By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent OXFORD, Ohio — Top O’Hill Daylily Farm offers more than 1,600 varieties of daylilies for sale, many of them award winners, said Todd Dockum, third-generation owner of the farm.
“I suspect it is one of the largest collections and inventories of daylilies, certainly in the state if not this region of the country,” Dockum said. “We’ve got every size, shape, color that you can imagine.”
Hybridizers create different varieties of daylilies by crossing them; the plants don’t pollinate themselves, Dockum said. The farm offerings include dwarf plants, doubles, rebloomers and fragrant varieties.
About 40 percent of the farm’s business is mail order. Top O’Hill ships daylilies all over the United States. Visitors are welcome at the farm from May through August. It is a sight to see during peak daylily bloom, mid-June through mid-July. Customers usually leave loaded down with plants because the farm offers great collections of plants at good prices, and customers learn how low-maintenance daylilies are.
“People always ask me about how to grow them and I just tell them ‘green side up,’” Dockum said. “They’re one of the hardiest, easiest things to grow.
“The great thing about raising daylilies in Ohio is that they’re very cold-hardy. They do well in just about any temperate zone in the country including very cold areas and very warm areas. You have to careful with daylilies, sending them from warm to cold, but sending them from cold to warm is actually a big benefit – it makes them more hardy. So shipping from Ohio is good.”
Dockum’s grandfather, Dr. James H. Pelley, had no plans to ship daylilies anywhere when he bought the farm in 1951. It is situated on a hilltop near Miami University where Pelley was a professor, “so it has always been a Top O’Hill-Something farm, whether horses, cattle, chickens, pigs,” Dockum said.
“When (Pelley) retired and got a little too old to be chasing horses and cattle around, he got obsessed with daylilies. He really never anticipated commercializing the operation.”
Pelley enjoyed collecting the plants and gathered different varieties. When his health began to fail, his daughter, Joanne Pelley Means, helped him run the farm and expanded the commercial side. She has since moved on to other things and Dockum (her son) and his wife, Carol, and their children have taken over the daylily operation.
“This year my daughter Marisa is 14,” said Dockum, who has a career in finance management. “We’re going to let her take the helm and get experience dealing with customers, taking orders, doing some of the accounting, and then just use it as an educational experience. My son Tyler is 11 and he wants to come out and help. It is a real family affair.”
The farm has continually evolved from one thing to another and the Dockums are going to continue. They plan to expand the nursery operation. Botanists at Miami University have developed palm trees that will grow in cold zones such as Ohio.
“So you can have a banana tree out by your pool in Ohio,” Dockum said. “We have entered an agreement with Miami University to commercialize their cold-hardy palm trees. I’m licensed with Miami to start propagating those plants and start selling them.
“It makes a nice extension of our business, because it is kind of a niche for the operation and something fun to do.”
Visitors are welcome at Top O’Hill Farm from May 17 through August 12, Thursdays through Sundays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. For information, visit www.daylilies-top ohill.com or e-mail info@daylilies-topohill.com |
