PRESIDENT’S ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2022

As 2022 draws to a close it is time to reflect on the year we had and start to anticipate the year to come. We had a full and successful year as the global pandemic loosened its grip over our lives, and things slowly returned to near normal. By many measures – financial, membership, our HCP garden, and programs – the Victoria Lily Society had a very good year.

The Executive met in January 2022 to plan our VLS year. Speakers for our educational program is an ongoing issue for us, and the spring lily bulb order from Lily Nook had to be organized. Plans for the in person show in the summer were simmering and road trips to gardens further afield were discussed. Lambrick Park Church remained our meeting place through 2022, and has been an excellent venue for us. Our meetings remained hybrid in person and Zoom meetings.

For our March meeting we were lucky to connect with Daniel Mosquin from the UBC Botanical Garden to speak to us about showy native plants (mostly Liliacea) for our gardens. This was a hybrid Zoom and in person meeting with Daniel talking to us from Vancouver over Zoom.

Sometime around this point in the year Deb realized our VLS website had been hacked! She and Dan Van Stolk and Brenda put in long hours with a web security company and our web hosting company to fix things and set it all right. Who knew our little club would be a target for internet hackers!

In April we had Justin Dunning talk to us in person about bog gardening in containers. Justin is very adept at technology and he handled the hybrid issues of speaking on Zoom and in person very well. He also brought bog plants for us to buy!

In May we had our first road trip of the year to Malcolm Ho-You’s garden in Saltair, to see his peonies and iris. Our speaker at the May meeting was Richard Hebda speaking on ‘Iris: Flower for All Seasons’. Ted Baker assisted Richard and brought a magnificent display of iris in bloom to the meeting. Ted also auctioned off several tall bearded iris from his collection, with all proceeds going to the VLS. We all got to witness Dorothy’s prowess at the live auction action!

Our June meeting was a garden tour and pre-show meeting at Jennifer and Brian Rogers house in Oak Bay. Jennifer has a magnificent large garden with lots of botanical treasures in it. Bryce and Brenda encouraged people to sign up for volunteer positions at the show, and discussed the finer points of staging stems at the show.

The show was July 9^th at our old location with a new name – Broadview United Church, on Arbutus Road in Cadboro Bay. It was a smashing success with lots of great entries, lots of attendees, and some great plant sales. For the first time ever, all of our potted lilies sold. The late, cold, wet spring meant fewer lily stems than we might have had, but the show was magnificent none the less. The tea area went non-stop for the whole show, and that crew was exhausted by the end. Bryce and Brenda did a magnificent job and everyone agreed the show was awesome.

Our post-show meeting and award ceremony was at the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, on a sunny and warm late July evening. We toured the lily bed at the gardens, and celebrated the award winners from our show, while eating our picnic suppers.

In August a group of seven intrepid VLS members, in two cars, did a day trip garden tour to Vancouver. We caught the 7 AM ferry over to Tsawwassen, and the 7 PM ferry back, visiting UBC Botanical Garden, VanDusen Botanical Garden, and Phoenix Perennials in Richmond. We were actually two hours early for our ferry reservation back, so ate supper at a pub in Tsawwassen before getting on the boat.  We arrived home as dusk was falling, exhausted but happy with a very fulfilling days effort.

September brought us back to the Lambrick Park Church café for a talk by me on lily propagation. There were lots of pictures and talking but also some hands-on demonstrations of how to increase your favorite lilies, or how to make some completely new ones!

In late August and through September and early October Sandra spearheaded our fall society bulb purchases. We ordered from a new supplier – Bertha Lardner in Alberta – this year, as well as our regulars, The Lily Nook in Manitoba, and the The Lily Garden in Washington. Colin picked up the Lily Garden bulbs in person combining that task with a road trip to Washington and Oregon with his wife.

October brought our annual Rare Plant and Bulb Auction in a new location, but with all the usual treats and special botanical rarities up for bid. We had great attendance this year with many people from VIRAGS and our old friends from Duncan joining us again. We didn’t save much on the venue, but our sales were up significantly, so it was a great year financially as well.

Throughout the year Brenda organized weekly teams of gardeners to maintain and improve the VLS lily bed at HCP. There was a significant renovation of the ‘Lawnside’ bed this year and it promises to make that area even more spectacular next year. I was very proud of the ‘shout out’ that Giles, the assistant gardener at HCP, gave our lily bed in the August HCP e-news. This was a real testament to all of Brenda’s (and her team’s) hard work and dedication in the HCP lily bed.

We have also been fortunate to have a wonderful executive again this year: Brenda as Vice-President, keeping me on track through the year; Karen as Treasurer with her clear and clean financial statements; and Deb as Secretary, recording and clarifying and generally keeping us organized. Then there is the rest of the team: Beth, Wanita, and Shirley as directors; Sandra in memberships and Bulb orders; Alison producing the newsletters and getting out announcements; Louise and Wanita raising lilies for our sale; and Laverne doing our raffles. We really are a team of volunteers in the Victoria Lily Society!

And that brings us to November and our AGM. Beth and Deb have been working hard on Bylaw revisions we need to adopt and implement at this meeting, and otherwise we will review our year, elect our executive (which will be easy as all our executive are staying on, unopposed and will likely be acclaimed), and have another look at our magnificent gardens, by slide show. And of course, we will start dreaming and planning for next year!