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.

When will there be a blue lily?

In the late 80's, we worked on the information technology strategic planning methodology.   We distinguished between data, information, knowledge and wisdom, showing the logical relationship between them.  Wikipedia has these graphical representations - often we did it as a pyramid with wisdom the peak - a pinnacle of thinking processes.  If we achieved wisdom with technology, we would achieve the ultimate.  The components are described here. The Wikipedia article continues with a section on criticisms:  Rafael Capurro, a philosopher based in Germany, argues that ... any impression of a logical hierarchy between these concepts "is a fairytale". What do others say in this discussion?  In my search,  I found this very fun and quotable assertion.  It was my "morning smile". "Owning a state-of-the-art CD player is pointless if you use it only to listen to polkas played by a kazoo ensemble." - T.H. Davenport and L.Prusak in "What do we talk about when we talk about knowledge?" Our picture today brings together the bizarre and the beautiful.  The bizarre is that this is a fasciated lily in the Lilycrest hybridizing field this year.  It is a mutation caused by growing conditions that cause a flattened stem which produces dozens of flowers crowded together in a 'bouquet'.  The beautiful is the blue lily - it's been given a blue wash in one of my photography filter programs. A blue lily isn't achievable with its normal dna. Likely a Delphinium will need to get spliced into it to get this colour range.

Show Lilies

Yesterday was Brian's second favourite day of the year - it was the Ontario Regional Lily Society Flower Show and Competition. It is held at the Royal Botanical Gardens.  He had picked a few stems in my garden, especially a gigantic pink Amarossi which was taller than 7 feet with many flower buds.  It opened perfectly for the show so became one of the Award winners.  A flaw on a petal made it lose the Best in Show award. You can see one of Brian's hybrids in the garden in Grimsby and how tall it is - I claim the Grimsby soil is extraordinary, and these lilies are good proof. Another surprise at the Show was the handbook on growing lilies - Let's Grow Lilies!   I'd forgotten the cover has my photograph on it - taken in Brian's Lilycrest Garden hybridizing field. And finally, the show has beautiful floral design competitions.  Here's a favourite - the handbag/purse competition.  Everything is made of  floral and leaf material.

How Big is Rain?

The Lily field is waiting for rain. It is experiencing drought conditions this week.  Farmers are watering their tender fruit trees, we're watering our lawns and gardens,  what might there be that's of interest today on the rain topic? I went to Today I Found Out to 'feed my brain'.  The first question is about raindrops.  A thunderstorm is forecast, so what might I learn? Harry K asks the question 'Why are raindrops always so small?  Would it be possible to have a single raindrop that contains gallons of water?'  That is an interesting question with an even more interesting answer:  raindrops are more than water.  The vapour in a cloud has to have something to condense around such as dust, smoke, salt, etc.  These are called condensation nuclei.  Rain is usually 1 - 2 mm in size when it reaches us. There had been a consensus in the past that raindrops wouldn't get bigger than 2.5 mms, but Hawaii recorded 8.8 mm in 1986, and scientists have found 5 mm drops buffeting about in the clouds rather than falling to the earth.  The record is 1 cm in the clouds over Brazil - they were the products of large ash particles from burning fires. Who would have expected there to be such interesting information about the ubiquitous raindrop?

Lilycrest Gardens - Full Bloom Week

My brother is a lily grower and hybridizer.  He has a field on 5th Street in St. Catharines, and it is in its prime right now with lilies in bloom.  You can see him loading the van with lilies to go to the National Show.  The past two days was the Ontario Regional Lily Show in Burlington at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Lilycrest Gardens brings to mind the "lilies of the field" in the Sermon on the Mount: 'Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin...' Brian's field grows Lilium lilies - and the Madonna Lily is a special flower of Christian symbolism.  However, it is unlikely to be the lily referred to. It doesn't grow in Israel. Tulips, poppies, daisies and other wildflowers have been suggested as candidates for “lilies of the field". And the likely candidate is the flower Anemone coronaria, the Crown Anemone.  It grows in every part of Israel. There are many possibilities to choose from as there are hundreds of flowers with Lily in the common name and dozens that grew in Israel.  The reference remains interesting and mysterious, with no definitive answer.

Lilycrest Gardens - Highlights from Summer

There are hundreds of thousands of flowers in the Lilycrest Hyrbridizing field.  Here are two of the lilies from this past summer of 2014.

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.   

The Potting Shed in Dunnville

I got to the Potting Shed in Dunnville just over a week ago and saw the day lilies in bloom.  Jack Kent is a remarkable hybridizer and has developed some beautiful new hybrids which are displayed nicely in gardens throughout the property and in growing houses.  Besides the gorgeous day lilies, there are a lot of hostas to choose from.  Of course, the Red Barn is the distinctive structure on the property and it is surrounded by pretty buildings that house goats and peacocks.

It's a great drive in the Niagara countryside and always wonderful to bring something distinctive back for the garden.

Lilycrest Gardens - Lilies and Lilies

There's such a variety of lilies - size, colour, form, texture and shape.  My brother's lily hybridizing field, Lilycrest Gardens, is in St. Catharines Ontario.  He has more than 100,000 plants, so I can see all the varieties in profusion, which this first image illustrates - masses and masses of flowers.  By using textures I can disguise the paths and soil that would be distracting from the flowers.  When we're in the field, we really don't see the backgrounds as we are so drawn to the flowers and their intense colours. 

Lilycrest Gardens - Prime Time

My brother, Brian Bergman, has a hybridizing field in St. Catharines where he grows his hybridized lilies.  I was in the field last week, and took these pictures.