If so, click below to download the nonprofit exhibitor application.

Deadline is July 1st, 2013. Mail to Idyllwild Nature Center P.O. Box 1522, Idyllwild, CA 92549.

For more information contact Bryan Tallent at (951) 659-5556 or sprucemoosegifts@msn.com.

Vendor form

“Piecin’ it Together” uses storytelling and song to present portraits of people who settled the American West. Their experiences reveal some of the hardships, triumphs and humor that was part of the pioneering life in the 18th and 19th Centuries. The five talented women who perform “Piecin’” use song and stories within a framework of quilting, introducing us to people who were part of the frontier and immigrant experience. This Pennyroyal production was inspired by the musical play “Quilters,” but the music is different. “I’m a folksinger from the 1960s, so I had to use traditional songs and folk music that was around in that period,” says director Anne Destabelle, who created this show when she founded the group in 2005.

Even if you were one of the lucky people who caught one or more of Pennyroyal’s four performances at last years’ Lemon Lily Festival, it won’t be the same this July. “The script continues to evolve,” says Destabelle. The group’s repertoire has also grown over the years, and now includes “Romp Through the American Revolution” and “Songs and Stories of Stephen Foster.”

Pennyroyal Players are proud to have donated more than $50,000 in performance fees to charities that support special programs for children and the arts. “In fact, we donate all our proceeds to these charities,” says Destabelle, who lives in the Palos Verdes area of Los Angeles County.

This year I began to notice some plants around Idyllwild that I could not identify that looked like miniature corn stalks, so I wondered if they came from corn from squirrel feeders. Recently I found some of these plants that had produced seeds revealing clues to their identities.

Three components of bird seed are sunflower, millet, and milo (sorghum). Many of these field crop cultivars are hybrids and/or genetically engineered, so they may not key out precisely in the floras.

Sunflower and millet on Morris Ranch Road above Garner Valley found growing with sorghum:

Panicum Miliaceum Helianthus Annuus

Panicum Miliaceum

Sorghum on Highway 243 between Jameson and Point of Rocks roads found growing with millet:

Sorghum Bicolor

All three are annuals. We have some native sunflowers on the mountain, but they almost always appear as much more robust plants than these escapees from the bird feeders. Both millet and sorghum prefer warm temperatures which is probably why they do not proliferate on the mountain. We have never seen them in wilderness areas. nonetheless, if you find any of these plants in your yard it would probably be a good idea to pull them up or at least remove the seed heads. as a bonus you can recycle the seeds by putting them back into your bird feeders.

For the first time as part of the Lemon Lily Festival, 15 artists were asked to create banners advertising the festival throughout town. The banners are a way to promote the event, but also reflect Idyllwild’s strong artistic character.

A panel of judges selected their favorite banners and on Saturday, July 21st (Lemon Lily Festival weekend) the 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-place winners will be announced and presented with ribbons plus a proclamation from Supervisor Stone’s office. There will also be two Honorable Mentions awarded per the judges’ request.

The Lemon Lily site’s online voting of the banners is to determine the People’s Choice award, which will be announced next spring at the time the banners are auctioned off. The selling price will be split 50/50 between that artist and the Lemon Lily Festival. The festival committee will use their portion of the funds raised to buy the next set of banners. A date for the spring auction is to be determined.

Click on each thumbnail image to see a larger photo of the banner.

1. “When Life Gives You Lemons” by Pat Hughes Inspiration: Just like you’re handed lemons and you strive to make lemonade, restoring the lemon lily deserves our best efforts.	2. “The Lemon Lily Monk at Work” by Reba Coulter Inspiration: Lily Rock could have been named for the hard working spirit who protects the Lemon Lily. Available at auction. CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS BANNER
3. “Dreaming of Lilies” by Karlis Dabols Inspiration: My view of what a Lemon Lily in its natural setting would look like.	4. “Bring It Back” by Colin Garth Smith Inspiration: My vision of encountering Lemon Lilies in Idyllwild’s creeks and streams.
5. “Details” by Jan Jasper-Fayer Inspiration: Getting the word out. Available at auction. CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS BANNER	6. “Lemon Lily Lake” by Lea Deesing Inspiration: We must have a magical lake up here that helps preserve the Lemon Lilies.
7. “Leaves” by Robert Bush Inspiration: The forests around Idyllwild.	8. “Untitled” by Evalia Nash Inspiration: This is about reconstructing and restoring the Lemon Lily. Available at auction. CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS BANNER
9. “There And Back Again” by Jan Bruner Inspiration: Life and living.	10. “Wonderland” by Halie Johnson Inspiration: Where up is down, right is wrong and the civilized is barbaric.
11. “Lilies in the Sun” by Norm Deesing Inspiration: I like lilies.	12. “Lovely Lemon Lilies” by Laurie Brinkmann Inspiration: Inspired by the floral beauty. Available at auction. CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS BANNER
13. “Walking The San Jacintos” by Cher Townsend Inspiration: I’ve seen the Lemon Lilies on the Seven Pines Trail and along creek beds.	14. “Lemon Lily Sunrise” by Caroline Carlson Inspiration: Inspired by the lush Art Nouveau works of painter and decorative artist Alphonse Mucha.
15. “Visions of Yellow” by Maritha (Mimi) Lamp Inspiration: The joy of art is discovering where the piece will take me.

