White Lily

Of all the flowers on this property, the most breathtaking are these white lilies! If I had to give an award to a single type of flower that is the most stunning, I'd had to give it to them, no doubt! 🏅

Sure, the azaleas are pretty, as are the Forsythia, the honeysuckle, the roses, the periwinkle, the camellias, the crabapples, the gardenias, the peonies, and all the others. But these lilies are always so striking, so perfect, so wonderful, and I enjoy seeing that flash of white in the flower beds each May! 💖

These lilies were planted by my father, many years ago, mostly for my mother to enjoy, although he also enjoyed seeing them, too, until he lost his eyesight. I have no idea how long they've been here, but I've been living here for twelve years and they were established long before that.

^{photo from HomeDepot.com}

The botanical genus Lilium consists of many different species, and several of those species have been bred to produce a wide array cultivars. The immense variety can be staggering, especially to someone who isn't fully immersed into the gardening scene.

As such, I am not entirely positive of my identification of this particular type of lily. The closest I have found in online searches, though, seems to match the Van Zyverden White Lily offered for sale by Lowe's and The Home Depot in the US. As with many flower types, these lilies are available in a variety of colors, so specifying "white" seems crucial if one wants this exact flower, although the other colors of the Van Zyverden lilies are lovely, too, as seen in this photo from HomeDepot.com!

Often, cultivars are named for the person who created them, so I did a bit of research on the name Van Zyverden. What I learned is that Van Zyverden appears to be a company that sells flower bulbs and plants for gardens. On the company's website, this history is mentioned:

Van Zyverden, Inc., has been a principal in the flower bulb industry for 100 years. It is one of the largest wholesale distributors of flower bulbs in the United States, shipping over 450 million bulbs and plants in the U.S. and Canada annually. Headquartered in Meridian, Mississippi, Van Zyverden also has facilities in Sassenheim, Holland and Burlington, Washington. These facilities encompass over 500,000 square feet.

Founded by Jack Van Zyverden in Holland, the company expanded to include the Canadian company Superior Bulb Co., Ltd., through a partnership with Colin Campbell. Shipments from Holland were halted during World War II and, while temporarily unable to return to Holland, Jack traveled the United States looking for growers to supply the Canadian company. In Washington, Jack found large growers, all originally from Holland, to supply the bulbs. Van Zyverden continues the relationship with these growers today.

So, whether the company developed the cultivar or obtained them from one of their growers, I am grateful to have a couple of these plants! I am hoping to transplant them to a pot and take them with me when I move to another location.

These flowers are so very beautiful to me and I wanted to share them with others as well. So, I created greeting cards from the first photo in this post and have sent many to friends with hand-written notes on the blank inside. If anyone is interested in ordering some of these, too, you can find them in my RedBubble shop.

🌺 I am tagging @dswigle so she sees this flower, since she loves flowers so!  #alwaysaflower