REPORT ON LILIES 
The 1950 season was, as far as the flowers were con- 
cerned, not a good one. A late frost, on Memorial Day 
in fact, spoiled not only many of the young buds, but 
also scorched the foliage of our lilies. The selection of 
new hybrids was difficult and as far as lily photography 
was concerned we practically had to write off the entire 
season. This was a keen disappointment to us for we 
had many novelties that would, normally, have been 
introduced this year. The frost did its greatest damage 
in our sheltered experiment garden, the protected cor- 
ner where we had planted our best novelties. To make 
adequate descriptions and good color records was not 
feasible and we decided to let all this stand over until 
the next year. 
In spite of this frost damage, however, there were 
some unusually fine new hybrids, flowers of quality 
and size that hold great promise for future commercial 
success. Especially in the golden yellow hybrids we seem 
to have been lucky for L. amabile luteum from our 
selected strain, crossed with the Mid-Century Hybrids, 
gave us a magnificent collection of new lilies. This mate- 
rial is so prolific that some of them can already be intro- 
duced in 1952 and others will be ready in 1953 and 
1954. The same applies to our enormous collection of 
Aurelian hybrids. Visitors to our farms during the next 
summer will be able to see acres of them in full flower. 
If the first flowers on this stock were any indication of 
the quality and beauty of the strain, then we can con- 
sider ourselves extremely fortunate. 
A number of varieties were named by me this year 
and, for the record, I shall enumerate them here, Felicity 
and Prosperity are both Chinese yellow while Croesus 
is a bright saffron yellow color. /ilusion, Jubilee, Cheers, 
Lucky Star, Meteor and Zulu are all various shades of 
red. They will be fully described in the next issue of 
this catalog. Our Sierra Hysrips, the TiceR Hyprips 
with the clones Borneo Tiger and Burmese Tiger and 
various other new strains will be ready for introduction 
at that time. 
Pace 34 
As I am writing this, I am looking at a little snapshot 
taken in 1945. It shows the Mid-Century Hybrids in 
flower, planted in two short single rows, not more than 
sixty feet long. Of each clone there are not more than 
two or three flowering plants. From seed planted out in 
the spring of 1942 we had a few flowers in 1944. The 
two little rows of plants referred to above flowered in 
1945 and in 1946 we made the first field planting. Now, 
only ten years after the few seeds were planted, we have 
close to twenty acres of these lilies. The successive gen- 
erations of hybrids bred from them are magnificent— 
the end is not in sight. 
The same can be said about our many other lines of 
breeding. Space does not allow me to discuss them here. — 
The further we go with these lilies, the stronger is my 
resolution not to fall into the errors of the tulip, daffodil 
or rose breeders. I am firm in the decision not to name 
any clone until its undoubted superiority over all exist- 
ing varieties is well established and also not until it 
appears to be able to hold that position for a number 
of years. By continuing our “strains” and by selective 
breeding with them on an enormous scale, we are mak- 
ing very rapid progress. Eventually we expect to be at 
a point where little further gain can be made. It is then 
that we expect to select the best varieties and especially 
those that show unique characteristics. Then, as now, 
we hope to continue to enrich our American horticul- 
ture by the dissemination of our Mid-Century Hybrids 
Mixed, Hollywood Hybrids, Fiesta Hybrids and other 
such mixed strains of good garden lilies, as well as by 
the introduction of the higher-priced named varieties. 
The Cascade Madonna lilies, Olympic Hybrids, Bell- 
ingham Hybrids and others of our strains have already 
proven the merit of this system. We shall welcome your 
visit, we solicit your criticism and shall be glad to have 
your substantial inquiries for our lilies. We sell at 
wholesale only and look to you in the trade to speed 
our novelties on their way. 
