportunistic, wouldn't you say...I like that they left it...


ENCHANTED BLESSING:


WESTMINISTER LACE:


MAGIC CARPET RIDE:




JANE TRIMMER:


KISSES LIKE WINE:


As you can read, PAINTING THE ROSES RED:


More views...



To give you an idea, in addition to all the precisely manicured beds, there were whole fields of daylilies like these...



GRAND OPERA:


MONTANA MISS:


LAVENDER TONIC:


The Shimeks grow so many other things besides daylilies...I was fascinated with their sunflowers...












Wonderful, huh! We return to our regularly scheduled program...

LAVENDER TONIC and GYPSY BALLERINA:


BEST OF FRIENDS:


Close up:


Pretty glads...


Here's one of the boot birdhouses...


SEPTEMBER MORNING (Another Shimek introduction):


TWILIGHT ILLUSIONS:


HILLBILLY HEART:




BLACK AMBROSIA:


ELFIN ETCHING:


SOOTHSAYER:




DOUBLE SALMON PUFF:


AMAZING GRACE:


Let's take a look at some of those daylily borders...









Of course, there's a wonderful vegetable garden here...


A boot tree, with each boot filled with daylilies...


Nice place to sit and eat fresh figs...


A bottle tree...


Places to sit...




Approaching the above bench was a clear path...


Lots of whimsy in this garden...









More scenes...










Other flowers...






More food...










Oh, that's not this guy I hear, but the whistle...time to board the bus...



We'll have to hurry....





This has been a very fun (and delicious!) stop on our tour...we were even welcomed with a banner...


Many thank to the Shimeks for a great garden experience! We're off to lunch now...and again, it was done in very fine Texas style....with a Texas bar-be-que...brisket and all the fixings! Very yum!

****
We've got just one garden left....if you missed any of the previous seven gardens, you can find them under the labels on the right or by clicking on the following: Garden Seven here, Garden Six here, Garden Five here. Garden Four here, Garden Three here, Garden Two here...and Garden One here.

4 comments:

Shady Gardener said...

Oh my goodness, I would have never wanted to leave. What beautiful daylilies and what beautiful gardens. (The food looked delicious, too.) I have a few unknown varieties. Previous residents of our home planted a couple of unnamed daylilies and I lost the tags for a couple of them! :-( I'm sure it doesn't matter, but I do enjoy labeling them.

lynn'sgarden said...

Gotta Garden, Amazing photo journal of your tour. The ones that caught my fancy were Black Ambrosia, Lavendar Tonic, Jane Trimmer and Bertie, with it's swollen pollen anthers! One of these days, I'll be lucky to attend those tours. Meanwhile, it's great to see them through you...thanks!
Lynn

Gotta Garden said...

Well, Shady Gardener, you're right...it was hard to leave all the tour gardens...but they make us! Lol! There were eight buses, so things had to move along.

This year, the National Convention is in FL...three days of touring! I bet even more buses, too. Fun! Can't wait!

Hmmmm, actually, to us hemaholics, labeling does matter...but, we are a specific breed! Lol! I do have a few that were mixups or what not...but, truthfully, I don't know much longer I'll keep them. Space is tight here.

I guess I'm just strange that way, but I like labels. It also helps me not dig into things when they're dormant (which I have done...). Plus, I don't have to carry all those names in my brain!

I think I read somebody somewhere saying that didn't like labels or thought they made a garden unattractive. Not to me! I love 'em! I like to know what I'm looking at. Most gardens I visit (private and public) have labels, so I guess I'm not too far off the track. It frustrates me to visit a garden, see something I like...look around... no label or tag...and no one to ask. Is it a secret?? Ha.

To each his own, but I've visited some very fine gardens...and the labels were not distracting (to me). (Now, why exactly did I go off on this?? Geez...it's gorgeous today and I'm in here typing away...what's with me??!)

Anyhow, SG, you do whatever you like. It's your garden. And, isn't that great! Freedom!

Excellent, Lynn! Depending on where you are...there are regional meetings as well...so lots of opportunities to take advantage of! Thank you!

Talk to you all later...thanks for coming by...

Shady Gardener said...

Gotta Garden, You need to visit me! I really am a Label Woman! ;-) So, it really has hurt me to lose a couple of my labels. I imagine I'll be digging around the flower bed this Spring to see if I can't discover them. I've discovered a couple of good sites with a lot of photos/labels... but I'm not sure I can identify the unknown that way.

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