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Janet has been with Gardenbuddies since the beginning. She lives in Ohio, and has been working on her present garden for about 10 years. When she moved to her home there was no garden on the hilly site which is surrounded by woods on two sides. She appreciates everything in her garden and loves to walk about, preferably with camera in hand, touching and talking to her plants.

Janet dreams of a nice flat garden as her garden is so hilly and says she takes more of the vegetable garden every year. She now has several areas of flowers planted around the yard. Her DH helps with the hard work in the garden but Janet is responsible for the planting and weeding. He has contributed a lot to the garden though, making a clematis fence and a waterfall which Janet loves and has wanted for years. Keets and Jeannie are Janet’s sisters and they enjoy trading plants and taking trips to local nurseries together.

The garden has many visitors including chipmunks, squirrels, and raccoons that enjoy the nut trees and a deer that comes for his nightly treat of corn. There are also snakes and a box turtle that has been in the garden for years and whose favorite is the black raspberry that fall on the ground. Janet thinks he looks so cute with his feet and mouth stained with raspberry juice!

Favorite plants include hardy geraniums, so hardy and easy to grow and with a great blooming season. Columbines have a very special place in Janet’s heart. About 20 years ago on her way to her parents’ farm she found a group by the roadside and dug them up and took them home. She still has plants that have re-seeded from the originals.

The two groups of plants that are most dear to Janet though are clematis and daylilies. This coming season she is hoping to obtain some of the clematis she has on her wish list (which she says is as long as her arm!). 120 varieties now occupy her garden; most of them have been planted in the last 4-5 years. Every year there is another variety that she just has to have and really needs – they are becoming an obsession.

For five years hybridizing daylilies has been another special interest of Janet’s. The flowers in the illustrations for this article are Janet’s creations. She has more than 600 of these beauties, and the doubles particularly fascinate her. From seed to bloom is 2-3 years but well worth the wait. “It is Christmas in July to hurry out in the early morning, rain or shine to see what I have created.” There are lots of daylily seeds to plant this coming Spring, Janet looks forward to producing that special lily she will name after Gardenbuddies.