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