Shrewsbury Gardens... 
comes into active being -this spring of 1949 with the 
initial introduction of TIGER EYE and TOWN HILL 
daylilies. Behind these are nine years of selective 
hybridizing, 
Two years ago, visiting in Vermont, I walked ~ 
through a dense sugar bush on a lovely woods road 
which seemed to be leading nowhere, past the weath- 
ered sugar house and out onto a meadowed crest 
with what seemed the whole of Vermont spread out 
before me. There was a deserted old house. It was 
here the road led and here it ended. A little explora- 
tion proved the land to be in fine tilth, having been 
worked carefully and well as part of the adjacent 
farm, and the old house, though tumbled in here and 
there, looked sound enough of sill and beam to be 
the foundation of a solid home and business. With 
confidence in what was developing among my seed- 
lings, building strains away from the average run 
of progression in hybridization, I moved myself and 
the flowers onto this rich meadow acreage. Here we 
are setting down deep roots and it is my hope that 
before too very long I, with their backing, will have _ 
made SHREWSBURY GARDENS a rewarding live- 
lihood. | 
The first year was a revelation to me as far as 
growing weather is concerned. The season is barely 
shorter anywhere in the country than it is on this 
high hillside, 1700 feet above the sea and 1200 feet 
above the Otter Valley it looks down upon. Coming 
up Route 7 in April, with spring a green haze with- 
in the valley, a look up at the high hills on the right 
shows the winter-long snow still in possession. Then, 
two weeks later, spring comes to Shrewsbury with 
a rush. Here it doesn’t strip off the last vestige of 
snow blanket until the earth itself is ready to warm 
up and stay in prime working condition. Having 
seen the early spring flowers bloom and pass in the — 
valley, here it is all to see again. To have two com- 
ings of spring within a five mile radius is wonderful, 
for there can never be enough of them in any one 
lifetime. 
More important than this, practically speaking, 
is the fact that when these hillside plants come up 
from under their mulch of snow much later than 
most of New England they are charged with vitality, 
ready to be moved while still practically dormant 
into gardens where the early spring has passed and 
a place is prepared and waiting for them, the earth 
Warm and receptive. Since these plants have not 
