2026 Open Garden Days: A Garden, a Community, and More Than $4,500 for Cancer Research

There are moments when you look around at something you have spent years building and suddenly see it differently. For me, that happened during the 2026 Dooley Gardens Open Garden Days.

Over four days across two weekends in July, more than 500 people walked through our gardens. Some arrived already passionate about daylilies. Others were simply curious to see what was growing beyond the road. Some came looking for plants to take home, while others wanted to learn about hybridizing, photography, gardening, or the incredible diversity found within modern daylilies.

For our first-ever Open Garden Days, we really did not know what to expect. What happened became one of the most meaningful milestones in the history of Dooley Gardens.

For years, much of my experience in the garden has been relatively quiet: walking the rows early in the morning, evaluating seedlings, making crosses, taking photographs, recording observations, dividing plants, pulling weeds, and always thinking about what might bloom next.

Open Garden Days were very different. Suddenly, the garden was filled with conversations. People stopped to examine flowers they had never seen before. They discovered colors, patterns, edges, forms, and plant characteristics that challenged what they thought a daylily could look like. Questions about particular plants often turned into conversations about genetics, hybridizing, growing conditions, and the process of creating something new.

Hundreds of potted daylilies left Dooley Gardens during those four days for new homes and new gardens. But some of my favorite moments had nothing to do with selling plants.

Visitors shared stories about their own gardens. People asked how daylily hybridizing works and what happens after a cross is made. A few left talking seriously about trying hybridizing themselves. That was especially rewarding. There is something rewarding about watching someone move from simply admiring a flower to wondering what they might create with it.

The timing of our first Open Garden Days made the experience even more meaningful because Dooley Gardens had recently been recognized as an American Daylily Society Display Garden. That recognition carries a responsibility that I value very much.

A display garden should be more than a collection of beautiful plants. It should be a place where people can experience the diversity of Hemerocallis, learn more about them, ask questions, and perhaps discover an appreciation for daylilies they did not have before.

Modern daylilies offer extraordinary diversity. There are small flowers and enormous flowers, spiders and unusual forms, doubles, patterned eyes, sculpting, teeth, ruffles, intense colors, delicate pastels, and combinations that would have been difficult to imagine generations ago.

Open Garden Days also gave us an opportunity to connect the garden with something much more personal. Our Blooms for Breakthroughs fundraiser supported the Cancer Research Institute, and by the end of the effort we had raised over $4,500 for cancer research. For me, this part of the event was about much more than reaching a number. I am a cancer survivor.

Gardening, and eventually daylilies and hybridizing, became an important part of my life during a period when I needed something positive to focus on. The garden offered a place to look forward instead of backward. There was always another seedling to evaluate, another cross to imagine, another season coming.

During Open Garden Days, other cancer survivors visited. Families who had experienced cancer shared their own stories with us. Some conversations were brief; others stayed with me long after the day ended. Those interactions reinforced exactly why I wanted Blooms for Breakthroughs to be part of these events.

Cancer touches an enormous number of families in different ways. Being able to take something that has brought so much happiness and purpose into my own life and use it to support research made the weekend considerably more meaningful.

To everyone who donated, purchased plants in support of the event, or helped spread the word: thank you!

One of the things I understood more clearly after these four days is that Dooley Gardens might have started as my dream, but it has never been something I built alone. Hosting over 500 people made that impossible to overlook.

Amanda kept the booth operations moving, anticipated what people needed, and solved problems before I even knew they existed. More importantly, she has supported the idea of Dooley Gardens through all the years it took to turn a collection of plants and a passion for hybridizing into what exists today.

Belle helped manage merchandise, plant sales, and donations for cancer research, stepping into an important part of an unexpectedly busy operation.

Isaac became whatever the moment required: garden assistant, runner, visitor guide, and, when necessary, occasional parking attendant.

There were moments during those weekends when I would look around, see everyone working together, and realize that what we were sharing with visitors represented years of effort by our entire family. I came away from the experience with an even greater appreciation for what we have built together.

It is important to remember that these were our first Open Garden Days. We had never attempted anything at Dooley Gardens on this scale before, and there were plenty of things we learned along the way. Some ideas worked exactly as we hoped. Others showed us where we can improve. Hosting hundreds of visitors quickly teaches you things about traffic flow, communication, plant organization, visitor experience, and event logistics that are difficult to learn any other way. That is part of what makes this first year so valuable.

The goal was never to create a perfect event on our first attempt. It was to open the garden, welcome people in, share something we care deeply about, and learn from the experience. We accomplished that and learned an enormous amount that will help shape future Open Garden Days.