High school teacher Ms. Saundra Dunn knew she wanted to start a daylily farm ever since she visited one for the very first time, and she began planting daylilies herself around 25 years ago.

“I had visited other daylily farms and really enjoyed the peaceful experience,” she said. “It is so nice to be able to wander around see plants in person and pick them out yourself. I wanted to give that peaceful experience to others.”

Working on the daylily farm has become a yearly tradition for Dunn and her friends for about 12 years now. Working there is catered towards all ages and generations.

“In the years since Mary Ann Cleary and I started Along The Fence Daylilies,” she said. “Twenty teenagers/college students have worked here at least two summers. Some as many as seven seasons! 14 others have worked for a season or periodically for big events, and they really work.”

Between the vast majority of ages that work along the daylily farm, everyone always has a blast spending time with each other and working as hard as possible. 

“In working with teenagers and adults here, the lessons go both ways—what they might learn about daylilies and the world of work, but also what we have learned from them,” Dunn said.

Daylilies grow from 8 inches to 5 feet tall depending on their variety. They have long, flat strap-shaped blades that grow in clumps from the crown of the plant.

“If cared for well, daylilies basically live forever,” Dunn said. “I have some daylilies that have been growing in my garden for 25 years. You just have to divide them and thin them at some point. That’s a good time to sell them or give them away!”

Many customers return to the farm yearly to catch up with friends and purchase the beautiful daylilies.

“Each year we have a mix of returning friends and new guests,” Dunn said. 

Dunn grows over 2400 different cultivars on the farm, selling about 1600 of them at any one point. The business has bloomed over the past years.

“Every day brings a new adventure, a new story or a new person to meet here on our small farm,” Dunn said.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that daylily height was determined by their care. This detail has been updated.