Hanover's very own daylily started with Anne and Lucy Bonney, fraternal twins born in Hanover in 1891. The twins graduated from Radcliffe College; Lucy became a teacher and Anne a librarian. They were active Hanover historians throughout their long lives, each living more than 100 years.
In 1924, the girls gave their mother a special daylily on Mother's Day. This began the family tradition of keeping daylilies in the garden of their Old Washington Street home. The twins were the 7th generation of the Bonney family to reside at the old farm.
More than 50 years later, in 1976, the Bonney twins gifted a lily to Barbara Barker Kemp, the newest member of the Hanover Historical Society. Daylilies are very hardy, adapt easily and multiply rapidly once planted. Over the years more and more kept popping up and spreading along the stonewall at Barker-Kemp's Hanover Home. Barbara began potting up Bonney Lilies to share, continuing the Bonney twins' legacy of lily giving. In 2007, The Bonney Heritage Daylily was designated as Hanover's town flower.
They are blooming proudly in our garden today, complete with raindrops.
For The Record,
This day came in humid with rain showers. I did the best I could with the aid of my cane, collecting items we plan to take to Maine for our July vacation in our Machiasport home. The old 1840 Cape was my maternal great grandparents', T and I share it with my brother and his family.
I retired from public school teaching after happily spending twenty eight years playing in Kindergarten. Now I fill my days watching cat antics, taking endless...
