The bright pink sign in front of Tina’s Daylilies, on East Pond Road in Jefferson, welcomes customers in to admire the blooms curated by business owner Tina White. (Molly Rains photo)
The scenery along East Pond Road in Jefferson is, in early summer, almost entirely green: lush forest, meadows, and dappled sunlight that filters through the canopy above the pavement.
But as the road nears its intersection with Route 32, that monochromatic blur is interrupted by spots of neon: the bright, bubblegum-pink signage and vibrant orange blooms of Tina’s Daylilies, the flower business that Tina White has run on her property for the last 12 years.
This summer marks the 10th year of White’s annual “garden party,” a fundraiser she hosts to raise money for research towards a cure for multiple sclerosis, a degenerative autoimmune disease of the central nervous system.
“Every year, it’s more and more (attendees),” she said. “People come back every year. Some people come back just to give.”
White donates a percentage of proceeds from lily sales during the event to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Some patrons also donate directly to the cause at the event.
It’s important to White, who herself was diagnosed with MS about 12 years ago, that the money raised be used to help find a cure for the condition.
“Any donations I give to them I ask to be earmarked for research. For me, a cure is probably the only thing I’d benefit from,” White said.
Running the fundraiser, she said, has helped her meet other members of the MS community who understand the challenges she faces.
“It opens up connections,” White said.
At the garden party, White opens her daylily gardens to the public and offers door prizes donated by local businesses. There are also refreshments and, starting last year, live music, which White hopes to continue offering this year.
The garden party is held in July, when the daylilies are at their best.
“Everything is in bloom,” White said. “It’s beautiful.”
White got her start in daylilies with a visit to Alna’s former Barth Daylilies, run by father-and-son lily-hybridizing duo Joe and Nick Barth. White said she became interested in the plants because they are both beautiful and easy to care for.
Before starting to grow daylilies, White said, she gardened to unwind from her work. White has been employed as a firefighter, police dispatcher, and with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
“Then, gardening was my quiet time,” she said. “It’s a little different now.”
While owning a business requires plenty of work, daylilies themselves are easy, White said. The flowers multiply on their own, come back year after year, and are easy to care for.
In addition to favoring the plants for being low maintenance, White said, she also loves their beauty and variety.
White’s gardens boast more than 140 varieties of daylily, cultivated in neat rows in carefully tended garden plots.
Different varieties bloom at various times throughout the growing season, with a range of sizes and blooms of many colors, from dark red to orange to yellow and white.
Sometimes, the varieties she stocks come with interesting names from breeders like the Barths, White said. Other varieties come unnamed. White names these herself, often choosing monikers that hold special meaning for her and her family, including “Daisy White,” a variety named after White’s husband’s favorite pet cat, and “Brother Bob,” named after her brother.
The variety of blooms available at Tina’s Daylilies draws patrons from near and far, White said.
This includes Don Hart, who stopped in on June 7 to pick up a few plants.
“I drove by once and saw the pink sign,” Hart said. “I’ve been back every year since.”
Hart said he grows daylilies for their beauty, with 100 or so in his own garden. Thirty-six of those came from Tina’s, White said.
White also runs an online marketplace from which she sells lilies to customers who are dispersed across the country.
Resultantly, the reality of White’s day-to-day, she said, consists of a lot of weeding, digging, and paperwork.
“I don’t think people realize how much work goes into even a small business like this,” she said.
However, White said, she enjoys working for herself.
“I like the boss,” she joked.
As White’s daylily business has been a feature of her post-work life, so has her MS diagnosis, which White received within ten days of her retirement.
“It was a very strange experience,” she recalled.
Living with MS for more than 10 years, she said, has provided her with continuous motivation to get involved in fundraising efforts.
“Medicine has come so far,” White said. “But still there is no cure.”
Medication for the condition can slow its progression, but the drugs come with a high ticket price, often in the tens of thousands of dollars, and commonly require painful self-injections, according to White.
Meeting other people with MS and involved in the cause through her fundraiser and through other activities with the National MS Society, White said, has helped her learn about the condition, find community, and organize.
The 10th annual Garden Party at Tina’s Daylilies will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 20, at 310 East Pond Road.
Tina’s Daylilies is open to customers from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday all season.
For more information, go to tinasdaylilies.com or call 549-3861.
Tina White, of Tina’s Daylilies in Jefferson, poses for a photo in one of her daylily gardens. White started selling the perennial flowers 12 years ago and has been hosting an annual fundraiser for multiple sclerosis research for the last decade. (Molly Rains photo)
