Exonian Profiles
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Ed Soboczenski ’48: Garden
Variety Genetics
Genetics. Tissue cultures. Sealed test tubes. Chromosomes. Species. Hybrids. Ed Soboczenski ’48 has growing prize-winning lilies down to a science. Talking to this retired chemist about his avocation is more like a lesson in biochemistry than one in plant husbandry. So that his rare hybrid lilies might grow in germ-free conditions, the tiny plants spend their first months in a medium of nutrient jelly inside sealed test tubes. After transplanting the seedlings, he sprays them with a dilute fungicide solution. His combination of scientific method, dedication to beauty and hard work has produced some spectacular results. The process that yielded the award-winning Grand Slam, a white trumpet lily, is typical of Soboczenski’s scientific trial-and-error approach. “I wasn’t sure what configuration I would get,” he explains. “That is the strange thing about genetics. The plant you see has hidden genes, like people do. I was looking for a yellow upright and instead I got a white flower with a tremendous number of buds. That was good luck. Luck plays a part.” The growing of hybrid lilies is not a pastime for the impatient, he stresses. “It takes three or four years for a bulb to mature. It is a gamble of time and effort, but even if you don’t get what you are trying for you do get something awfully nice.” Soboczenski remembers that even as a postgraduate day student at the Academy, he would ride his bike to school and admire the lilies in the yards of his Exeter neighbors. Then in the 1960s admiration changed to fascination. “I had always liked lilies, but the Imperial Lilies at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania really knocked my socks off. They were a tremendously striking flower: six to eight inches in diameter, with a flat face and slightly recurved petals. They have deep reddish-brown spots and a gold band. These days they are hard to find.” And Soboczenski ought to know. He is well-connected and well-known in the world of lily lovers. He is president of the Mid-Atlantic Lily Society and a member of the board of directors of the North American Lily Society a group that boasts 1,500 members worldwide. These organizations sponsor lily shows, publish papers, and share information on all aspects of lily husbandry and, perhaps most important of all, connect lily growers from all over the world. “There is a remarkably broad cross section of people who have lilies in common,” says Soboczenski, who counts lily fanciers from many nations of the world among his friends. Soboczenski has just returned to his Delaware home from a board of directors meeting in Phoenix, AZ. He says, “It was just marvelous. Everyone has answers for everyone else’s questions. When I can get with a group of people to talk lilies, it is one of the greatest things in the world for me.” —Julie Quinn |
