LILIES - RHS Lily Group

gracefully curved, bright lemon yellow, unspotted tepals without papillae. The
stamens may vary from brownish-orange to bright red.
Even the largest populations of this species comprise only a few hundred
individuals. There seems to be some natural variation in the number of flowers,
some populations usually being 1-flowered and others regularly having 3-5 or even
up to 7 flowers. The species is somewhat similar to L. jankae, but not likely to be
closely related. The closest relative is rather L. monadelphum from the Caucasus.
Lilium rhodopeum is rare in cultivation and appears to be difficult, although I
have seen it grown successfully and in considerable quantity by a forest station
in the Greek part of the Rodhopi mountains. Two bulbs transplanted in 1981 to
my private garden north of Copenhagen were grown for several years; one of
them regularly produced a single flower per year but did not divide, whereas
the other mostly produced only a vegetative stem. They have subsequently
been propagated from bulb scales and plants have been established both in
Copenhagen and in the Göteborg Botanical Garden. Cross pollination has
recently resulted in development of a few capsules and we hope to be able to
distribute seeds to other growers, thus securing the survival of this spectacular
species in cultivation.
★ ★ ★
26
Sir Peter Smithers 1913-2006
In 2001 Sir Peter Smithers was awarded the Lyttel Cup and
Jim Gardiner wrote in Lilies and Related Plants of his contribution to
horticulture and the world of lilies. Sir Peter introduced two exceptional
lily cultivars ‘Vico Queen’ and ‘Arthur Grove’ and described them
himself in the 1997-1998 yearbook. Here, Gian Lupo Osti writes a
personal tribute to this great man.
IR PETER SMITHERS DIED SERENELY on 8 June 2006 at the age of 92, at his house,
SVico
Morcote on Lake Lugano. It was a bright early summer day.
In Sir Peter’s book The Adventures of a Gardener, making reference to Joseph
Addison1 , he wrote “it would be nice to end life surrounded by the beauty which
is my garden …….As long as memory lasts my garden will remain with me,
like my own past life, a delightful dream which once I dreamed here on this
mountainside.” So this wish is how it happened.
Sir Peter’s life was always varied and throughout it he had a grandstand
1 Joseph Addison was the essayist and poet, who died in June 1719, on whom Sir Peter
published a life, for which he was awarded a DPhil by Oxford University.