Falhaven Farm and Nursery

In walking the seedling fields this morning I came across these 3 that immediately caught my attention. Let me first begin by saying that I have been breeding s...eriously since 2000 and my goal right from the start has been to bring the southern look to northern flowers. Sadly many flower crosses just don't work out and end up in the compost pile when I have the time to dig. But I persist and move on. However sometimes a cross surprises you and gives you a reason to smile and believe in what you are doing. The first seedling is a cross of Soli Deo Gloria X Master & Bold Ruler. A big flower and nice colour with the green throat. The second flower is one that I was just so happy with as it is a line I have been working with for many years and will continue to do so after seeing this flower today. This flower is a fairly long cross of [ Thelma Douglas X [ Peterborough X ( Michael Miller X Arctic Lace) X Thelma Douglas)] X [(Fancy Lace X Fringy)]. Many of you in the south will not be familiar with Peterborough as it is an introduction from Canadian breeder Henry Lorrain which was a hard dormant and also throws green kids which has been another focus of mine. Today it showed 2 blooms which now have pollen on them from other seedlings of mine (Crystal Smith X Ultimate Blush) and ( Arctic Wind X Shimmering Dawn). As I live on the eastern shore of Lake Huron in Canada it will be 2021 at least before I see any kids from these crosses. Can't wait!!! The 3rd flower is a big red /black flower. I haven't had time to look up the parentage yet but it sure looked nice in the garden. Thanks for taking the time to look. Any comments you have good or bad would be appreciated. Happy Gardening!! See more

Hello fellow gardening friends. I have not posted here before but have been a member for a while now. We live at 79217 Orchard Line south of Goderich and have ...many gardens and I also hybridize daylilies. The daylilies are just now beginning to bloom and will be in bloom for the next several weeks ( well into August). We invite you to drop around and view the gardens and also I sell daylily seedlings that I will not be using in my breeding program for $10.00 each. If you love daylilies you will have lots to choose from.Visitors always welcome but best to call and make sure we are home at 519-525-2281 or send a post on Huron County Green Thumbs. Happy Gardening!!! See more

Hello to all my daylily friends and to all you other gardeners out there who follow what is happening here at Falhaven Farm. Well, although it is supposedly Spring the season has taken its sweet time getting here. We are having a very cold start and therefore all our spring flowers are late in making their grand performance on the flower stage . I am sure like me you are all wishing for some warm sunny days. This past April my wife Marguerite and myself had the good fortune ...of traveling to Europe where we spent 12 days in The Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France. The reason for us going was that I have always had a trip to the Kuekenhof Gardens in Lisse, Holland on my bucket list and 2019 finally became the year of that dream coming to fruition. Imagine walking through 7 million blooming tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and other minor bulbs. I don't have to imagine it because we lived it and I can tell you it was more than I ever could have imagined. It was beautiful in every sense and I was truly in seventh heaven. I strongly suggest if you ever have the chance to go do it for if you love flowers like I do it was truly worth it. I loved it so much I didn't want to leave the gardens and to make it even better we had 75 degree temperatures the whole time we where there. I am posting some pictures of the beautiful gardens we saw there. We also spent 4 days in Amsterdam and then we took the train to Antwerp in Belgium and then another train down to Ypres which was the British ( Commonwealth) front lines for World War 1 where we visited battlefields which included time at Vimy Ridge, Beaumont Hame and The Somme. I had the good fortune to visit these battlefield in 2014 but this was a first time visit for my wife Marguerite. I also took her to the grave of my Great Grandfather Pvt. Claude Daw who is buried in the Ontario Cemetery in Northern France. He gave the ultimate sacrifice on September 26, 1918 in the Battle of Canal du Nord. It is and was very humbling to visit his grave for a second time. It always brings meaning to the words "Lest We Forget". So I hope we will all see some warm weather soon and that we can all soon enjoy our own gardens. As always I will keep you posted on how the gardens are progressing here on the West Coast of Ontario. Until then as always " Happy Gardening" See more

