This Saturday, Magdalene Square in Abbeville will be in full bloom for the Daylily Festival. Garden enthusiasts will be able to shop at over fifty vendors offering everything from daylilies to orchids to fruit trees to blueberry bushes to outdoor furniture to mosaic and copper yard art.
Husband and wife team, Donald and Lucy Menard, have been a vendor at the festival since its start in 2002. The couple has been growing daylilies for over twenty years, and will be selling fifty-eight different varieties of the famed flower this Saturday.
“Over half of our daylilies originally come from a wonderful gardener named, Mrs. Lucille Guidry,” says Mrs. Menard. “She gave me one of every variety she had because I helped her maintain her garden.”
The Menards’ garden is on approximately half an acre of land at their home in Erath. Plants and flowers greet visitors in the driveway. Behind a shed in the backyard are rows of cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, strawberries and peppers. Underneath a pear tree are begonias, ferns and cactuses. In an open field are canna lilies, bleeding hearts, angel trumpets, Jobe’s tears, bougainvilleas, and of course, daylilies; beds and beds of daylilies.
“I garden to relax,” says Mrs. Menard. “I raised seven children and after they were grown, I started on my flowers.”
In addition to caring for the many varieties of daylilies in the garden, Mrs. Menard cross-pollinates the flowers to create her own. One of her favorites, with yellow petals and a red heart in the center, is called, “Lucy’s Pride.”
“I should have been a farmer,” says Mrs. Menard. “My garden and flowers are my pride and joy.”
Mr. Menard, who worked for several years at the National Resource Conservation Service, is in charge of preparing the beds for the garden. He tills the ground, maintains a compost pile, and mixes the soil with sand to create a porous growing environment.
“If I can’t find Lucy in the house, I know she’s in the garden,” says Mr. Menard. “Sometimes she just sits underneath the pear tree and stares out at the daylilies.”
Mr. Menard also contributes to the garden by constantly searching for new varieties of plants and flowers. One of his best finds was a deep red daylily named Cupid Calling, which he appropriately gave to his wife for Valentine’s Day.
“We have so many different kinds that I have to stay well organized,” says Mrs. Menard. “I mark all of my rows so I know exactly what’s growing where.”
According to the Menards, daylilies love full sun, (approximately six hours per day), but will tolerate part-shade conditions. The flowers will grow in a wide range of soils, but ultimately prefer a mixture of porous and water retentive elements such as sand, humus or peat moss. It is best to grow them in raised beds to avoid root rot.
“Plant one fan now and by October you’ll have three or four,” says Mrs. Menard. “The hardest part about growing daylilies is having to dig them up and replant them.”
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to the Menards’ Erath home to interview the couple about their famous daylilies. At first I imagined fields and fields of brightly colored flowers like on a postcard from a tulip farm in The Netherlands. I fantasized about Mrs. Menard carving me a pair of new wooden shoes while a windmill cooled me off like a super sized air conditioner.
Although I suspected that this wasn’t the scenario I’d find, (Menard doesn’t sound like a Dutch name), I was very surprised that the garden was growing right in the middle of town. The beds of plants and flowers were tucked in every nook and cranny of the yard, which made turning a corner an adventure and new discovery.
There is even what I like to call a, “flying garden.” Inside of a small coop are colorful and exotic birds like sun conures, cockatiels, English parakeets, finches, diamond doves and an African gray congo Parrot (This one talks and lives in the main house).
I interviewed the Menards while we sat underneath the shade of a pear tree. The couple’s gray furry cat chased a butterfly while Maddie, a black Pug, rested in the sun. I learned first hand how peaceful and relaxing it was to sit amongst the flowers, and at one time my eyes felt so heavy, I almost excused myself to go nap with the dog.
As the morning moved along, Mrs. Menard broke off the blooms of different varieties of daylilies and placed them in the sun for me to photograph them. I told her not to destroy her flowers for me, but she continued.
“The bloom only last a day,” she said. “That’s why they’re called daylilies.”
Maybe I did fall asleep underneath that pear tree, because every thing seemed like a dream. While Mrs. Menard cross-pollinated flowers with the skill and instinct of a bumblebee, her husband selected plants and cucumbers as a parting gift for me.
“Working together with pride to plant and cross-pollinate life so the different varieties of the earth’s treasures can live in complete harmony.” I thought. “So THAT’S the famous story about the birds and the bees.”
Visit the Menards and other garden vendors this Saturday at the Daylily Festival from 8:30 A.M. to 3 P.M. For more information about Lucy’s Daylily Garden, call 337-937-5113.
No comments:
Post a Comment