Open Garden Days 2026

Join us at Dooley Gardens in Limerick, Maine for our 2026 Open Garden Days on July 18, July 19, July 25, and July 26. Visit during peak bloom season to explore more than 1,000 daylilies, walk the garden paths, enjoy learning demonstrations, shop potted daylilies, and support our Cancer Research Institute fundraiser, Blooms for Breakthroughs.

Dooley Gardens is an official American Daylily Society Display Garden, with more than 1,000 different daylilies growing across approximately 5,500 square feet of display gardens. Visitors are invited to walk the garden paths, explore the blooms, read interactive plant labels, and enjoy the color, form, fragrance, and personality that make daylilies such a special garden plant.

About the Event

Visitors can explore the display gardens at their own pace or join guided garden tours throughout the day for a more hosted experience. The gardens will also feature hundreds of seedlings from Dooley Gardens’ hybridizing work, giving visitors a behind-the-scenes look at future possibilities in the daylily world.

Throughout the event, we plan to offer learning opportunities and demonstrations on planting, digging, dividing, and hybridizing daylilies. Hybridizing demonstrations are best before noon, when the flowers are fresh and most suitable for pollination. Planting and digging/dividing demonstrations may happen throughout the day or at posted times.

Families are welcome. Kids can enjoy a scavenger hunt featuring animal statues hidden throughout the gardens.

More than 100 potted daylily varieties will be available for purchase, with some varieties in very limited supply. Dooley Gardens daylily photography, art, t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, umbrellas, and other garden-themed items will also be available.

Please come prepared for a real garden setting. Comfortable shoes are strongly encouraged. The gardens include walking paths, lawn areas, and some uneven ground. Please dress for the weather and expect an outdoor experience.

We also ask visitors to help us keep the gardens in good condition for future guests. Please stay on the pathways, avoid stepping into the beds, and do not pick flowers, deadhead blooms, move tags, remove labels, or disturb plants or markers. Your care and respect help keep the gardens beautiful and organized for everyone.

We look forward to welcoming you into the gardens.

Help Us Make Open Garden Days Even Better

Thinking of joining us for Open Garden Days? We would love to know which day(s) you may visit. Your interest helps us plan parking, plant sale inventory, demonstrations, visitor materials, and all the little details that make the event smooth, welcoming, and enjoyable. There is no registration required to attend, but marking yourself as Interested or Going on the Facebook events or through the form below for your preferred date helps us prepare.

Direct Links to Facebook Events: July 18, July 19, July 25, and July 26

RSVP

A Personal Note

As a cancer survivor, I know how important hope can be during treatment. For me, that hope often came from the garden. During a difficult season of my life, my gardens and daylilies became more than a hobby. They became a place to breathe, to look forward, and to find beauty on days when things felt uncertain. Even small moments mattered, a new bloom opening, a quiet walk through the beds, the steady reminder that life was still growing all around me.

Dooley Gardens was shaped, in part, by that experience. The daylilies here are not just flowers to me. They are reminders of resilience, patience, renewal, and the healing power of having something beautiful to care for. That is why I’m using Dooley Gardens Open Garden Days to help raise funds for Cancer Research Institute.

Cancer Research Institute supports cancer immunotherapy research, helping advance science that explores how the immune system can be used to fight cancer. As someone who has lived through cancer treatment, supporting research that may help future patients and families feels deeply personal. This fundraiser is called Blooms for Breakthroughs because that is exactly what I hope this event can represent, the beauty of a garden, the strength of community, and the hope that research can bring.

Thank you for supporting this fundraiser, visiting the gardens, and sharing the event. Every donation, no matter the size, helps turn a day among the flowers into something with a much larger purpose.

With gratitude,

Patrick

What to Expect

During Dooley Gardens Open Garden Days, visitors can enjoy a relaxed, welcoming garden experience.

• More than 1,000 different daylilies in bloom across approximately 5,500 square feet of display gardens
• Walking pathways through the gardens
• Interactive plant labels showing daylily names, hybridizers, and traits
• Hundreds of seedlings from Dooley Gardens’ hybridizing work
• Guided garden tours throughout the day
• Demonstrations on planting, digging, dividing, and hybridizing daylilies
• A kids’ scavenger hunt with animal statues hidden throughout the gardens
• Fun stickers for kids who complete the scavenger hunt
• Daily daylily giveaways for a few lucky visitors
• More than 100 potted daylily varieties available for purchase
• Dooley Gardens photography, art, apparel, mugs, umbrellas, and garden-themed items
• We are potentially also going to have delicious food trucks onsite for different days.

An Official American Daylily Society Display Garden

Dooley Gardens is proud to be an official American Daylily Society Display Garden. Display Gardens help share the beauty, diversity, and versatility of daylilies with the public. At Dooley Gardens, visitors can see more than 1,000 different daylilies growing in a real garden setting, compare plant habits and flower forms, read variety information, and learn more about what makes daylilies such rewarding garden plants. Whether you are a longtime daylily grower or seeing modern daylilies for the first time, we hope the gardens inspire curiosity, appreciation, and maybe a few new favorites.

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