Spring flowers have finally sprung at the farm 2019

So people are probably asking why have there not been any posts of late. Well for the last couple of weeks I had volunteered to help out on the landscape crew at the 2017 International Plowing Match which was held here in Huron County near Walton, Ontario. I worked with a great crew of fellow volunteers which was commanded by another volunteer and friend Karen Redmond. Karen kept us all busy leading up to the Match and despite the Opening day being very yet I think the Matc...h turned out to be a success. Here I am with the tractor I used to work at the Match which was an old Marshall tractor owned by the McGavin family of Walton. The Marshall tractor was manufactured in England. I think many were surprised by seeing me on a tractor but then again they did not know that I come from a farm background. All in all I had a great time volunteering at the Match and I am glad I signed up to help out at this great event. I also volunteered at the 2017 IPM in another capacity representing the Huron Perth Discovered Gardens which is a group I belong to through my love of gardening. The group invites the general public to come and visit our gardens as they are all different and offer something for everyone to see whether it be hostas , vegetables, roses or as is in my case DAYLILIES.Here is a picture of myself and a fellow gardener Jeannette Martin manning the booth at the IPM this past Friday.It was a very hot day but we both survived the heat and had fun handing out the brochures and talking about our SOILED UNDIES PROJECT which was taken on by District 8 of the Ontario Horticultural Association. Jeannnette and I are both members of the Clinton Horticultural Society which is part of District 8. My last picture is my granddaughter Clara who will be turning 2 next week helping Grandpa decorate our farm sign for the fall season.With all my time volunteering at the IPM I have not gotten a lot done here at home and with this terrible heat even less is getting done as since my bout with cancer in 2010/2011 I do not tolerate the heat and humidity. I for one will welcome some cooler weather.Marguerite and I enjoy it so much when Clara comes to visit us here at Falhaven Farm. She is our first grandchild and in the next few months we will be welcoming 2 more into our growing family. Grandchildren are such a joy.I love seeing the world through the eyes of a child. Thank you Clara for helping Grandpa decorate the farm sign with straw bales, pumpkins and mums. Now its back to other farm work and collecting the seed from all the daylily flowers I crossed this past summer. It looks like a bumper crop of seed this year thanks to all the rain and the cooler summer we had. Will post about the seed collecting soon. Until then- Happy Gardening.

The field is awash of beautiful coloured daylilies. Come and see and enjoy the flowers at Falhaven Farm 79217 Orchard Line- just outside of Goderich. Daylilies for sale.

Hello daylily friends. Well the bloom season has started and we are seeing some great new seedlings in the patch. However we have also had a tremendous amount of rain and it unfortunately has caused very unfavorable conditions in the garden making it dangerous to walk. We do not want to take on the problem of someone slipping in the garden and breaking a bone or getting other wise hurt. To top things off we have had an unseen family matter arise which means we have to be away... as well . Therefore we have made the decision to close the gardens for this weekend and hope for drier weather in the days ahead. As we both have medical appointments and a work commitment next week the garden will hopefully be reopen for Thursday July 20th starting at 10:00 am weather permitting. We regret this decision but we have no choice as we want safety first for those visiting our garden. Please feel free to call 519-524-7679 ,519-525-2281 or email [email protected] to inquire about the garden status Again we are sorry for any inconvenience but feel we have little choice at this time as we employ no other help other than ourselves. Thanks for understanding. Please pray that the rain shuts off anytime.Until next time Happy Gardening and stay dry.- Michael See more

Hello Daylily Friends. It has been a while since I have posted about the goings on here on the farm. Overall we have had a very cold spring with some rain in the very early spring but the last month has brought us nothing but dry weather and the last week has been very hot. I personally do not work well in the heat and humidity so on those days I take numerous breaks so some days not a lot gets done. Since my bout with cancer I just find I do not have the stamina to stay at i...t for long periods of time . That being said I have all this years daylily seedlings planted as well as our personal vegetable garden and the flower beds around the house so I have been working. As well I am in the middle of calving season with my Hereford cattle. I have 5 new calves on the ground with some of them being born in very cold and muddy conditions. I was not a happy camper trying to save these calves. I had a nice warm barn of dry straw for my cows but most decided to deliver out in the barnyard in what was a mud bath of about one and one half feet deep. The one day I spent over an hour and a half trying to drag one little guy out of the mud. I was sure I was going to have a heart attack. I was completely drained after getting him out . Needless to say the herd got sent to grass early as I could just not go through that again. Now with no rain the grass is already burning off and I am feeding hay to sustain them. Sadly my last calf born was a stillbirth so not a good day when that happened but it is a part of farming as you will have up days and you will have down days. This is turning out to be a total repeat of last year and I fear for my daylilies as we had very little bloom last year due to the drought. We are on sandy soil and it is futile to try and water as the water just drains away very quickly. Can be wet tonight and by tomorrow we are back to dry powder. Very frustrating indeed. I have included a few shots of iris and poppies around the garden plus a picture of my wonderful little Grandaughter Clara sitting with Grandpa checking out her new little chair that she picked out herself at Canadian Tire. Our little sweetheart will be 2 in September and Marguerite and I just enjoy having her visit here on the farm. It is so much fun having the chance to show her the cats and kittens , the cows and calves and all our gardens. Hopefully she will follow her grandparents on both sides and be a gardener as well.Our daughter-in-laws parents are also farmers and neighbours of ours a few miles away. So that is all for now. Please pray for rain. I don't think I could go through another dry year like last year. Without water the daylilies will suffer as will the bloom and it will be another short season . So take care for now and hopefully I can post again soon. Happy Gardening!!-Michael

