Friday, July 03, 2009
Glebe residents offer celebration of lilies
Don and Peggy Johnson with the flowers. —Priscilla Richardson, special to The Botetourt View
Priscilla Richardson is columnist The Botetourt View. You can contact her at 981-3430 or via e-mail.
Priscilla Richardson
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Don Johnson knows how to grow daylilies. And you're invited to see the results July 7 at the Glebe. Well, actually, you can just drive into the Glebe anytime during the day for about a month and see the profusion of flowers in the front area. But to really see them, come to the garden party the Glebe is having Tuesday from 10 a.m. onwards. Johnson and others will be around to tell you names of plants and give out how-to hints.
The first advice Johnson, head of the Glebe's Dirty Hands gardening group, gave was to get rid of the poor dirt left after construction. He came in with a tractor, dug the beds and replaced the fill dirt with good top soil. All over one weekend.
He then laid out the circular patio next to the gazebo and paved it with commemorative bricks donated by various Glebe residents. "That raised enough money to pay for purchasing more daylilies, equipment and fertilizer, so it did not cost The Glebe anything," he said. "A gift to ourselves."
He then planted some lilies he'd brought from his prior home. But the real magic came when the Blue Ridge Daylily Society donated hundreds of varieties of lilies. And then came and planted them.
Today they boast huge blooms, twice or three times as big as most you see around, because of the good dirt underneath and the regular watering they get. Each daylily blossom, as the name implies, opens in the morning and dies at the end of the day. Fortunately, each plant produces many flowers.
As if 500 varieties of daylilies were not enough, Johnson added other perennials, including an herb garden with bee balm. There's also a patriotic bed of red, white and blue flowers with non-growing flags stuck around the edge.
You might expect the Dirty Hands group to be large, but it has only about seven members. They get their hands dirty in summer and meet in the winter to plan. To get new members, Johnson said, "anybody who comes to live here is confronted by me demanding to know if they're a flower gardener. I recruit them as they arrive."
Johnson and his wife Peggy just love living at the Glebe and let you know it. She is a retired music teacher in the Roanoke city schools. Her part in the garden is to arrange the flowers her husband grows.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Johnson in 1973 decided to leave his executive career. "I got in a camper and drove around until I found a place I could afford." The result was a waterfront camping resort he developed at Smith Mountain Lake. He sold out and then came to the Glebe because "I got old." With no children to look after them, they feel taken care of there. And they can avoid ruinous nursing home fees should the need ever arise.
"People think you have to be a millionaire to live here. You don't. We have many people here on tight budgets, retired school teachers, those on company retirement plans. Outsiders have a lot of misconceptions about what the Glebe is."
Don't have any misconceptions about Johnson, either. Besides the daylilies and a photography hobby, he has two aquariums, one holding 150 gallons. "I invented a system for maintaining it so I haven't changed the water since we moved in four years ago. I wrote a book about it, 'Never change your fishwater again.'" He sells his self-published book on Amazon.com.
Come to the Glebe garden party to enjoy this amazing garden and the folks who work in it.
To reserve your spot for this party, call Dreama Slone at 591-2200.
