Lilium x 'Arthur Grove', a seedling from the registered 'Vico Gold grex ' (L. sulphureum pollinated by L. regale 'Royal Gold') has been registered with the Registrar of Lilies at the RHS Garden, Wisley. It is named for the first chairman of the RHS Lily Committee, who was the continuator of H.J. Elwes monumental 'Monograph on the Genus Lilium'. (He 'took me out' in 1929 from boarding school at Harrow to look at Lilies in nearby gardens and encouraged me with presents of seed.)

This Lily grows to more than seven feet in height and carries about a dozen trumpets of colour RHS Chart Yellow 6P 13B with a fine and powerful fragrance. There are a few rudimentary bulbils. In cultivation at Vico Morcote L. sulphureum has proved fatally susceptible to virus but seedlings from this grex appear to be virus resistant. This clone is much superior in form and colour to other seedlings of the grex most of which resemble the illustration of one of them in my book 'Adventures of a Gardener'. Of eleven hand pollinated flowers on 'Arthur Grove' in 1997 only one set a quantity of seed, but this poor performance may have been due to torrential rains throughout the flowering season.

The plant photographed was growing in half-shade at the foot of the trunk of a Magnolia. I suspect but am not sure that in full sun the green colour on the outside of the flower parts might turn to the brown characteristic of the seed parent.

The bulb will be sent to the RHS Garden, Wisley for propagation in due course.