Greetings daylily friends. I hope this finds everyone well and ready to start the 2017 gardening season . For many of us we already have started some flower and vegetable seeds indoors in anticipation of the days to come. I have onions, peppers and tomatoes started along with some various colors of wave petunias and salvia. More flower seeds will get planted this week. Of course my 2016 daylily crosses were seeded in early March and are doing well in a friends greenhouse. Th...Continue reading

Hello to all my daylily friends and other facebook followers. Today is October 17th and I apologize for not having posted much this year.For us 2016 has been a ...very up and down year filled with joy at times and also its share of stress.In September of 2015 we decided to build our retirement home on my family farm which is located just south of Goderich, Ontario. The farm is just over a mile away from the eastern shore of Lake Huron and for a good part of the year when crops like corn are not hiding our view we can see the lake and the beautiful sunsets. My family has lived on these farms since we settled them in 1832 so for me it is like a homecoming moving back here. For my loving wife and our children who are all married it is a change for as of today we have sold our home in Clinton. It was our home for the last 28 years. We also built it new in 1988. We started this build last fall and it was not until late September of 2016 that we finally moved in.We still have much to do sorting out many boxes of family heirlooms that were brought with us.I am showing a picture of our new home along with the farm sign that welcomes both friends and family to our home, gardens and the farm. The landscaping will be a work in progress for the next several years if my health can stay well. As many of you know I was diagnosed with two different types of cancer in 2010/2011 and ended up having 3 major surgeries during those years. Since then I have been doing many visits to the cancer clinic in London, Ontario. I was seeing a doctor there on the average of every 3 months. Happily I can say during my last visit they have told me that they are extending my appointments to yearly visits only. This was great news indeed and I am so thankful to all of you who have offered your prayers and words of encouragement over these last several years of this personal journey. You will never know how much this has meant to me and to my family. Thanks to all of you. Weather this year has also caused its problems. With two and a half months of no rain from June to the end of August our bloom in the daylily gardens and seedling beds was pretty well non existent. There were some flowers and I was fortunate to get some pollinating done this summer but it was very minimal to say the least. The good thing was I was able to breed with a plant I bought from my good friends Bill & Diana Waldrop of Marietta, Georgia.The plant is called Blazing Cannons and it is a wonderful red. Luckily I have been able to harvest several crosses from this pollen and will likely be the biggest planting of all my crosses for the 2017 season.With the building of our new home I was also not able to get the 2015 crop of seedlings planted until mid September. Usually they are in the ground by mid May but with all the construction around the house I had no place to plant them until this fall. I am showing a picture of the planted seedling beds that are now doing well. Not sure if they will bloom next year with the late planting date.As I mentioned earlier it is October 17th today and I also wanted to show a picture of one of my seedlings out in bloom.It is seedling 13-229-A which is a cross of (Peterborough X (Michael Miller X Arctic Lace) X ( Spacecoast Cool Deal X Front Porch Swing). While admittedly not the best bloom I am more impressed of it rebloom on such a late date here in this area. We have yet to be hit by a hard killing frost so that has helped a lot. Finally I wanted to show my other interest in breeding genetics and that is my Hereford cattle. I am showing a picture of my cows around the feeder and also 2 of my calves from this years crop. These 2 heifer calves are special to me as they are sired by a bull that is owned by the Tim Hortons Childrens Camp in St. George, ON. Thanks to John Hill the farm manager there I was able to rent this bull for close to 5 months and I am more than delighted with the results. Thanks John. Yardman will leave his mark on our herd for years to come. So I hope 2017 will be kinder to us in the flower breeding end of things. As stated I have much work ahead of me to get the gardens up and running and the existing ones back in shape. It has been a long year with all that has gone on in our lives.As always you are all invited to visit the gardens in 2017. The coffee is always on. But hey it is not all work and no play. Today I got to babysit our first grandchild Clara Falconer who just celebrated her 1st birthday on September 30th. As a proud grandparents we are somewhat biased but she is the most beautiful and funny granddaughter ever. Today Clara and I went for a long walk ( her in the stroller of course ) on a most beautiful fall day. So again my apologies for not posting much about the garden and flowers this year. So clean up your garden tools, bring in some firewood and wait for the the snow which is sure to come and and also all the spring seed catalogues and dream of all the new flowers that will bring the promise of spring and another gardening year. Until next time Happy Gardening. Michael

