Dooley Gardens: A Small Daylily Farm with a Funny Start
Dooley Gardens is a small daylily farm in Limerick, Maine, devoted to the pursuit of distinct blooms and hardy plants. We specialize in daylilies. Growing, hybridizing, and sharing them with gardeners across the country.
” I originally started growing daylilies by virtue of it being Amanda’s favorite flower. I went to work creating gardens and acquiring roughly 200 different daylilies in just a couple summers. A few summers pass and one day while Amanda and I are walking through the gardens Amanda casually informs me that she actually meant oriental lilies. By this time I had really started to enjoy daylilies and continued to expand our collection and hybridizing efforts. Now we have over 1000 registered daylily cultivars and several thousand daylily seedlings of our own hybridization efforts. Without really noticing, daylilies had become my favorite flowering plant. It’s resilient, diverse, and ultimately a rewarding plant to invest time in.” ~ Patrick Dooley
What are our goals for Dooley Gardens?
My primary focus is to introduce new daylily plants that are strong, Maine winter hardy, with blooms that push the imagination. Although daylilies are our favorite, we do grow several other flowering plants.
National ADS Daylily Display Garden
Dooley Gardens is also an official American Daylily Society Display Garden, part of a network of gardens that showcase the diversity and beauty of daylilies across the U.S. and beyond.
Let’s take a stroll through a floral year!
Our spring season begins with allium, tulips, daffodils, and hyacinth racing the melting snow to be the first to bloom. The fragrance and intensity of these inaugural blooms invigorate and motivate as we leave the black and white of winter behind.
Early summer comes with a burst of color as we begin our daylily season, which peaks in intensity in June/July. The daylily beds are a joy to walk through with the variety and quantity of blooms shining with colors and forms. Meanwhile, the calla lilies are fanning beautiful variegated leaves and showcasing blooms of pink, purple, white, and magenta.
The gladiolus are raising their swords to the sky as they prepare to peacock. We love the gladiolus and frankly think the world is a better place knowing baby gladiolus are called cormlets. Our asiatic and oriental lilies stand tall and burst with giant blooms that pour intoxicating fragrances throughout the yard.
Our dahlias tirelessly produce blooms from midsummer to the first hard frost in Oct/Nov. They will undoubtedly be shrouded in ice for a short-lived moment of extended beauty. Blooms covered in tiny crystals that shimmer as you pass by. It’s a brief amplified moment of beauty before they die-back and we dig them up for winter storage.
If you’d like to bring a bit of our floral year into your own garden, browse our Daylily Store or subscribe for updates on new introductions and releases.
