Oakes Daylilies Farm CORRYTON, TN
It’s amazing how much can change within a year. Prior to moving to Hong Kong from the States, I had the luxury to spend some time off and enjoy the company of my mom and my hometown of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. I wrote this little guide after finding out about a Daylilies Festival at a gorgeous farm about a half an hour drive from our house.
Growing up, I never had much appreciation for East Tennessee. It was always too boring, too peaceful, too bucolic. Although I still get restless after about a week at home, I am starting to appreciate more and more the beauty and serenity it has to offer. Also, I adapted the mode I took on in New York City the past five years of always checking out something new or some new event to the Tennessee setting. And what do you know! I found a handful of places that’s within a one our drive from our home that I never knew about or bothered going to because everything is so boring.
Oakes Daylily Farm is such a breathtaking property. The blooming daylilies in their variation of gold, orange, maroon like rays of the setting sun splashed across the young crips greenery of the rolling hills. The farm also featured a small pond; next to it a large willow tree that draped its veins, blowing so gently across the summer breeze. Far back behind the sun flower fields sits a freshly painted white farm house that overlooks the entire property. Complimented by the cotton candy like clouds plopped against the crisp blue skies truly portrays the farm to such of an Impressionist painting.
Unfortunately, not only was I not able to make it back to Tennessee this summer and thus visit the farm again, but also the annual Oakes Daylilies Festival was cancelled due to, yup you guessed it! COVID-19!
Hopefully, the event will be back on next year because I definitely would like to go back again and enjoying being one with colors of the southern countryside.
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Oakes Day Lillies Festival - Corryton, Tennessee
A Guide Written on July 10, 2019
Beautiful scenery and splashes of vibrant colors (and opportunities for gorgeous shots) can are definitely what I’m all about! During my few weeks off back home in Knoxville, I had the chance to visit a few lovely farms and gardens. This particular one, Oakes DaylilyFarm in Corryton, Tennessee, reminded me of Monet’s garden in Giverny, in which as I’m sure many of y’all know, his famous paintings were based from.
Oakes Daylily Farm had a wonderful Day Lillies Festival during the end of June to celebrate their annual harvesting and boy, was it beautiful! Definitely did not miss my chance to snap a few good shots of the scenery and of course, of myself ;)
Location: Oakes Daylily Farm, Corryton, Tennessee (22 miles from Downtown Knoxville - about a 30 min. drive)
Planned Time: 2 hours
Time of the Year: End of June
Things to Do:
The Daylilies Festival provided a wide array of things to do and enjoy. Here are a few highlights of what we did!
Enjoy the scenery and take lots of pictures! Duh! The landscaping is incredibly well done and so beautiful. There is a pond, a cute little white bridge, a giant wooden chair, multiple colored flower beds that provide great backdrops for photos! Would be a shame to not have some nice pictures as takeaways!
Purchase numerous varieties of day lily plantings. Each flower bed and nurseries had the species’ name and pricing on tags next to the flowers for ease of selection. They also gave away free daylilies/bulbs! We didn’t pickup any though, because we were too lazy to plant them in the garden…
Fried chicken tenders and fries from The Chicken Coop
Free Food, Food Trucks, and Wine Tasting. Not sure if this option is available during non-festival times but when I went, there was free ice water, lemonade, and watermelon offered (so generous of the farm, truly)! The Chicken Coop food truck was there offering fried chicken type foods. Not the greatest to be honest - it was overly priced ($5 for a small size that included 4 small strips of chicken and a small batch of fries) and the chicken tenders were dry but the sauces were decent. And I saw a tent for wine tasting but didn’t try it.
Live Music. There was a live country folk band playing RockyTop as we arrived. Gotta love the banjo!
Sunflower Field and Pickings. Saw a few groups of people with huge bunches of sunflower bouquets. They looked so pretty! But the sunflower field wasn’t in full bloom yet. They offered pick your own bouquet for $15. Definitely would’ve been a great photo op as well if the field was in full bloom!
The farm also offered a childcare pen in addition to all the other activities. It was such a beautiful property and lovely afternoon spent with my mother on a hot summer day!
