Joe Hoell, a man whose name should be very familiar to all those who have an interest in hybridising with the Genus Lilium.

Joe Hoell is firstly a friend and my mentor. My initial contact with him was at the Northern Tasmanian Lilium Society . His friendliness and patience gave me the confidence to further explore and develop my interest in the genus Lilium. He is a man who lives and breathes lilies. I suspect even his sleeping hours are filled with visions of what could become of his daylight delights.

Mr. Joseph Hoell was born in Czechoslovakia in the western region of Sumava on July 23, 1930, to farming parents and has five siblings, one brother and four sisters. This region of what's now the Czech Republic was annexed into the German 3rd Reich and called “Sudetenland” under Hitler's reign. Joe's farther was German and his mother Czech. These types of mixed marriages were common in Sumava.

Joe had four siblings, a brother and three sisters. They all attended Czech and German schools resulting in a bi-lingual family. The family lived on a small farm were his mother had an extensive vegetable garden. This garden produced plenty of pickled gherkins, sauerkraut, as well as many other vegetables.

At the end of the Second World War as the Russian Army approached, Joe and a few fellow students escaped over the German border which was only about 6 kilometres from his family farm. Joe and his friends carefully made their way North to Barvaria. This part of Germany was then occupied by the Americans as part of the “Marshall Plan”. Joe managed to obtained a diploma at Pleikershof Agricultural College in Bavaria. He was also able to add English to his language list thanks to the American lecturers at the college.

Before graduation he was invited to immigrate to Australia with the promise of work and a better life style. Australian immigration officials were scouting around the European colleges and universities for young qualified people to immigrate south to Australia. Upon arrival in Australia, young graduate Doctors and Dentists were employed as “First Aid” attendants on Australia's Snowy Mountain Hydro Electric Scheme which was under construction. Graduates like Joe were given jobs as farmhands and were able to practice as Horticulturists or Agronomists. Like all immigrates from Europe at that time they were conned with their qualifications counting for nothing.

After several atrocious employers in New South Wales, Joe made his way to Melbourne, Victoria were he discovered that the Tasmanian Hydro Electric Commission was looking for labourers, so he headed south to Australia's Island State. He was employed by the Hydro Electric Commission and then Comalco Aluminium till his retirement.

At this point, Joe's interests were numerous, enjoying the challenge of trying his hand at growing and breeding roses, fruit trees, ferns and food crops. These fancies of the time were soon superseded by lilies along with orchids and tuberous begonias, all of which he hybridises to this day.

The first Liliums to be acquired by Joe were Lilium 'Pink Sensation' and LL. auratum var. platyphyllum, a prophetic choice for the time. He still grows both of them which were originally purchased from a Victorian nursery in 1956. From there, his passion (addiction) flourished. Not being one to idly sit by awaiting the availability of new varieties, he took it upon himself to grow lilies from seed. Not long after he soon progressed to cross-pollinating anything that took his fancy. Not being a member of any lily society at the time, he was unaware of the “do's and dont's” of hybridising. As a result he was forced to contend with the undoubted disappointment of making numerous unproductive crossings.

His enthusiasm for the Genus Lilium has never waned. What started out as an almost naive, approach towards hybridising with this genus at the start has resulted in the production of what had previously been considered an impossible crossing of a Division 6 and Division 7. Quite by accident, his Division 8 Orienpet, L. 'Tall Boy', was the result L. henryi x L. 'Valley Sundust'. This diploid Orienpet provided the lily world with one of the first major break throughs in bridging the gap between the Orientals and Aurelians Horticultural Division of the Genus. L. 'Tall Boy' is fertile both ways, which proved to be significant breakthrough with plenty of vigour and as close to virus tolerant as it gets!

From its origin as an epigeal seed in 1980, L. 'Tall Boy' set Joe off to a flying start, as it grew twice as tall as its siblings, hence the name, L. 'Tall Boy'. Upon the first flowering in 1983, it produced seven flowers with secondary buds on the lowest two pedicels. This clone since reaching maturity consistently produces a high bud count with as many as 65 blooms. Many of the 93 'Tall Boy' siblings had far superior blooms, but unfortunately were less vigorous and duly discarded.

Despite the fact that Joe considers 'Tall Boy' to be an "ugly duckling", it has proved very worthwhile as breeding stock. It suits Joe's aim admirably to produce tough, 6 vigorous, garden grow-able lilies, while still retaining the exotic beauty of the Orientals. The health and vigour of such Orienpets should be of considerable value to lily growers in areas where it is difficult to grow true Orientals. The combination of his favourites, Divisions 6 and 7, has produced a rewarding breed with not only hardiness, but a fresh infusion of colours and shapes.

