WELCOME

Welcome to our website. If you're a first-time visitor looking for daylilies or Japanese irises you can check out our catalogues by following the catalog link on the menu bar above. Our daylily introductions are listed there as well, simply click on the appropriate photo. If you want to know more about us, you can click on the "About Us" section or continue reading this page and the connecting pages.

Hybridizing Daylilies

I didn't plan to get into hybridizing daylilies, I just wanted to leave that for the experts and I'd content myself with collecting and selling what other hybridizers were developing. Then, international hybridizer Ted Petit and his wife Susan, visited my garden and told me I needed to hybridize. I have been working on a few plants every year and usually get 100 to 200 seeds. Because my property is extremely rocky that's about all I can handle for space to plant new plants because it takes weeks to prepare a new bed. Daylilies are very easy to hybridize.

Christmas At Harbour Breezes

Once the regular gardening season finishes at the end of October, we go full swing into preparing for the Christmas season at our sales shop. We re-open every year in mid November for Seaside Tourism and Business Association's 'Seaside Christmas' weekend.

Cement Work For Sale

PEAK BLOOM

With the cold winter and cooler spring temperatures that we have been experiencing along Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore this year, peak bloom has been delayed by about 2 weeks. Japanese irises are just starting to open, with 99% not open as of July 15th. We expect peak bloom for the Japanese irises to run from July 22nd to July 31st. However, all of our Japanese irises have been moved to new beds in preparation for the Society for Japanese Irises summer convention in 2020. Therefore, we have few in stock to sell.

All About Daylilies

If you're new to daylilies this section of our website should help you feel more knowledgeable about them. It will help you understand the terms that are used to describe daylilies. With more than 80,000 varieties now available, the more that you know about them, the better it will be for you if you are making decisions about any new varieties that you'd like to obtain.

Below is a powerpoint presentation that will take you through a visual and written explanation of the important details usually listed in daylily catalogues.

Growing Daylilies

Daylilies are a very hardy perennial that are also easy to grow. We would like to share some tips that may help you to grow them even better. Daylilies love full sun, so if you plant them in the shade don't expect them to be great performers. They need at least 4-6 hours of sun each day. If you have them planted in the shade you can expect fewer flower blooms and they will be slow to increase into nice sized clumps. Additionally, if you have a variety that is not particularly hardy it may not gain enough energy over the summer to carry it through the winter.

Water Views From The Garden

Often we have visitors who comment about the wonderful view of Jeddore Harbour from our hillside gardens. We thought we'd share a few photos with you. Please enjoy the slideshow that follows!

Testimonials About Harbour Breezes

It's always nice when we don't have to blow our own horn. Following are comments that customers and visitors made about our business, website and gardens. None of the comments were solicited and we appreciate them all. I'd like to thank everyone for allowing us to post them. If you have comments you'd like to share with us you may do so by contacting us at: info@harbourbreezes.ca.

Harbour Breezes Garden site map

Growing Japanese Irises

Japanese irises are great plants that put on a fantastic flower show in mid summer. Many people are familiar with other types of irises but less familiar with Japanese irises. There are several different varieties of irises available as garden plants. The most commonly grown irises in Nova Scotia are the Bearded irises and the Siberian. Other irises include the pseudacorous and pseudatas as well as Louisiana, and irises that grow from bulbs instead of rhizomes. Japanese irises have rhizomes much like those of the more common Siberian irises and not big, fleshy rhizomes like those of the more common Bearded irises.

Honeybees At Harbour Breezes

I have been experimenting with keeping honeybees on the property. I purchased a nucleus in the early summer of 2011. The bees did very well and I even got a new swarm from them. When the hive gets crowded the queen lays new queen egg cells. The old queen leaves with a group of bees (a swarm), they usually land on a tree branch for a few hours and you can take them to an empty hive and start a whole new family. The nice thing about bees when they are swarming is that they do not sting. Check out the photos in the slide show of me in shorts and a t-shirt. I didn't get stung at all when I was cutting them out of the tree and taking them to a new hive.

Garden Progression At Harbour Breezes