LILIES — A REPORT 
Each year, as I write my customary report on 
the lily season just past, I think of the outstanding 
events as they come to my mind and submit my 
comments to you. For the 1953 season surely the 
most noteworthy factor was rain. All winter and 
spring and during the summer too we had more 
than our share of rain. All this water helped to pro- 
duce a good crop of lilies, with large, clean bulbs of 
exceptional vigor. Unfortunately, it helped to pro- 
duce also an unusually heavy crop of weeds. Where 
they come from, to infest fields that have been clean 
for years; how they can all grow and persist in spite 
of all the weeding we do, is more than I can under- 
stand. I should like to forget, if I could, what it cost 
us to combat them. The only good thing was that 
this abundance of weeds gave us a chance to test 
the many new chemical weed controls. We obtained 
promising results with some of them and next year 
we shall use these on a larger scale. 
Again in 1953, as we had done twice before, we 
undertook to design and print a large number of 
retail color folders, showing a selection of our lilies. 
Measured in direct returns, either to us or to the 
participating firms, the success of these mailings 
would hardly warrant a repeat performance. The 
indirect returns, however, not only in acquainting 
hundreds of thousands of gardeners with these 
lovely new garden plants but also in the substantial 
publicity and prestige value for the participating 
firms, is something I cannot yet measure. Certainly, 
no horticultural dealer, worthy of the name and of 
his profession, can continue to sell old-fashioned 
merchandise along the lines of least resistance. In 
order to keep his old customers and to attract new 
ones, he must strike out again and again along un- 
charted paths. 
During the past year we flowered again new 
lilies in all possible colors, shapes and forms. There 
were more than forty acres planted on the magnifi- 
cent Belton farms near New Era, south of Portland. 
Another large acreage was planted on the various 
farms surrounding our headquarters and another 
fifteen acre planting was hidden in the mountain 
meadows of Mount Hood National Forest. Add to 
this the content of our two large greenhouses, mostly 
filled with a healthy crop of Aurelian seedlings; the 
five big lathhouses that cover the plantings of the 
rarer seeds and shade-loving plants; the many beds 
of seedlings grown in the open and it amounted to 
an impressive total. In fact, there were so many 
lilies that, had he stayed for days, no visitor could 
have taken in the full beauty and majesty of all 
these plants and fields. Even for me, who lives 
among them, it became impossible at times to keep 
up with all the new developments. 
Outstanding this year were the new Aurelian 
Hybrids, such as the Giant Sunburst types we are 
selecting; the lemon-yellow Aurelians in Sunburst 
and Golden Clarion types; the delightful display 
of hundreds upon hundreds of healthy plants of 
lovely and bold Jillian Wallace, flanked by many 
similar and even darker new hybrids of our own; 
the ethereal beauty of the Japonicum-auratum hy- 
brids, grown for the first time in the open, among 
other hybrid lilies and holding their own quite 
nicely; the new Mid-Century Hybrids in coolest 
lemon shades . . . all this summed up to a great 
deal of keen pleasure for us who raise them. It was 
also a source of many worries. To classify, describe, 
catalogue and price all this material, not to men- 
tion their sales problems, is a big job. 
Consider for a moment our difficulties—to know 
from among the thousands and thousands of new 
hybrids, the one or two clones that are to become 
popular. ‘To say now which colors are bound to be 
“high fashion” ten years from now. To spot, without 
fail, the one or two plants that have unusual dis- 
ease-resisting characteristics. By reasoning, by intui- 
tion, we make our choices. The novelties that we 
want to bring to your attention for 1954 are listed 
on a separate page; all of them are good and some 
of them may make lily history. The novelties that 
we have selected for future years are not even men- 
tioned here. We shall be glad to show them to you 
when you visit our farms next*summer. Your com- 
ments and criticisms are earnestly solicited, for you, ° 
who must sell these lilies eventually, can give us 
guidance and help. 
Our experiments this year were not only con- 
cerned with weed control and fertilizers. Our plant- 
ing of new varieties, our breeding program and the 
selection of outstanding forms and types within 
each strain were carried on with undiminished zeal. 
We also tried new grading and packing equipment, 
we made numerous packages of lilies in paper boxes, 
in wax paper and pliofilm, exposed them to differ- 
ent temperatures and light intensity in an effort to 
find a way to have the bulbs displayed on store 
counters and yet not dry out or lose their vitality. 
Needless to say, we shall continue to change our 
methods of packing as the results of these experi- 
ments become known. The pliofilm and waxed 
paper bags have so far proven to be highly satis- 
factory and most economical in our type of whole- 
sale operation. 
For next year we hope to have a fine showing of 
lilies. We look forward with pleasure to the big lily 
show in Seattle and, weather permitting, expect to 
display some of our new hybrids there. The best way 
to see our lilies, however, will be for you to pay a 
visit to our farms and we look forward to seeing 
you here. 
Page 29 
