Calgary Stampede

A festival I know little about is the Calgary Stampede.  It started on July 5th and runs until July 14th.  There are record-breaking crowds this year - over 1 million every year.  It is a rodeo, exhibition and festival.  It is considered the top rodeo in the world. There are rodeos from the beginning of July onwards.  Even Santa Rosa has a wine country rodeo.  They  are generally in the western provinces and states.  But the last one of the season is in Florida in November - the Newberry Lions Club Rodeo.  There are more than a hundred listings. I can't imagine what would happen if the Caribana Festival met the Calgary Stampede. Here are our cowboy/rodeo jokes for the day: How do you kill a rodeo clown? Go for the juggler! What do you call a rodeo bull with a sense of humor? Laughing stock.  A cowboy rides into town in the Wild West and shoot an artist. The sheriff asks him, "Why did you do that?" The cowboy says, "I thought he was going to draw." Where do cowboys cook their meals? On the range. If you wear cowboy clothes are you ranch dressing? A cowboy walks into a German car showroom and says, "Audi!" What do you call a retired cowboy? Deranged. Our Lily Show showcased Martagon lilies this year - they are the earliest to bloom.

Our National Record

Canada has achieved more medals in this Winter Olympics than any previous ones.  Norway will likely  match the record 14 gold medals that Canada had in Vancouver.  Remarkable achievements. What caught my attention is the upcoming event with the name "Big Air".   It is making its debut this year.  It is considered an extreme sport.  On the bottom of the snowboards are names such as Burton.  I found an article that helped with understanding all these names.  It has to do with the Olympic brand police.   "Snowboard manufacturers Burton, GNU, Salomon and StepChild have seen their names plastered on nearly every high-flying snowboard at this year’s game, despite Rule 50, which says that gear brands can be represented, but only by a 10 percent surface presence on gear or apparel. But watch any of the popular snowboarding events, and you’ll see that the 10 percent rule has gone out the window. Instead, brand names are slapped across the bottom of boards in bright, bold colors, screaming for attention." Logos get 'taped over' by the Olympic brand police. Reports claimed that Samsung, an official sponsor, asked athletes to cover up their Apple logo on their phones. Duct tape is the common tool for this.  A Handyman's special tool, used frequently by Red Green. The real excitement over the brand police was in 2012 in London.  London went extreme to protect its investment, with 300 'enforcement officers' working to ensure firms were not staging 'ambush marketing' or illegally associating themselves with the Olympic Games.  They went into shops and offices near Olympic sites, and could give fines up to $31,000 for misuse of words such as gold, silver, bronze, summer, sponsors, and London.   We think of the commercial side of the Olympics as relatively recent - since television perhaps.  However, even the first Olympics in London in 1908 had sponsors.  Oxo refreshments were handed out to the marathon competitors along the route of the race.   Save the Date:  I will be at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington on Sunday, April 8th in the afternoon.  The speaking topic is The Romantic Garden.  This is a free event, so please consider coming.  It is one of the all-time favourite garden topics.   Let me know if you can make it - we can get together for lunch in the cafe, and then on to the meeting.

That Elusive Blue in Flowers

What makes blue so beautiful... This is what I think of as a traditional, species lily.  It it a tall plant for the garden.  It has the traditional orange colour with dark spots, the pendant flowers with recurved petals and the delicate hanging, suspended stamens.  This stem in the picture is a Ontario Regional Lily Society show winner from a few years ago, so it is perfection as this lily goes.  I think it is a Lilium Pardalinum.   This is the second in the series on Blue Lilies, the elusive colour that is missing in the genes of lilies.

Lily Season Full Out

It's lily season at Lilycrest Gardens with the fields in full bloom.  Here are a few images from the field:

And here are some of the show winners at the Ontario Regional Lily Society Lily Show at Royal Botanical Gardens on the July 7th and 8th weekend.

Royal Botanical Garden New Atrium

I was at the Ontario Regional Lily Society Annual Flower Show on the weekend and it was held in the new Atrium at the RBG. What a space - elegance and simplicity in the architectural design, beautiful warm wood and full of natural light. The living wall is the immediate view when you enter the hall.

The lily stems were in natural light for the first time displaying their colours and luminescence. A highlight of the show for me was on Sunday afternoon when Dr. Laking, one of the ORLS founding members came to the exhibit and spoke at the awards ceremony.

Next Lily event is October 4th 1:00pm at the RBG for the lily bulb sale and auction!

It's All About Lilies

So far in July, there have been a number of delightful surprises and there are Lily events coming up!

The first was finding a stand of Candidum Lilies near my brother's Lilycrest Gardens field in St. Catharines. There were probably 30 or 40 plants blooming and in that large a group their colour become so clearly the dominant quality. They are an amazing white - so clean and pure - no other colours on the petals. And the plants were large and healthy - so unusual in Candidums in our area.

The second surprise occurred as I visited more of the front gardens on the OpenGardensToronto 2009 tour. I mentioned this organization in an earlier post. Many of these beautiful gardens are close-by in my neighbourhood so I took the opportunity to visit a few of the front gardens from a previous tour day that I had missed as I wasn't available. Up the street from the Winston Grove garden, I happened upon a front garden at its full peak in full and perfect bloom. It had a beautiful combination of Lilies and Lavender that I'm posting - what a gorgeous colour and form combination!

The Ontario Regional Lily Society Annual Flower show is this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. It will be in the atrium at the Royal Botanical Gardens main building on Plains Road. I will be looking forward to seeing the show in this new venue, and being able to take some scenic photos this time.

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!