LILIES - RHS Lily Group
LILIES - RHS Lily Group
LILIES - RHS Lily Group
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forested area that was heavily carpeted with moss, which was obviously subject to<br />
regular rainfall. When compared with the rock-hard soil conditions we had found<br />
L. kelloggii growing in near Onion Lake, this suggests a lily that is more tolerant of<br />
the vicissitudes of rainfall (more or less) than the reference books indicate. The<br />
other interesting aspect about L. kelloggii was the variation in flower colour, from<br />
very pale to a deep rose pink (similar in colour to L. wardii). When the yellow<br />
variant (mentioned earlier) is added to this range, it’s a wonder the “splitters”<br />
have accepted that these variations are all expressions of the one species. By<br />
the time we drove back to the coast and headed north past Trinidad (a pleasant,<br />
vaguely neo-hippy town) the Scottish weather had become more appropriately<br />
Californian, i.e. the sun was shining, and we encountered our last roadside lily,<br />
L. columbianum. As time was pressing, we had a limited opportunity to appreciate<br />
this pretty, slightly recurved orange lily before we had to head south to Sacramento.<br />
Up with the lark (or its American equivalent), the last day of the lily chase found<br />
us heading north-east to our starting point, Reno. En-route we visited a graveyard<br />
in a place called Georgetown in the hope of seeing L. humboldtii in flower, but<br />
unfortunately the flowers had past. But I did think what a splendid lily to have<br />
growing on your grave – none better perhaps. Our luck seemed to be leaving<br />
us when we thought we had missed all of the L. parvum in flower in a ditch area<br />
that had once been a guaranteed source for this species. However, we did find<br />
one stem with a few flowers of a lilac pink colour, which was immeasurably better<br />
than nothing. As we didn’t have sufficient time to search for plants of L. parvum<br />
var. hallidayi, Barb decided we should re-visit the stands of L. pardalinum we<br />
had admired on the first full day of the lily chase. It would seem that she must<br />
have had a premonition of something special in making this suggestion, because<br />
among the, probably, hundreds of orange flowered plants growing on both sides<br />
of the road there were a few (five or six) plants that were sporting yellow flowers.<br />
The question is why? Another question is how do the yellow flowered lilies<br />
maintain their colour-integrity when this must surely be under threat through<br />
cross-hybridisation from the army of their orange relatives that surround them?<br />
Unfortunately, I neglected to suggest to Barb that she should, at a later date, collect<br />
seed from the yellow flowered L. pardalinum plants, as it would be interesting<br />
to discover whether the seedlings produced yellow flowers, exclusively, or some<br />
yellow and some orange as does L henryi var. citrinum. Discussing this interesting<br />
find kept us fully occupied until we reached Reno and the end of our six-day,<br />
1500 plus mile lily chase, during which we found ten species and some interesting<br />
hybrids in perfect flowering condition.<br />
In retrospect, and as a seasoned (or old if you prefer) hill-walker, i.e. someone<br />
who is used to parking his car, walking to his objective, climbing it and then<br />
walking back to his car, I found the modus operandi of most of the lily-chase<br />
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