The Lily Group has members across the world & this page is intended to give an idea of what some of them are doing by way of creating their own hybrids. We hope to add the work of other members as photos become available.
Neil Jordan, Tasmania
“The hybrid shown here is not yet named. It’s still being trialled but looks very promising. The breeding is ‘Cam Alpha’ x ‘Lankon’, which in the current jargon makes it an OOLA – Oriental x LA. Judith Freeman told me that pink ground colours in Orientals could only come from L. japonicum or L. rubellum. However, the L. lankongense in ‘Lankon’ appears to have the same effect.”
Neil writes: “I have registered Orient Charm Group as crosses of L. wardii x L. lijiangense. I have several different forms but I will not release anything until I am satisfied it is a readily growable garden lily. I have a particular interest in these small pendant lilies of Western China and hope to do more with them.”
Darm Crook, NWT, Canada
Here, Darm crossed two brushmark Asiatcs to produce other brushmark types. Instead, the complex genetic breeding produced attractive outfacing seedlings. Illustrated here are ‘Fort Liard’, a 1b yellow with spotting & pencil marks; and Fort Providence, a 1ab dark red with orangish flashes in the nectary zones and a dark red throat.
Here, Darm was looking for a good colour break as well as height, floret form and orientation. He used an unnamed Fellner hybrid x ‘Joyce’s Favourite’ (believed to be correct name). He selected two seedlings: ‘Yellowknife NWT’ and ‘Northwest Territories’. These have up to 13 buds on good strong stems.
Steve Peck, United Kindom
Steve is primarily interested in orientals & asiatics. He has produced a number of beautiful unnamed crosses, some using a ‘mix’ of e.g. oriental pollen with L auratum.
Since 2012/13, Steve has concentrated on semi-pendant asiatics with subtle colour variations which he calls ‘Pearl Lilies’, based originally on Judith Freeman and Chris North hybrids.
Della Cooper, Tasmania
Della started out hybridising Asiatics but more recently she has concentrated on trumpets, henryi hybrids and orienpets with a particular emphasis on richly coloured pinks & reds.
Brian Bergman, Ontario, Canada
Brian breeds mostly orienpets. In this first example he has tentatively named the cross ‘Toronto Rose’. The pollen parent is a Johan Mak hybrid.
Below, ‘Grenadine Sunshine’ has one of the same parents as ‘Toronto Rose’ but used here as pod parent.
Brian has also introduced more oriental blood into his OT strain, here using a Sunny Azores cross.
‘Lily Dabbler‘, Ravenna, Italy
One of our members from Italy has been making lily crosses for at least twenty years, primarily using asiatics. An early aim was to intensify the shades of red, still a work in progress.
Rimmer de Vries, Kentucky, USA
Rimmer has a particular enthusiasm for hybrids derived from L henryi var. citrinum. Rimmer writes: “I work mostly with pale yellow-green aurelians, including The Yeti and Serena Green.” The dense papillae of ‘The Yeti’ are apparent in 1 and 2, while 3 and 4 show the influence of ‘Serena Green’.
Bart Youll, Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom
Bart’s main interest is in crossing Div. 6 trumpet hybrids
One of Bart’s aims has been to produce a stable light pink trumpet as illustrated below. He’s still working on this.
George Battle, Worcestershire, United Kingdom
I was looking for a scented Div. 4 hybrid which tolerates the British climate. The 1st generation was back-crossed with L parryi to obtain scent. A work in progress.
Photo credits: George Battle, Brian Bergman, Rimmer de Vries, Neil Jordan, Margaret Liddell, Steve Peck, Bart Youll.
All photographs are copyright © the photographers and used here with permission. All rights reserved.