Out and about in Washington County, I saw signs at the side of the road advertising a Lilyflowerfest – “the only one West of the Mississippi River!”

It didn’t take a minute to turn my car around to explore what that could possibly entail. Off I was to Parry’s Tree Farm and Nursery, located at 45627 Northwest David Hill Road in Forest Grove. Well, let’s say outside of Forest Grove, into the hills, and eventually down a gravel road. When you’ve come that far, you don’t balk at the out-of-nowhere entrance fee either, small as it is at $3.

I also think balking would not have been physically possible, even if you wanted to, given the sensory overload that occupied all of your mental and physical processing gear within seconds.

The small farm devoted two areas sheltered by netting to the display and sale of over 20.000 garden tested day lilies, oriental lilies, asiatic lilies, tiger lilies, orienpet lilies and more.

It was a riot of color. It was also an abundance of fragrance, even though not all of the varieties shown do smell. And your ears were, shall we say, assaulted by elevator music of the harp and bells kind, loud enough to interfere with thinking.

What thought was still manifest was one of the “hope I don’t laugh out loud” kind at the pleasure of both the truly wonderful display of flowers and the incongruous side-line decorations – lovingly dressed-up scarecrow types that were plopped among the floral displays. And geraniums (!) surrounding the farmer on his tractor…

Nothing but pleasure, really, including the fact that a hummingbird photobombed my photography amongst the flowers.

Here are the scientific facts about the Lilium.

I can’t grow lilies in my woodland garden which lacks sun. They would also be too showy for the rest of the flowers that congregate in small spots devoted to a cottage garden. But they surely impress with the intensity of all of their parts, from stamen size to smell to saturation of hues – a photographer’s delight.

Music today introduces Ignace Lilien – yes, the German plural of the flower’s name. A renaissance man, composer, pianist, chemical engineer and all round art aficionado, he survived the Holocaust in Holland with fake papers. I chose his song cycle – 4 songs of beggars – because of the affinity to the “lilies in the field” meme so often cited in the Bible. But I am also adding a Sonata Modern Times just because it is so up-lifting.