Adopt the pace of nature:  her secret is patience.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Where have these first four months of 2012 gone? Can you believe that it is the last day of April?  Phew!


While perusing the daylilies here at Oakville Farm, I see that Stella de Oro daylilies are sending up scapes.  In the past this has happened during the second week of May.  Guess things are a bit early this year.  Northern Florida has blooming daylilies.  Saw the daylily, Stella de Oro, blooming at Maclay Gardens.  Plus several taller golden ones, that were not tagged.  With over 60,000 daylily cultivars, I would say that it is impossible to tell the name of a daylily, ie there are over 150 gold colored daylily cultivars alone.  You know ... bloom time, how tall, which ploidy, flower form, flower color, fragrance, texture, foliage habit ... each a different characteristic for each daylily cultivar.  Oh my!


Hope you are checking out our website, OAKVILLE FARM.  Good variety of daylily cultivars, reasonably priced.  Just a deal that can't be passed up.


Until next time, Happy Gardening.

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful: they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.  ~Author Unknown

Flowers can be a "pick me up" in times of bleakness.  Do you remember as a child going outdoors and picking a handful of violets or dandelions or daisies and taking them to your Mother or Grandmother?  What great joy that brought to them and it sometimes resulted in a big hug or an extra chocolate chip cookie.

Now we give a single rose or a bouquet of flowers to a shut-in, a neighbor, a friend.  Or we place a bouquet of flowers in our own homes.  And the benefits are still rewarding: a smile, a hug, a sense of calmness.

Have you thought of any artists or groups who name has a flower/nature theme?  Here are a few that we came up with ....


Guns n Roses
Caitlin Rose
Rosemary Clooney


All for this time.  Hope you find that time outdoors today gives  you a sense of rejuvenation, a sense of mindfulness or a simple smile.  Bright sun, cool breeze, light rain ...  Mother's Nature way of saying "Welcome to the world."


Hope you have a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.  ~William Shakespeare

What a great day! Blazing sun in the sky, light breeze, bright blue skies.  Yes, what a great day.

I like to listen to music.  Rock n Roll mostly.  Classic rock.  And was just thinking of song titles or groups that include a "nature" word, flower/garden theme, ie

"Garden Party" by Rick Nelson,  
"Octopusses Garden" by the Beatles, 
 

 
"Garden Song" by Arlo Guthrie, 

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore" by Neil Diamond,
"Where Have All The Flowers Gone" by Peter, Paul & Mary  

"Bed of Roses" by Jon Bon Jovi

"Honeysuckle Rose" by Liza Minnelli 
"Paper Roses" by Marie Osmond



***** Paul/Janet gave me these songs....
"Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives
"Everything's Coming Up Roses" by Ethel Merman
"Tiptoe Through the Tulips" by Tiny Tim
"Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls
"Heather" by Paul McCartney
"Yellow Rose of Texas" by Mitch Miller
"The Rose" by Bette Midler
"Lily White" by Cat Stevens
"Sunflower" by Heart
"Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations


Can you think of other song titles with a "Nature theme"?  Will be thinking of artists/groups with such. 


Hope you have a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.  ~Walt Whitman

Rain, rain, rain.  It has come and left its mark at Oakville Farm.  More than three inches of rain has fallen here within the past week.  And oh, the greenery that abounds.  Weeds, plants, trees ... all hues of green.

 The average last frost date of April 15 has past here in Zone 7.  Now is the time to plant your garden, both vegetable and flower.  Several of our extra early blooming daylilies are setting scapes.  And all daylilies are above ground and growing profusely.  


All for this time.  Hope you have a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.

PS, Want to say "Congratulations" to all those out there who have completed their high school or college graduation careers.  Good luck in your next phase of life learning.

April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go.  ~Christopher Morley

And things are on GO, hey?  It was getting very very dry here at Oakville Farm.  And thank goodness, we have had over an inch of rain since last night.  Just at the right time.

Yes, remember, OAKVILLE FARM is back online.  Be sure and check us out.  We have a good variety of daylilies.   

