Big Chicken Daylily Farm


For Father's Day we decided to take a little road trip our to East Texas and visit Big Chicken Daylily farm.  We had wanted to visit in the past, but they have been closed to the public for the past few years due to some health issues.  This year they were able to re-open.





Big Chicken is located in Brownsboro, TX and has about 800 cultivars of daylilies available.  Their plants are not layed out in rows, but instead are displayed as part of a cottage style garden, mixed with other perennials and annuals.




They had all different styles, including this nice 'Kwanso' above.  The owners favorites are doubles, but due to some bad winter weather, they had lost the majority of their collection.  They didn't have a lot of Unusual Forms or Spiders, but we still found plants we wanted.  The owner summed it up by saying "There are over 85,000 cultivars of daylilies.  There is something for everyone."







You can wander all over the garden looking and making notes of what plants you want.  It's seems to be the way daylilies are often sold...dug right out of the field while you watch.  You can see the "True Plant Geek" (in the blue shirt) speaking with one of the owners.








It's so fun to talk with folks who love gardening and daylilies as much as we do. So often "regular people" just don't get it.  Its so hard to explain why you need that plant when you already have so many at home.  Other gardeners just get it.







They kept apologizing that they didn't have lots of the brand new cultivars that have recently been released and instead had lots of older favorites.  We had to continue to explain that we liked what we liked and didn't worry about what year it was hybridized.  If we only wanted the newest, we could stay home and shop on the internet.  Instead we got to spend a few hours with some delightful people outside in the garden.  Totally a win.








This was probably the one I was most excited about, 'Itsy Bitsy Spider'.  Its an Unusual Form Crispate with a 3.5 inch flower.  Over the last year I've gotten interested in miniature daylilies and wanting to create unusual forms in that size.  Currently, there are a few, but most are above the 3 inch cut off for flower size.  I had read about 'Itsy Bisty Spider' early in the month, saw that is has a lot of child plants, and thought about how I should get some.  Low and behold, Big Chicken had it, and now I do too.













We had originally planned on heading back home after this stop, getting lunch on the way, but since everyone was still feeling good, we decided to add a blueberry farm and another daylily garden onto the trip.  I'll share those in another post.

Comments

  1. I love daylilies too, and don't really need to have the newest and most expensive varieties either. I bet it was a blast to visit a place that would dig them for you. I recently had to get rid of a bunch of mine because they are infested with gall midge, a little bug that deforms the flowers and is really hard to eradicate. I'm trying to start over.

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    1. The digging model seems.to be the norm for Daylily farms. Some have you walk around with colored flags and mark what you want. See if your local Daylily Club has a sale in the fall. It's a fun way to acquire new cultivars, and talk plants.

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  2. What an interesting trip to the farm, Rebecca! I'm glad your dream came true and you have purchased 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' daylily. It's wonderful. I agree it's always a pleasure to spend time with gardeners who love flowers.

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    1. It's a great little plant. Can't wait to get it planted in the ground in the fall (it's in a pot right now).

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  3. It is fun to be with other Gardeners. They do get it. I like daylilies. I have a few old 'small' daylilies. I have had them so long I have no idea what their names are. I would like to see a mini daylily in person.

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    1. It's not hard to lose tags in the garden. We have a few we've lost the names of. Miniature daylilies aren't really that popular, so there aren't as many. A great place to see them is at a Daylily Show.

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  4. I'm sure you felt like a kid in a candy shop! I love daylilies myself, even if they don't seem to particularly like a low water diet. My 'Spanish Harlem' and 'Persian Market' have both both bloomed relatively well this year anyway so I'm happy.

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    1. I entered 'Persian Market' in a local Daylily show. It's a great one. I'm not familiar with 'Spanish Harlem'. I'll have to look it up in the AHS database.

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  5. 800 cultivars! 800 cultivars! and the first picture you show is one I have blooming now! I think the mini ones would be great for small gardens, but I want the tall kinds. I need something that can grow and bloom over the top of the weeds.
    Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry

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