LILIES - RHS Lily Group

the opinion of the Committee, had done more than those of any other writer to
maintain and increase interest in lilies”.
The 1939-45 war caused a hiatus in the publication of the Year Book and a
general winding down of the activities of the Committee which met annually
for the duration. After the war business continued as usual, still under the
Chairmanship of Sir Frederick Stern who was now the holder of the RHS Victoria
Medal of Honour. In 1949 Committee played a part in organising a trial of lilies at
Wisley. In response to an enquiry from Jan de Graaff in Oregon, it was decreed
that bulbs for the trial must have been propagated vegetatively and not grown
from seed. Thus the whole range of de Graaff’s burgeoning strains of trumpet
lilies were excluded despite their singular significance in the future development
of the lily as a garden plant. Bulbs accepted for the trial were tested for cucumber
mosaic virus at intervals by inoculation of test plants with sap from the scales and
later the leaves. They were grown well away from herbaceous plants and weeds
and were sprayed with nicotine twice weekly.
The first post-war Lily Conference was held in 1959 with the organisation
largely in the hands of the RHS itself. At the accompanying show Oliver Wyatt,
Major and Mrs Knox-Finlay of Keillour Castle and Oregon Bulb Farms (Jan de
Graaff) were among those showing lilies, but no Gold Medals were awarded.
The still new de Graaff trumpet lily ‘Limelight’, already a holder of the Award
of Merit, was given a First Class Certificate. Reports of strong stems of Lilium
lankongense, L. cernuum and L. taliense on the de Graaff stand remind us that
it was not only hybrid development which was lost with the eventual demise of
his Oregon Bulb Farms.
The fourth Conference was duly held in 1969. During the intervening ten
years, two new species lilies had been described – Lilium rhodopeum and
L. ciliatum. Three Gold Medals were awarded at the accompanying show: to
Geest Industries showing de Graaff lilies; to the Dutch Lily Society and to the
RHS Lily Group.
In the intervening years the greatest change, of course, was the death of
Sir Frederick Stern in 1967. Though not always abreast of the times in his
approach, he left a void which proved almost impossible to fill. In all the
Standing Committees of the RHS, the Chairman is appointed by the Council and
expected to be either a member or former member of Council. Oliver Wyatt was
appointed Chairman in 1968, to be succeeded by Miss Frances Perry in 1974.
If the records of the minutes are anything to go by, the meetings of the Lily
Committee, still held only annually, became progressively shorter. Certainly the
minutes tell virtually nothing of what transpired beyond the annual award of the
Lyttel Cup. There were rumblings of discontent and we hear, now, of division of
the Committee into two factions.
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