Lily Society Memberships

When I became active on DG a few years ago, one of my greatest finds/ some of the best information I received from other Dave's Garden members was that of the regional lily societies. One particular comes to mind as a "must have", as they actually mail order lily bulbs to members, the Pacific Northwest Lily Society. I joined after learning about their fall sale a few years back on these very pages of Dave' Garden; the lily forum. I've learned even more and found a way to be active from afar.

Since we haven't chatted about the lily societies for a long time, I thought I would refresh our memories and bring up how much I love being in mine. Since I wasn't geographically close enough to any to be consistently involved, I found the Pacific Northwest Lily Society to be best for me. They have bulb sales twice a year and have some nice offerings at great prices. I am very happy to be involved from afar too.

Here's the fall bulb sale for this year. Membership is $15 per year.
http://www.pnwls.org/id21.html

Please do tell us about your lily society and what makes you love it and perhaps what type of events you have coming up. I'd love to hear about them and others will as well.

I joined at Tracey's suggestion and just placed an order for some marvelous bulbs. I belong to NALS, which I love for lily seed and information, and the Wisconsin Regional, mostly for support, because their meetings are so far away. Pacific Northwest is terrific. I'm very happy I joined.

Donna

NALS is wonderful too. I think I joined that later, mainly because of the seed sales in the spring. There are a lot of wonderful lily growers out there that donate to that sale, some from here as well. They just redid the NALS website and it seems to have more information now than ever. It will probably just take me a year or so to go through all of it. It is located here.

http://www.lilies.org/

I joined both lily organizations because of the lily forum.

I confess, Mags addicted me to PNWLS, too. :) She's such the little enabler! :) It will be some of the best money you've ever spent if you join up. I also belong to the Iowa Regional Lily Society (IRLS), Wandasflowers, Lilyfan, and Moby got me addicted to it. :) I also belong to NALS. Find a lily organization you want to participate in and join up! :)

Lily societies are great resources. Most of you already know I am fairly learned already, but I am talking both from the days when I was a lily newbie and now: where else are you going to find like-minded people that can satisfy you urge to know more? (Well, excepting DG.) Regular garden societies are great, for regular gardens, but usually one finds that there is no one else to exchange information and learn more about lilies, more than you already know at least, simply because regular garden societies are not specialized.

And of course, the more you know, the more indispensable lily societies become. And where else are you going to keep up with upcoming hybrids? Sometimes you may even get access to them before the rest of the world!

I belong to a Minnesota society, the North Star Lily Society. Our bulb sales chair somehow got a hold of some most excellent "rejects" from Terry Willoughby's (sp.) martagon breeding . I didn't get any, but a fellow member did. He now has a red martagon!!! I wouldn't say it is quite fire engine red, but nearing it, and certainly more red than the red annual geraniums that are sold. For a martagon, what a catch!

Wow, now that's a RED! Lucky dog.

What I enjoy most about belonging to the Iowa lily society (aside from the people) is being able to have a real discussion about your lily passion. It's much more satisfying that talking to friends and family and watching their eyes glaze over.

I'd take a reject like that red martagon any day of the week. With a color like that, I wonder what made it a reject. The Fred Fellner culled (rejects) lilies I got last year from the PNWLS had some beauties in there. One in particular that I can't figure out why it was a reject. Oh well.

Yes, at work after they see my lily pictures, I can tell they get that glazed over look very early on in a discussion of lilies. They just like pictures. Lol.

I learned about the PNWLS here on Daves and am just now placing my second order with them. 3 each of Pendant Peach, Eurydice, Karen North and Pink Latvia will be finding a place in my garden. Lots of other ones I would have liked but it's going to be a trick finding space for these along with my order from Buggy Crazy.

susan

My PNWLS order was 2 Champagne (Buggy Crazy), 3 Hiawatha (Faraway Flowers), neither of I had ever heard of, and a couple of Ariadnes to round the ones I got from Columbia Platte years ago. Since I had already placed an order from B&D/Snow Creek (2 Halifax, 1 Red Alert, 3 Acapulco, and 1 Sorbonne) I'm actually cutting back shrubs to create more light to put several of them in.

But I also have discover the joy of giving away some of your goodies, following the generous examples of lilies given to me by kind people I will not embarass. I'm giving some of my favorites to people I've met on Dave's, and yesterday I had the great experience of digging up my Regales (my first lily), discovering I had at least 15 (started with 5) and realizing I had a neighbor who is expanding her yard and had said she wanted to add white. I knocked on her door, offered her three of my biggest bulbs (because heaven knows they will grow back) and seeing her delight. It's pretty cool. I'll make her an addict and add her to our ranks. I'd never given a lily to a neighbor.

That was sweet Donna. I bet your neighbor will love it.

