May 22, 2024:  Tim Hobbs of TrueNorth Garden Centre, on Hybridizing Daylilies

Join us at 7pm at the Peterborough Lions Centre at 347 Burnham Street to welcome Tim Hobbs from TrueNorth Garden Centre to our stage.  Tim will be speaking to us about his experience hybridizing daylilies.  He’s also planning to bring some daylilies for sale at the meeting.

Tim has been gardening for approximately 35 years, on a two acre property south of Warkworth.  Over the years, Tim and his partner Donna Pass have created sun and shade gardens that cover most of the property.

In 2007, Tim went on a day trip, searching for perennials, when he happened upon a daylily hybridizer.  Tim couldn’t believe that someone could create all those plants with so much colour. He was fascinated, then hooked, not knowing then how daylilies would become a large part of his life.

Soon afterwards, he started hybridizing and creating new, never before seen daylilies. Slowly but surely, the daylilies expanded beyond two acres, jumping the fence onto an additional two acres.

In 2015, TrueNorth was born, offering daylilies for sale. The response was so positive that, a couple years later, Tim and Donna decided to offer other perennials along with the daylilies. They wanted plants that are tough and drought tolerant, just like the daylilies, plants that look after themselves while attracting bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. 

If you get a chance to visit Tim and Donna at TrueNorth Garden Centre, south of Warkworth, you will see approximately 50,000 daylilies and hundreds of peonies. They also offer Hostas, Echinacea (coneflowers), Hibiscus (Rose Mallow), Baptisia (False Indigo), Heuchera (Coral Bells), Ornamental Grasses, Daylilies and much much more.

Garlic is another venture that has expanded at TrueNorth over the last seven years, to 36 varieties and planting around 7000 cloves. Donna makes garlic scape powder, garlic powder and garlic chips, and new for 2024, will be fermented black garlic.

You can visit TrueNorth to shop and have a wander around the gardens, and they take pre-orders, or you can find them at the Codrington Farmers’ Market on Sundays or the Cobourg Farmers’ Market on Saturdays, as well as various local venues such as the Warkworth Lilac Festival or the Brighton Apple Festival to name a couple.

See the website https://truenorthgardencentre.com for more information.
Find them on Facebook and Instagram.
Contact at 1-705-924-1071 or email at thobbshollow@gmail.com.