The History of Daylilies: a Family Connection
Most daylilies originated from my aunt: Mae McCabe, who was born in 1895. She was also a Branford Garden Club President, a lecturer on gardening, and a gifted horticulturist who hybridized hundreds of Daylilies. The McCabe Daylily Memorial Garden is memorialized on the Branford, CT green.
According to the Branford Garden Club website, "[o]n the Branford Green, the McCabe Daylily Garden is tucked away behind the Town Hall. Mae McCabe, a past Branford Garden Club president and gifted horticulturist, hybridized many daylilies which still grow in this garden. Committee members tidy, edge and water this spot as needed. Daffodils supply early spring color and a few mums are planted to brighten this garden in the fall."
I remember walking through her rectangle-raised daylily gardens with row after row of plants, a wide variety of blooms, with a name given to each one. From the front to the back of her Branford house, there were flower gardens everywhere. She explained many details of her plants and their bloom variations to me, which I thought was unique that each plant had a name tag. In 1950, she joined the American Hemerocallis Society.
My Childhood Home with its Gardens and Fruit Trees
I grew up on the corner of South Meriden Road, (Rt. 70) and Country Club Road (previously known as Power House Highway). My childhood home at 600 Country Club Road was built in the 1920s. It is still there: a 1920s two-story Cape Cod house with hardwood floors, large picture windows, and an original fieldstone fireplace.
There was a large, sunken garden and wall near the house and a large, two-story barn with a loft and three garage doors as well as a small shed (which once served as one of Cheshire’s first gas stations). Apple trees, Peach, a Seckel Sugar Pear tree and a Quince tree were spread all over three-and-a-half acres. A photo of large rock boulders, located across Country Club Road from our driveway, appears as the first photo in the 2003 book, " Images of America - Cheshire". Does anyone know, or remember, Country Club Road being called, "Poor Farms Road"? According to land records, the property was originally owned by Nicholas Casertano and Jared Bishop (of Bishop Farms, established in the early 1800s).