Here is a good cultivar ... FRANS HALS. 

 And another ... JAZZ SINGER

And our weather is shown at OFW.  Temperature yesterday was 80 degrees, today forecast high is mid 50's.  Oh the surprises that North Carolina spring weather brings.

EARTH DAY.  Yes, today, April 22, 2012  is  Earth Day.  Please reduce, reuse, recycle, replenish and restore. 

Hope you have a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.

Oakville Farm

Yes, OAKVILLE FARM, on the web, is open for business with a good selection of proven DAYLILIES.   Please check us out, 24 hours a day you may view us on the web.  New format, easy to navigate.  Our daylily selection offers more than 150 daylily cultivars.  All field grown.

Our farm opens for business May 25, 2012.  If you are coming thru the area or live close by, stop by Wednesday - Sunday.  Love to see you, visit with you, chat about daylilies.

Hope you have a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.

OAKVILLE FARM

OAKVILLE FARM is back online. YEAH! Thanks solo computer services, Leo, Alan and all.

Thanks to all of you for your patience while our website was down for maintenance.

Yes, Oakville Farm is back up, ready for your business and we are just so excited. Check us out ... new, friendly, more attractive website. Daylilies are easy to locate by either color or cultivar name. A section on the homepage also lists daylilies by specific attributes.

So get out your "Daylily Wish List" and check us out. If you can not find something or need guidance, shoot us a note. We are here and ready to assist.

Hope you have a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.

OAKVILLE FARM is online once again!!!

Everything is good in its season ~Author Unknown

Do you agree with that Italian Proverb? I do. And currently our season is providing us with beauty in blooming Clematis, Iris, Lilac, Forsythia and Azaleas, just to name a few. The season of spring ... regrow, rebirth, renew.

Hope you have a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.

All gardening is landscape painting. ~ Horace Walpole

As said so many times before, the yard/garden/nature is most certainly seen as a canvas with a myriad of color. What is your favorite color in Mother Nature? This time of year, my eyes are busy ... busy jumping from one amazement to another. I love spring.

Hope all is well out there in your world. Hope you have a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.

"Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"-- Robin Williams

Yee Haw what a party is goin 'on out there!!! Blooms, leaves, trees, dressed in their finest shades of green/yellow/purple/white, winds whipping leaves as tho they are dancing and rains quenching the thirst for many. Yep, sounds like a party to me.

Won't be long now, our website, Oakville Farm will be up and running. Let's look at more daylilies ... at their finest, blooming .....

Buenos Aires






Dublin Elaine







Illini Jackpot







Want to wish Nick and Lindsey a Happy Anniversary. Hope you have a fun one!

All for this time. Hope you have a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.

You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.” Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Hope you have found some time to walk about in the outdoors and marvel at what Mother Nature has to offer. A friend and I visited a local nursery this afternoon and oh ... the beautiful color. With all the wonderful warm weather, our hearts and mind are of the yard, springtime, flowers, planting. Yet, Mother Nature might tell us to slowdown! Forecast for the area south of us, Raleigh about 55 miles, is forecast mid 30's for the next three nights. And that could certainly mean freezing for us. A frost advisory has been issued. So guess better put the water on the tender grapes/asparagus. The DAYLILIES will come thru this unscathed! Daylilies are such a great perennial that are very forgiving and so adaptable.

Keep daylilies on your list of "have to have" purchases for this year. Here are a few, to peak your interest ....

Chicago Apache







Jan's Twister






Joan Senior







Want to send "Happy Birthday" wishes to my Aunt Judith. Hope you had a great day and that you did not eat the whole thing!!!!!

Have a good evening and until next time, Happy Gardening.

“You need patience to be a good gardener. If you don't have patience, and you stick with gardening, it will teach you patience.” ~Author Unknown

Yes, don't we all have patience? NOT! Well, patience maybe, when it comes the stalks rising from the depths of a daylily, or the opening of a blossom, or even the reblooming of various daylily cultivars. NOT however, for the weeds to fade/wilt/die from being sprayed with weed killer. Hmmmmmm, can you tell, I sprayed the grass and weeds under the fence, around the daylily beds, and on a future daylily site, and it is just not dying quickly enough? Perseverance, the weeds will die!!!

