If your garden is lacking pops of color, Kimmswick’s 27th annual Daylily Sale may have exactly what you need.
The sale will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or until sold out, on Saturday, June 27, at Carrol Wrather’s state-inspected garden at 6005 Fourth St.
The event will offer about 1,300 plants, featuring approximately 95 different daylilies. Daylily prices range from $3 to $5. The flowers are typically bagged before the event by volunteers. However, if freshly dug daylilies are preferred, a flat fee of $5 will cover the digging cost. A free page of planting and growing advice also will be available with purchase. All forms of payment will be accepted.
Betteanne Smith, Kimmswick Visitor Center board president, encourages people to arrive early to this rain-or-shine event as the flowers usually sell out quickly.
“This is such a popular event for us,” Smith said. “We see lots of new faces as well as familiar ones who think of this event as a tradition. It is always super busy and an overall well-attended event. We usually see a couple hundred people stop by throughout the day.”
This daylily sale gives people the opportunity to buy both new and older varieties that are not available for sale at nurseries or garden centers.
“I think people really appreciate the fact that they can get something unique and special that you can’t buy at a big box store,” Smith said. “There also is an early bird special of select pre-bundled daylilies that are of similar color for a bargain price.”
Wrather, 90, is a master gardener, and he started the annual sale to manage his garden and to benefit the Kimmswick Visitor Center.
“Mr. Wrather loves Kimmswick; he raised his family here, and after his retirement, he became passionate about growing the daylilies and thought selling them could benefit the community,” Smith said.
Smith said the volunteers prepare for the event the week prior, and Wrather is still extremely active in the event.
“He is the boss of this process and has a very methodical way of organizing everything,” Smith said. “He has been doing this for so long, he knows what works best, and it always works out perfectly.”
Smith said the Visitor Center typically collects between $2,000 to $3,000 from the event. She said the money is used to cover operation costs.
For more information, visit gokimmswick.com or call 636-464-6464.