Lilycrest Lilies in Review 2016

Christmas isn't finished till its over for the Orthodox Christians.  How do they live the rest of the year if they use the Julian calendar and not the Gregorian calendar?  There are 13 days difference. Many Soviet Union and Middle Eastern churches tend towards the "Old Calendar" while most of those in the United States have made the switch.  It appears more of a country-wide choice rather than a church choice as the public holiday falls on the chosen date for Christmas. It seems interesting that Easter isn't impacted but celebrated on the same day by everyone. This is the week that we look back at the closing year and decide on the top news, events, photos, etc. What area do you look for highlights?  I went to the Oxford Dictionary for the Word of the Year.   "After much discussion, debate, and research, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016 is post-truth – an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’." Wikipedia has the words of the year from 1990 - 2015 listed.  The source is the American Dialect Society.  They are so slow in deciding for 2016 that they are still in the process of accepting nominations.  Their meeting is January 5 - 8 2017 if they announce it then, it would be in time for Orthodox Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ and the birth of a new word. Our 2016 review starts with Lilycrest Gardens.

Lilycrest Gardens Begin

Lilycrest Gardens, Brian Bergman's lily hybridizing field is full of hope and potential.  The lilies have arisen from their winter dormancy and there are a few early bloomers - martagons and species.   Our first picture is the noteworthy plant this year - it seems to glow with its brown foliage and green markings.  Brian is checking it regularly to see if it maintains  the foliage colour.  It stands out in the field of thousands of lilies, so this would be a hybridizing achievement. Our collage together shows  our first blooms, along with the many variations in foliage.

Parting the Sea of Red

I know a lot more about Poinsettias today.  I visited the Poinsettia Trials at Linwell Gardens in Beamsville.  Wayne Brown kindly toured me through the 160 plus varieties in the trials. Last year they were at Vineland Research Station and open to the public.  This year it was open only to the trade - to growers, breeders and buyers, so the public wasn't able to see some remarkable new varieties. The first is Gold Rush.  We in Canada have a clear space between Thanksgiving in October and Christmas.  This isn't so in the U.S.  There is typically a Poinsettia in the house for Thanksgiving.  That's why an orange colour would be perfect for the American holiday display.  Immediately behind it is a startling chartreuse colour, and behind that the pretty spring-looking pink blooms that we see in the next picture. There are so many different bract shapes - there are the up-pointing ones and the more downward cascading ones.  The shapes vary too - there are hearts, oak leaves and holly bracts/leaves. This 'white room' is where the trials were last week.  Everything was moved to conserve heat as they ship the poinsettias out during the last few weeks of this big season - Poinsettias are the largest crop of pot plants in North America.

Lilycrest Gardens - Hybridizing Success

This is one of Brian Bergman's new hybrids.  Seeing as he's my brother, I am lucky to visit the field all the time, and see what's up.  The labels tell the story of what to keep and what will be deleted from the field.  A small group of seedlings will result in beautiful and blah.  One needs to label the beautiful to keep and get rid of the ones that didn't turn out. This is a small flower and plant with a big decorative impact.  It's my kind of garden lily.