What a windy day we have had. OFW shows that we had a wind gust of 21 at 6 pm and steady winds over 5 mph all day.

Our white lilac is blooming. Transplanted it last year to a new area, must be happy cause it is blooming, where it had not for the past several years. Have added a purple variety (name unknown) and looks to be sending out flowers. I remember from childhood days that the fragrant early bloomer was a true sign of spring in southeast Indiana.

Was also looking at the daylilies. See much much foliage growth, no scapes showing. Our Stella de Oro is usually the first blooming daylily for the season, usually occuring around the second week of May. With the mild 2012 winter, we could see blooms a week or so earlier. What is the first daylily bloomer in your area?

Hope you had a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.

'Twas Easter-Sunday. The full-blossomed trees
Filled all the air with fragrance and with joy."
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Happy
Easter
to
All




As a child growing up in Indiana, I remember that the week prior to Easter, we would dye hard boiled eggs making the most colorful possible. Then scurry home after church on Easter morn to find them scattered throughout the yard ... my brother and I rushing to find the most!!! And whoever found the most ... well it would certainly turn into a stomach ache. There were even several plastic eggs which held a special prize, a nickel. Yes, five cents. What a find that was!!!!

Maybe you can reminisce about Easter pasts or make a new memory with family and friends. Holidays are a good time for sharing.

Hope everyone has a good day. Maybe spend some time outdoors. And until next time, Happy Gardening.

"Good Friday", yes Good Friday holiday to one and all. "Good Friday" is the Friday before Easter. Easter being April 8 this year. And Easter, well it falls on the first Sunday after the full moon after the spring equinox. Let's see, is that correct? Spring, March 21, 2012; full moon April 6, 2012; first Sunday after full moon April 8, 2012. Yes, Easter this coming Sunday, Good Friday, today. Some folks had this day as vacation/holiday, if that is you, hope you enjoyed your day and extended weekend.


"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March."
- Robert Frost, 1926

What a beautiful spring day here at Oakville Farm. The wind was brisk, sun was strong, temps were cool. One had to wear several layers, a jacket and a head covering. Yes, all bundled up like it was a "normal spring day"! Yeah!

Oh, it has been soooo busy around here. In addition to growing daylilies, we also raise Boer Goats. And the does (nannies as some refer to them) have been dropping kids this entire week. All doing very very well. Nine does have given one set of triplets, six sets of twins and two singles.

Wanted to share .....













Hope you had a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.

"When the April wind wakes the call for the soil, I hold the plough as my only hold upon the earth, and, as I follow through the fresh and fragrant furrow, I am planted with every foot-step, growing, budding, blooming into a spirit of spring."
- Dallas Lore Sharp, 1870-1929

I love the sounds of spring, the smells of spring, the sights of spring, the feel of spring ... as tumulchuous as spring is, it does hold a magical spirit.

Wind is giving us a pretty good steady hit today, with a stiff wind gust every so often!! Check us out at OFW (Oakville Farm Weather).

"You start in April and cross to the time of May
One has you as it leaves, one as it comes
Since the edges of these months are yours and defer
To you, either of them suits your praises.
The Circus continues and the theatre's lauded palm,
Let this song, too, join the Circus spectacle."
- Ovid, Fasti (V.185-190, CE)

April Fool's Day .... April 1. Do you remember as a kid, your neighborhood friends would pull pranks on you? Nothing mean, nothing malicious ... things like telling you your shoes were untied, or that they heard your Mom call you to come home, or that a bug was on your shirt? All simple, laughable jokes. Hope this day brings you fond memories, good thoughts and laughs.



And with the first day of April, thoughts of this saying are ever present ....










We want to wish Raymond a "Happy Birthday" ... have a great one!!!






Hope everyone has a good day and until next time, Happy Gardening.