Gave some to a neighbor a few years ago and I think it slowly started....her addiction to lilies. She is the one I mentioned gave me a few from what she had ordered in a Brent and Becky's sale end of season. I have given her several lilies and she just told me about some nice OTs she had ordered for fall, one being 'Silk Road'. She had seen it in my yard and asked about it. She loved the size (towering) and she also admitted to ordering 'Ortega', another one she had asked about in my yard over the summer. Quite honestly, I think she has crossed over to "the dark side". And you know what, I think she knows it now ^_^

dear enablers:
which one would I join? I don't think there's anything in houston.

Well..

For sheer wicked bulb acquisition, I would say PNWLS. It gave me access to ridiculously cheap bulbs from Faraway Flower, The Lily Garden (Ariadne for 3 bucks!), Buggy Crazy. Valley K Lily Ranch, and Northwest Bulbs.

Here is the link to the bulb sale page:

http://www.pnwls.org/id21.html

voss, it looks like you're not really close to any of them. In my case, I just knew, even as close as some of them were, it would be tough to participate.

PNWLS gave me the best of everything. I really do enjoy the mail order bulb sales. I can shop from home and get nice prices on lilies and at times even get a first peek at something that hasn't been released/sold before. If those are things that interest you, then it would be worth it. They send out a good sized newsletter a couple times a year with lily related content that has been helpful to me too.

The year I joined I actually joined during their fall sale. I sent a check out as fast as I could and got a sale bulletin. The rest is history.

I will look into it. thanks. I'm gonna ask Steve if he's a member.

Will the bulb sale at PNLS mail your lilires to you? I am not close.

Absolutely. They are mailing mine, and I am in Illinois. There is a flat rate box costing $10.35, and they will bill you if the bulbs don't fit and they have to use a bigger box. My shipping charges on lilies are normally much higher. I belong to societies one state away that will not mail. That's one of many things that make PNWLS so worthwhile.

Donna

And it doesn't hurt that some of the best lily hybridizers in the world belong to PNWLS. That alone makes it worth belonging, but I have to say, being able to order bulbs and have them mailed to the members is a very nice perk. :)

This message was edited Sep 30, 2009 10:11 PM

Thank you Donna and Ticker. I just sent in my membership!

Way to go!

I've got mine printed out.......think i'll wait for the first kid to ask me what I want for Christmas. ^_^

Ha! DH picked it up looked at it then me and said "I take it this is something your interested in?" I said yes and he threw it back on the table with $30 on top. ^_^^_^^_^ He's so good to me.

How sweet!

Indeed he is.....think i'll keep em. lol

If I just joined...is there time to participate in the fall bulb sale?

The downside of joining now is their membership year is January through December so you would have to re-up in a couple of months to continue membership. The spring sale is held in March.

pard, when I joined I got these few months free and they had my membership expire two years from the following January, so really I wasn't out anything. I have also purchased gift memberships for a few friends/ and my mom and I know that was my mom's experience as well.

Because, you see, the year I joined....there was no way I could have waited ^_^

Pixie, you have yourself a good one (DH) ;) Let us know how you like it after you get the membership.

That's cool!

when is the end of the fall bulb sale?

I think the last day for orders is Oct. 14th. So it would seem there would still be time. One can always inquire with the membership person in the society.

Thank you, maglover! I shall try to make contact with ordertaker.....

Good luck. The year I was desperate to join, they were really great about making it possible.

Thank you! By the way, what is your favorite magnolia???

I think my favorite magnolia would have to be 'Elizabeth', but I love them all really, from 'Ann' to 'Woodsman'. Nothing announces spring like the magnolia. Thanks for asking ;)

Magnolialover, I may have to get "Elizabeth" now. ;-) Thanks again for all the help! I joined PNWLS and sent in a bulb order and am one happy Lilyholic! I have ordered some nice lily bulbs this past year from Hallson's. Reasonable prices and big fat bulbs that bloomed beautifully. I can't say enough good things about their service, packing and quick shipping. They are out of alot of lilies now, so their offerings look slim, but they will have alot in spring..

Hallson is a place I hadn't heard of before. I found the website though. Interesting.

Good to hear you made the cut sandnsea. As I have mentioned before, it's one of my favorite things around. I love the information, the people and the lilies. I hope you guys do too. You'll have those lilies at your doorstep before you know it.

I'm mailing my subs. today. I guess I'll miss out on the fall sale.

Vossner, they are taking orders on bulbs until October 14th, so if you want to be in, you are ;) Just send your membership in with your order.

The deed is done! I'll come back to share what I got. It was from the last of the vendors listed, since I've already placed separate orders w/ Ramona & Lisa.

We had such lovely weather in Sept. But yesterday & today have been absolutely hideous w/ humidity so high it feels like you're breathing water instead of air, yuck. I'm hating it; my tropicals are loving it.

DH normally mows our yard but his mower is broken and so we had to hire a guy. Can you believe it? we've had a bee hive for years that has never been a bother--today they attacked the poor lawn guy. Nothing major but still, one sting is pain enough. The trials of country living.

edited to add: I got 2 bags of Pink Perfection and 2 bags of Matrix, an uber gaudy shortie, both from Northwest, whom I don't know. Nice, inexpensive way to try them out.



This message was edited Oct 7, 2009 11:17 AM