LILIES - RHS Lily Group

Faced with this continuing situation, in 1978 Council decided that the
Committee should become semi-independent and concerned more with the
affairs of the Lily Group. It would loose its status as a Standing Committee and
thus be free to elect its own Chairman, with the Lily Group or the Committee
selecting its members. Gradually thereafter it became known in RHS records and
publications as the RHS Lily Group Committee. Colonel Iain Ferguson became
Chairman and was subsequently succeeded by Mrs Dee Martyn Simmons, a
member of the Committee since 1966.
It seems that the Committee, divested of the ties and privileges of Standing
Committee status and without a real function failed, initially, to consolidate its new
place in the Society. The succession of ten-yearly International Lily Conferences
which had begun after the Second World War faltered in 1979 when lack of direction
in the Committee led to postponement for a year and, eventually, abandonment.
It is important to record here the part played in maintaining continuity during this
uncertain period by members such as David Parsons, sometime Vice-Chairman, at
that time growing lilies commercially, Derek Fox who also turned to the nursery
trade, and Brian Halliwell, Assistant-Curator at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
The beginnings of a new function in the Committee could already be seen in
the minutes in 1976 with the first mention of the Lily Group seed distribution.
Operated at first by the Secretary, James Platt, it subsequently, in the hands of Mrs
Molly Pottinger, became established as an important factor in encouraging the
growing of lilies and consolidating the Lily Group. Her successor, Alan Hooker,
has succeeded in expanding the appeal of this function worldwide – both to the
east as far as Japan and Australia, and westwards to Canada and the USA. The
modern dominance of lily hybrids in the horticultural trade has meant that more
hybrid seed has become available. At the same time the virtual disappearance
of most lily species from catalogues led to an insatiable demand for their seed
among amateurs determined to grow even the apparently ungrowable.
In common with most small specialist organisations the Lily Group was not
strong financially. In 1982 it received a gift from the well-known wild-life artist
Raymond Booth, who is still a member today. As well as growing many lilies in
his garden, Mr Booth delights in producing scientifically accurate studies of wild
British plants and animals. His gift comprised a large and detailed portrait of
Lilium auratum together with the copyright usually retained by the artist in such
circumstances. Obviously the ownership of a painting is a mixed blessing for a
corporate body without a permanent home and so it was sold, through a New
Bond Street dealer, for a sum in excess of £3000.
In terms of publications the recent history of the Lily Committee and the Lily
Group has been dominated by the enormous increase in costs and the consequent
fall in demand. The Conference issue of the Lily Year Book in 1970 is still
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