Martagon Lilies are in peak right now in most gardens.  They bring the most wonderful architectural aspect and form to the garden; they are so very elegant.  Offering a Turk’s cap-style bloom, Like many plants, Martagon colonies get better and better with age. Martagons like sweet soil and they will be grateful for a dusting of lime every year.     Brevities #OTD  It was on this day in 1871, the Yorkshire Herald reported the first meeting of the Vale of York Field Naturalists Club. Although the weather was very unfavorable, forty-seven ladies and gentlemen (members and friends of the club) left the Society's Rooms, in Micklegate, in three four-horsed conveyances. When they reached Rivaulx ("ree-VOH")Abbey,  the company then broke up into small parties - geologists, botanists, and entomologists - and proceeded to examine the valley for their own specialities. "The geologists were interested with the sections laid bare in the quarries, and many interesting and beautiful fossils were found The botanists collected, amongst other plants, Saxiraga tridaclylitet (nailwort), Helianthemum vulqare (rock rose), Cuscuta Epithymum (clover dodder), Aquilegia vulgaris (columbine), Atropa Belladonna (belladonna or deadly nightshade), Polypodium Phegopterit (northern beech fern), P. Dryoplerit (oak fern), besides the common Scolopendrium vuigare (hart's-tongue fern). At six o'clock the party sat down to dinner at the Crown Hotel, Helmsley, which was served in Mr. and Mrs. Cowen's usual substantial style, after doing justice to which the Rev. Vice-President Rowe addressed those assembled on the advantages of natural history and the beauties and history of the Abbey, and also stated he would shortly bring a very interesting piece of information concerning it before the public, he being hon. secretary of the Architectural Society. It was arranged that the next monthly field day should be held at Bolton Abbey and Woods. They then left for home, after a most agreeable day, which left every one with the feeling that this the first excursion of the club was a great success."     #OTD  It was on this day in 1908 that Illinois adopted the Violet as its State Flower. As with many State Flowers, Illinois had decided to let the school children vote to decide on the state flower. The purple violet received 15,591 votes and the wild rose came in second with 11,903 votes. The children also decided the state tree and they selected the white oak.   Meanwhile newspapers were running a piece that blared the headline, "the reign of the violet is over". "Strange and unbelievable, but a fact, nevertheless, violets are no longer fashionable. Gardenias, orchids and American Beauty roses are as much in evidence as ever, but the reign of the violet is temporarily over. It is true that a large bunch of deep purple violets relieved by a single mauve orchid, a deep pink rose, or a single waxlike gardenia is still an acceptable gift, but it is not the gift that is so frequently' chosen this year, as a small cluster of gardenias or even of two or three exquisitely beautiful orchids... Roses are much in favor at the moment, ... A new flower hailing from Paris is the pink American Beauty, and well does it deserve the name...  the color is an adorable shade of shell pink, and for all decorative purposes tins flower has already a firmly established place in fashion's regard. ... one cannot but regret the sense of chivalry of a generation back, when etiquette demanded that flowers be sent always to a hostess before even the least formal entertainment, and when a debutante had better stay at home than go to a ball without her ... little bouquet of flowers."     #OTD   It was on this day in 1910 that the Allentown Democrat out of Allentown PA reported that Joseph Hooker was 93 years old. "Sir Joseph Hooker, the world-famous botanist, received a personal note of congratulations from King George today on the occasion of his ninety-third birthday. Sir Joseph,