Sadly a month has passed since I have last posted about my adventures in the daylily garden. 2016 is turning out to be a hard year for me and the garden. Why you may ask. Well because we have not had any rain for nearly two months and it shows. Bloom season has not been overly good thus far. However I am showing a few blooms from some of my select seedlings from last year. So far not seeing a lot of good bloom in the newest seedling beds. I was so looking forward to seeing t...his years first bloom crop but this dry weather has certainly had a great effect on the size and the leaves are almost brown. I did have some reds bloom that were out of a cross where I used Blazing Cannons from my good friend Bill Waldrop of Marietta, Ga. Now Blazing cannons for Bill is a farly tall plant with good bloom habits but my plants barely made 2 feet and just some bloom. So far I have only seen 2 seedlings that have really caught my attention. Even the actual plant of Blazing Cannons is struggling. The first year I had it it did well. Last year it did not bloom at all and this year it has sent up just 2 scapes. My hope is that I can transfer some of its wonderful genetics into some of my hardy northern seedlings of which I have many. So the quest continues looking for that perfect red. I will try and post other pictures as I have time. I also have farm chores to contend with and we are also trying to finish up the building and moving into our new home at Falhaven Farm. If any one has any extra rain please feel free to send it our way. Things are getting critical for us. Our county has put in place a total no burn policy due to the extreme dryness. So until next time take care and Happy Gardening!! - Michael See more

Hello to all my daylily friends. It has been several weeks since I have last posted.Life has been very busy here on the farm. We are in the final stages of completing our new home which we started last fall. I have been anxiously waiting for our local contractor to come back and put the topsoil back down so that we can reestablish our lawns around the house and of course to start creating new daylily and hosta beds along with our new vegetable garden. Unlike my good friend B...ill Waldrop down in Marietta, Ga., I am retaining some of our land for our vegetable garden. I enjoy growing and eating our own produce when in season. The planting of the vegetable garden though somewhat late was completed today. So now I can move on to designing new beds for my daylily and hosta collections as well as many seedlings. I have not had a chance yet to get the 2015 seedlings in the ground. Hopefully I will accomplish this task in the next week.We are in desperate need of rain as we have had very little in the past month and thus even my very sandy soil is starting to get a little like concrete. The gardens are quickly changing. The tulips are gone and so soon will be the irises. Irises were one of the first flowers I tried my hand at to hybridize.I am showing a few pictures of the irises and our hanging baskets around our modern wooden barn built in 2010. As we are now in June I should start to see scapes on the early daylilies. I am looking forward to seeing the first bloom of the 2014 seed crop in early July. Hope you are all enjoying your own gardens. Soon it will be summer and daylily season will begin in earnest at least here in Southwestern Ontario. So until next time- Happy Gardening Michael

Hello and welcome to all of my followers both old and new who are in love with the daylily. It has been a couple of weeks or more since I last posted anything. At that time I was showing the recently planted seed trays of the 2015 daylily harvest from my hybridizing efforts. Well after some very patient waiting they are finally starting to show up. We have not had a lot of sunshine this spring therefore the greenhouse has not had many really hot days to get them going. Howeve...r with each passing day they will begin to put on more growth and soon I will have 6-8" sturdy seedlings to plant out in the nursery beds come mid May. Can't wait. I have also included a couple of other photos from the greenhouse. The first is of Marie Van Dorp who is co-owner of Plant Paradise along with her husband Gary. Here we see Marie trimming back plants so as to keep them in check for growth as we still have another 6 weeks to go until our big Mother's Day weekend. Mother's Day is always a busy time for us as everyone is eager to start another garden season. I have also shown a picture of some of the many thousands of geraniums that Gary grows every year. We have geraniums in red, pink, orange, lavender, coral and white and they are always a popular seller for garden beds, boxes or patio containers. A few geraniums always find there way to our farm each year to be planted in our window boxes and hanging baskets that we feature on our wooden barn. They always put on a nice showing for me. Well that's all for now. Sounds like a cold and snowy weekend ahead but many different plants are already popping up in the garden. Next time I will take the camera to the farm and we will look at the daylily beds to see what is happening with them. In the mean time get your seeds planted if you haven't already. Happy Gardenin!!!. - Michael See more