LILIES - RHS Lily Group

and Marijean’s house, in Troy, Michigan where I was treated with consideration
and genuine kindness, rare things in a world where private entitlement seems to
be rapidly replacing any finer human impulses. Ever the organiser (and coming
from someone who is pretty disorganised that is meant as a compliment) Charlie
had already arranged visits to the gardens of some of his friends. Betty Sturley,
an artist friend of Charlie’s after whom he named a particularly stunning henryi
hybrid, had a plant of L. michiganense in flower, which was a fine introduction
to the many American species I was yet to see, appropriately growing in its home
State. After visiting Betty’s garden, we moved on to the garden of Rimmer de
Vries, a young man I took to immediately, but I’m not sure if it was because of
personal vanity, as he proffered his copy of the 2005 NALS Yearbook and asked
me to I inscribe something meaningful on the article I had written about Chris
North, or if it was the excellent selection of ales he asked me to sample, as a
fellow aficionado of choice beers. Prior to appreciating Rimmer’s ales, however,
he took us to see the garden of his friend, Jacques Thomson, wherein I had
my second encounter with L. michiganense, which had flowers of a richer red
than Betty Sturley’s, an example of variation within a species that became more
apparent when considering species like L. kelloggii and L. pardalinum in their
natural, Californian, habitats.
After a brief, but eventful, stay in Michigan, Charlie and I headed west to Reno
and the actual start of the lily chase. I should indicate that, prior to the start of
my North American sojourn I wasn’t sure why he called our proposed search for
lilies a “chase”, as the plants I grow are all static. However, by the time I had
returned to Scotland, after nine flights and 2,500 miles driving, I was much more
in-tune with the reason for Charlie’s phraseology.
The flight to Reno was uneventful, as was – thank goodness – passing
through airport security. After collecting our rental vehicle, a fairly large 4x4
with excellent air conditioning – essential in temperatures that, except for part
of a day spent in drenching Scots mist on the Pacific coast, ranged from 30 to
40°C – we were knocking on the door of Barbara Small’s house in not much
more than the twinkling of an eye. Feisty and focused is how I would describe
Barbara, or Barb as she is generally known, hence it wasn’t long before we
were heading across the Nevada/California State border, by way of Verdi, as in
Guiseppe Verdi, (but pronounced to rhyme with pie) to locate our first lily of
the trip, L. chrystalense. For those readers who do not recognise this American
species there is an explanation, i.e. this lily has not yet achieved specific rank,
but if Barb has her way it will, as she feels it is different enough from L. parvum
and L. pardalinum not to simply be labelled as a hybrid of those established
species. This lily grows in restricted oases beside streams and aspen trees, which
are, typically, surrounded by high desert terrain.
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