Past Friday the 13th

We consider the "Friday the 13th" combination to be unlucky.  It is the day when motorcycles converge on Port Dover and the date of Goderich's  Harry Potter Festival.   There isn't any online coverage of these events, or of Friday the 13th happenings.   What is readily available is the news in far away countries and I was attracted to zeenew.india.comwith headlines that included: Indian Railways to introduce airline-like food, passengers may have to pay more "In a bid to improve the quality of food served in trains, Indian Railways has decided to change its menu and is planning to copy the menu card of airlines. Read more Passengers should be served vegetarian biryani, rajma chawal, hakka noodles, pulav, and laddo, the committee suggested." Of course, here in Canada (and North America), airline food would be improved by copying railway food.   Today's picture shows another experiment with the Fusion lily and liquid line textures.

Lilycrest Gardens

It's the start of Lily season in my brother, Brian Bergman's Lily field, on Fifth Avenue in St. Catharines.

Ralph Suttell - Dahlias and Lilies

Yesterday was another great garden day for me. My brother and I went to his Lily field in St. Catharines, then on to Ralph Suttell's who is a hybridizer and competitor in lilies and dahlias. Our day concluded with a trip to Ridley Garden to connect with Reggie and John for hybridizing.

Ralph's garden an acre and a half in Beamsville at the lake (yes, I'm jealous). It's a spectacle of plantsmanship and horticulture. Every dahlia is perfect and there seem to be hundreds of plants. They are specially grown so with a hoop house so that he can cover them before the competition to keep the blooms perfect from the elements (e.g. rain). He's not just a dahlia grower, though. There are a lot of lilies that he's working with. His garden is beautifully landscaped with interesting materials and there's a beautiful vegetable garden.

Lilycrest Garden in Full Bloom!

Welcome to this Monday!

My brother, Dr. Brian Bergman, is a lily hybridizer with a large hybridizing and growing field near St. Catharines. The name of the field and hybridizing activity is Lilycrest Garden.

One of his hybrids is named Blue Flash, as it has a blue luminescence on the petals and this image captures that special quality. We were in the field yesterday, amongst the tens of thousands of blooms. This is the prime season of lily bloom right now! For more information on his work go to:

http://www.lilycrestgarden.shutterfly.com/

If you want to see everything in lilies there is to see, then next weekend is for you! Running on July 11th and 12th is the Ontario Regional Lily Society's annual flower show. It's held at the Royal Botanical Gardens on Plains Road, in the main atrium. There will be over 300 lily stems on display from members' gardens. The show always contains a floral competition with beautiful displays using lilies. For more information on the show times and events, go to their website at:

http://www.orls.ca

I hope you come out to the show and enjoy the RBG and its gardens!