Peachie Saxon relaxes in her garden. Photo by Angela H. Cutrer

Peachie Saxon, 88, is not one to wait around and kick the dirt from boredom. She’s been busy her whole life, always with a purpose: raising children, running businesses, serving as a helpmate to her husband and learning more and more about daylilies.

 

And now, after a few years off the market, so to speak, Peachie’s garden opened back up last weekend to tours of all the daylilies she’s cultivated and nurtured.

On Saturday, Peachie went inside to check on her husband and rest a bit after a busy morning leading tours and flipping through her daylily catalog. She was still available that afternoon to those who dared to brave the heat, pointing and explaining colors, styles and needs of different types of daylilies.

 

Peachie has had a garden open for years, and has had daylilies for 60 years, she said.

 

“I used to have so many coming through [the garden],” she explained. “I used to have it open all the time, but I just had too much going on.

 

“But now my great-grandson, Drew Hughes, has come in to run the shop and that’s so nice. I couldn’t lift things like I used to, so my great-grandson lifted those stones for me to have a walkthrough.” She points to cubed-shaped stepping stone pavers that provide spots of relief from the long rows of planted areas.

 

Peachie has had flower shops in Meridian during the last many decades, including the one now set back past her garden. Easier to get to, you know.

 

Though the latest location of Saxon’s Flowers & Gifts is very attractive and up to date, it used to be a storage building housing Peachie’s husband’s items.

 

“Junk,” she says with a laugh. “It was just junk. Junk everywhere! He liked to collect trash.”

 

She smirks good-naturedly and laughs.

 

But now it’s a spot not too far out of town for those still needing the services and personal service from a flower and gift shop.

 

“We had the best shop for years,” Peachie said of the several locations the family shop has been located in Meridian. “But then the internet showed up. People didn’t have to go pick out what they wanted. They just clicked a button and that was that. And then came COVID…”

 

So now Peachie cares for her husband and her flowers. She’s not complaining. She’s busy all the time. Take when fall comes.

 

“Between September and October, I dig ‘em up,” she says of her daylilies. “I call people first to see if they are ready for theirs so I can dig them up right before they can come get them.” She wants the entire plant to go from her home to theirs with the best chance of surviving winter.

 

And these days Peachie’s garden features many new favorites.

 

“Old daylilies are so different from the newer one,” she said of why she’s changed her mind on her favorites. “You get so many more of the blooms on the newer ones, so I’ve kind of abandoned the older type. When they are through blooming, you can look and there you’ll see buds not yet opened. They just go on and on.”

 

And indeed, a peek at any portion of the garden shows stems lain heavy with unrealized expressions of color, just waiting their turn to shine.

 

Another new thing has Peachie even more excited: Her 5-month-old great great granddaughter, with the appropriate name of Dahlia, who is Drew’s child. That should keep her even busier.

 

Also, Peachie’s bustling life year-round has her adding a different type of garden – less nature-centric, more constructed.

 

“This year I’ve tried to focus attention on as many perennials as I can,” she says. “Those you can plant and keep for life. They’ll just keep on coming up, year after year.”

 

With that in mind, she’s been creating planting zones on the side of her house to hold three different levels of rows of planting areas to keep bulbs. It’s a construction of something new using something as old as time. Something new and something old to keep the color going and the people visiting happy.

 

This weekend is the last time this year to visit Peachie Saxon’s daylily garden at 7540 State Blvd. Ext.