Fun Things to Do

 There are some one hundred and five species of Lilium all indigenous to the Northern Hemisphere and, to complicate things even more, those Oriental Lilies in the flower shop will not be found growing in the wild for they are the result of almost a hundred years of careful breeding and hybridizing.

To tell the story of the Lily we have to go back a long way, for archaeologists have found illustrations of a lily on pottery of the Minoan civilization in Crete in 1500 BC. Although opinions vary, it is possible that this same Lily was one of those “lilies of the field” which in The Sermon On The Mount was compared to Solomon in all his glory. (St Matthew 6) This flower is called the Madonna lily, botanically lilium candidum which, in Latin, means dazzling white and was, in the 14th and 15th centuries, often included in paintings of The Virgin Mary representing innocence, purity and chastity.

It was first introduced to English gardens sometime during the 18th Century, possibly 1750, along with other lilies found in Europe. This was the beginning of the time that the great houses and gardens were seeking new plants, particularly roses and tulips and young plantsmen were paid by their patrons to travel to distant, remote and dangerous places to search for seeds, bulbs and actual plants to send back.

Some of the lilies that arrived settled happily in their new homes and some did not. The Madonna lily proved to be rather capricious and only flourished in smaller gardens, particularly cottage gardens and, curiously, rectory gardens. While it would be nice to think that there was some religious connotation in this, it is more likely that being susceptible to viral infection from other lilies growing close, it preferred to be on its own in a quiet spot where it could establish itself undisturbed.

China - a treasure chest of unknown lilies

During the early years of the 19th Century the plant hunters reached China and found a treasure chest of hitherto unknown lilies. However travelling in China was no picnic as foreigners were not welcome and there was an abundance of brigands and no sign of any kind of police force. There were many Christian missionaries who were able to help but they too ran great risks and many disappeared without trace.

Despite this, dried plants, seeds and bulbs found their way home to England. Many grew well and some became the parents of the hybrids we have in our gardens today. The crossing of different lilies not only produces new flowers but also stronger plants. Some lilies cross readily and gardeners were able to produce their own hybrids but lilies still had a reputation for being difficult.

The Hunt for New Species.

However for those hunting for new lilies during the 19th Century the greatest prize was still to be found. The Chinese may have been unfriendly to foreigners but the Japanese were downright hostile. From 1636 for over two hundred years no foreigner was allowed to set foot on Japanese soil and any intruder if caught was dealt with swiftly and arbitrarily by the local warlord.

Nevertheless the Japanese appreciated the need to trade particularly with The Dutch East India Company. They therefore constructed an island within the harbor of Nagasaki where a handful of traders could live and where the Dutch ships could unload. This man-made island was called Dejima and was linked to the mainland by a small bridge, gated and guarded on both sides. The only Japanese allowed on the “island” were the guards, the officials required to supervise the trading, the licensed traders and a number of carefully selected prostitutes! Every Dutch ship was searched on arrival and any weapons, religious books or maps were confiscated. The sails were then removed and only returned after a further search when the ship was ready to depart.

In 1823 a young German doctor and scientist, Philipp Franz von Siebold, managed to get the post of resident medical officer on Dejima. Quite soon after his arrival he managed to cure a very important official and as the word went round, was soon treating a number of local and influential Japanese. These local contacts enabled him to learn about Japan and understand better the habits and customs of the Japanese. Mixed marriages were forbidden but nobody seemed to mind his forming a relationship with one- Kusumoto Taki who, in 1827, bore him a daughter who grew up to become a famous doctor.

Von Siebold created a tiny garden behind his home and his patients would bring him plants from their gardens which included a number of new lilies. Local artists would draw pictures of the plants which he was able to send back to Europe thereby stimulating more and more interest in all that might yet be found on the mountainsides and in the valleys.

The Golden Rayed Lily of Japan (Lilium auratum)

One day a young man, Keisuke Ito, brought him a drawing of a large lily that Von Siebold had never seen before and which Keisuke had found some 5000 feet up growing in a fissure of a vertical rock on the side of Mount Fuji Yama. Von Siebold knew instantly that this was his most exciting find yet and persuaded Keisuke to go back and to try and dig up some bulbs for him. In the meantime Japanese officials were getting suspicious of his interest in mainland Japan and, when he was found to have acquired a map of the country, he was put under house arrest and in 1829, was expelled from Japan as a Russian spy. Just before he left, Keisuke, probably at great personal risk, was able to give him two small bulbs and some more drawings of the plant to become known as The Golden Rayed Lily of Japan (Lilium auratum). Neither of the two bulbs survived the journey home but the drawings fired up the interest of botanists, gardeners and plant hunters alike and ensured that the existence of this beautiful lily was not going to be forgotten.

In 1854 an American fleet landed sailors in Japan and secured a treaty permitting America to trade. Other trade agreements followed and in 1860 a young plant hunter, John Gould Veitch, was able to enter Japan, collect quantities of bulbs and bring them back home. In 1862 The Golden Rayed Lily of Japan was exhibited in London and was an immediate sensation.

The demand for bulbs was enormous and Japanese traders dug them up by the million. Very little was known about their needs and few survived for more than a year. The wild form of this lily was difficult to grow and for this reason was not to be found in Japanese gardens but it was soon discovered that when crossed with other Japanese lilies it was possible to produce stronger and more beautiful plants.

Birth of "Enchantment" - the famous hybrid lily

In 1937 this was to change - a Dutchman named Jan de Graaf saw the potential of the lily as a cut flower and a garden plant as popular as the dahlia or delphinium. He established a huge bulb farm near Portland, Oregon on the north-west coast of the United States with acres of glasshouses, laboratories equipped to make crosses previously impossible, cold storage sheds and surrounded by 700 acres of farmland on which to grow the new lilies. He then mounted a worldwide public relations campaign, supported by fine and expensive catalogues to promote his new lilies to nurseries, florists and garden centres. In response to the demand he had created he then, in 1947 started to export tens of thousands of his hybrid lilies, the most famous of which was the orange lily - “Enchantment”.

He became a very rich man very quickly. Certainly he popularized the lily as a flower for both gardener and florist but for many there were still disappointments.

The Future

Looking to the future there may still be undiscovered lilies somewhere in the world, possibly in Burma, but they will not be as beautiful as the descendants of Lilium auratum – The Golden Rayed Lily of Japan.

Col Iain A Ferguson LVO, OBE