One particularly beautiful progeny of L. 'Tall Boy' is L. 'Valley Boy' derived from a cross of L. 'Valley Sundust' x L. 'Tall Boy', now registered with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). In respect to some of his other hybrids, the Oriental, L. 'Dorothy Krist', is a favourite for its sheer beauty and is closely followed as a favourite by L. 'Firechief'.

Mr. Hoell's half acre Georgetown residence forces him to be very selective of the progeny he retains from the average 100+ crossings each year. The seedlings are grown along “Darwinian Principles”, survival of the fittest and then only those which the elite qualities he desires can remain for another season. In the end only one or two of his very best seedlings are allowed to live. Joe's lily patch is no place for the lily which only perform in the environment of a glasshouse, or require diligent spraying with fungicides and insecticides. In the real world, few can find the time for such a regimen. He also believes that you can't breed good lilies without at least some virus infected lilies in the patch in order to test new lilies for “Virus Tolerance”! With this in mind, the emphasis continues for Joe to hybridise for tough, resilient garden grow-able lilies. This "no nonsense" approach to growing his lilies results in plants that ensures good success for others with his lilies.

Now days I mostly breed O/T's (Orienpets) because if I grow a large number of different types of hybrid Liliums I wouldn't achieve much. With specialisation you can achieve far more on a shorter time scale. My favourites where definitely were the Orientals. I started back with L. auratum var. platyphyllum and L. 'Pink Sensation' during my initial period between 1955 and 1965. I bred some excellent Orientals, a few of which both Brian Dutton and Doug Fielding still have.

I realised early on that what was wanted were tough reliable garden lilies. The O/T's are just that, and also make excellent exhibition lilies as well. Every year I am producing more and more exotically beautiful O/T lilies in my patch. The 'perfect' garden lily mustn't be far away now!

I don't preform any embryo rescue or other In-vitro techniques. With my goal for tough garden lilies, they need to be tough to survive from conception to full adults. Stress and high temperatures helps to brake down the barriers to wide crosses. I do soak the seeds from wide crosses in water before planting to remove any germination inhibiting toxins with seeds from the first three generations. After that these toxins no longer play a role. Also by the third generation fertility has returned and pollination and seed sowing can be conducted tin the normal manner.

I have discovered that there are natural polypliod, 4n lilies in most new O/T populations. When using Dr. Asano's 82-111, Tetra White Trumpets and Tetra Black Beauty across diploids, a lot of the offspring will be spontaneous 4n plants.

At present, his focus is upon producing lilies of the L. 'Ryirube' strain (L. henryi X L. rubellum), with strong coloured trumpets including 'Pico-tees', along with the search for a good clear green. He is presently crossing prodigy of L. '82-111' (L. auratum X L. henry) and 'Jeff Boden's Brown Ryirube'. I have also began to infuse some of Dr. Robert Griesbach's 4n O/T's into my Ryirube gene pool.

There are two hybridisers that have influenced my work with the Genus Lilium. They are Dick Thomas and Dr. Robert Griesbach. To a lesser extent, the Japanese hybridiser Dr. Asono has also influenced my approach. The most important and probably the hardest lesson to learn is to be ruthless, and cull your lilies that don't make the grade. After there third flowering season they will never get any better. If unsure, get rid of it. You must also abuse your lilies and never get sucked into using fungicides or insecticides. This just defeats the purpose . If you breed them tough, they don't require any attention besides the occasional feed.

In addition to his credits, Joe Hoell was instrumental in forming the Northern Tasmanian Lilium Society. He was president for four years. Lily show judging is another of his talents and as an accredited judge, he has appeared at shows in Australia as well as overseas. Joe was a judge in 1992 at Christchurch, NZ, for their 60th Anniversary show and he also has had the opportunity to display his in his former childhood home country of Czech Republic.

The contribution made by this modest man in producing and developing cultivars within the genus Lilium is unsurpassed in Tasmania and around the world. Though in Joe's modest and honest view, credit for new lily varieties must be shared among his lily colleagues and fellow hybridisers throughout the globe, as without the supply of pollen, seeds and the sharing of ideas it is harder and takes longer achieve the goal of that perfect lily.

Copyright © 2010 R.J.McNamara