Iowa Regional Lily Society’s Fall Symposium
Learn all about lilies at the Iowa Regional Lily Society’s Fall Symposium, hosted by the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden. A variety of lily bulbs will be available for purchase and experts will be on hand to answer all your lily questions. Mark your calendars and don’t miss this incredible opportunity to explore these beautiful garden staples and take some home for your own garden.
Included with general admission.
Iowa Regional Lily Society information
Fall Symposium Schedule
9:00 am–Bulb Sale opens
9:30 am–Peggy Nerdahl “Jewels of the Garden”
10:15 am–Break: Door prizes
10:30 am–Forrest Peiper “Hybridizing Lilies for Beginners”
11:20 am–Break: Door prizes
11:30 am–Rick Rodich “Lily Seed Starting for the Serious and the Inquisitive”
12:30 pm–Bulb sale, Door prizes and bulb sharing
Speaker Bios
Peggy Nerdahl started growing lilies in 2008. She has hundreds of lilies in 13 raised beds in Chaska, Minnesota – about 25 martagons, numerous Asiatics, about 10 MN hybrids, oriental trumpets, trumpets, regale, dauricum, davidii, davidii berry red, pumilum, concolor and canadense species. Besides being a big purchaser at the fall and spring NSLS bulb sales, Peggy starts lilies from scales and from bulbils. Peggy is concentrating hybridizing efforts on trumpets. She has about 30,000 seeds to candle, package and label this year. She starts lily seeds and grows them under lights during the winter. Peggy is vice president of NSLS and secretary of NALS, on the speaker’s bureau for NSLS and the Education committee for NALS. She is the honored winner of the Earl Hornback Award in 2024 for advances in hybridizing with her pink trumpet lily, RG yellow trumpet x Amethyst Angel. She also enjoys hybridizing with Awesome, a lily made famous when Wanda Lunn won best of show in 2016 at the Chicago NALS show.
Forrest Peiper has been a gardener since childhood. He caught the “lily bug” in 2003 while attending the North American Lily Society show in Bloomington, Minnesota. An active lily society volunteer since then, he is now a past president of the North Star Lily Society (NSLS), a past member of the North American Lily Society (NALS) Board of Directors, and a NALS accredited lily judge. Forrest grows over 200 named lily varieties as well as thousands of his own hybridized seedlings in his garden in St Louis Park, Minnesota, and on leased land in Shakopee, Minnesota. He has won three Best-in-Show awards in the annual NSLS shows and numerous awards in the international NALS shows. He has eight registered Asiatic hybrids and one registered Aurelian hybrid. Lilies have become a source of increasing interest and time demands since Forrest retired from a career in managing information technology in 2010. In 2015 together with one other lily enthusiast, he started LilyLand Minnesota, a grower of martagon lilies, selling wholesale only to garden centers, nurseries and regional lily societies.
Rick Rodich’s presentation will be an overview of seed harvesting and sorting, exploring the diversity of lily seeds and appropriate planting. Some lily seeds germinate easily, some not so much. After the talk, he will conduct a hands-on session for those interested in the baggie method of seed germination with martagon seeds. All supplies will be provided, including seeds (or bring your own seed to plant). Rick holds a University of Minnesota degree in horticulture and has been growing lilies since the 1970s, but only passionately for 25 years. He is an active member of several plant societies, including the North American Lily Society. His keen interest in seeds of all kinds led him to his 20 year investigation of lily seed anatomy, development, germination and growth.