Scott Fisher
Photo by Grace Reed

We would also like to welcome visitors throughout Southern California to the third Lemon Lily Festival, the third weekend in July.

Activities begin with the Lemon Lily Launch at the home of Erin O’Neill on Thursday, July 19, from 5 to 7 p.m. This fundraiser includes live entertainment with Joe Baldino, gourmet treats and a variety of special beverages. The cost is $20 and tickets may be purchased at the Idyllwild Nature Center or the Lemon Lily table in front of the post office.

Friday night will be our second Taste of Idyllwild at the Nature Center from 5 to 7 p.m. Many of Idyllwild’s great restaurants will be offering a bite of their best dishes with beverages available at a modest cost. Tickets for this event are also $20 and may be purchased at the Nature Center or the Lemon Lily Festival table in front of the post office.

Saturday will be a full day at the Nature Center. Pioneer Town has been moved here and will feature pony rides for the kids, period activities and crafts, special presentations by the Pennyroyal Players, several town characters, crafts and an art auction. Nature walks will take place on the hour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Dave Stith, botanist, and Kate Kraemer, botanist for the San Jacinto Ranger District, will give talks on the Lily and other native plants. The Native plant sale will continue.

In town, Park Lane will be the site of the resurgence of the Bluegrass Concerts. Silverado will be playing on the main stage between 4:30 and 8:30 p.m. along with local opening act Reedy Creek Rogues. Picinic tables will be available for concert goers and several opportunities for food and drink will be available as well.

This weekend will also bring the Marine Corps Band from Twenty Nine Palms to the Community Center site and look for the Idyllwild Chamber of Commerce’s dedication ceremony of the Monument.

The Idyllwild Garden Club will conduct tours at Erin O’Neill’s where you can see Lemon Lilies in their most beautiful habitat. Shuttles will be provided from town to Erin’s and we also encourage taking the shuttle to the Nature Center. Parking can be located in several lots in town. Leave the driving to us. The shuttles are free!

Sunday the Nature Center will have a repeat of all the Saturday events and at 3:30 p.m. the drawing for the Lemon Lily Baskets and the Lemon Lily Quilt will take place.

In town, at noon Bucket List will open up for Bodie Mountain Express and close out the day with a bluegrass jam from 3 to 4 p.m.

The Idyllwild Garden Club will conduct their garden tour again.

We hope to see you throughout the weekend.

Remember to ride the shuttle.

A lemon lily growing along Strawberry Creek discovered this year. Photo by Mike Ahern

Dr. Kate Kramer
Photo by J.P. Crumrine

Today, this is where the lily is found, in scattered groups in the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains. Moist habitats are key. Lily seed needs to be moist and cool to germinate and grow in the following year. Seeds develop into scaly bulbs about an inch in diameter. When the bulb has accumulated enough energy, in three to five years, it will produce a flowering stalk with one to nine or more fragrant yellow flowers.

Plants in nature don’t appear to multiply by bulb; the extent of vegetative reproduction is unknown. However in culture, scales from the bulb can be removed and placed in a special soil mix to grow into individual bulbs. This is how nurseries from out of the area (in Oregon) produce lemon lilies that are available for purchase. Tissue culture is another way that seems to be successful as well. But it’s hard to cut up even one bulb to do this!

Lily enthusiasts world-wide know about the lemon lily; it has been used extensively in breeding programs to produce some of the most beautiful garden cultivars. At least three lily hybrids have been developed by crossing the lemon lily with other kinds of lilies and then reproducing them by the methods mentioned; one is “San Gabriel”. This may be the way to direct our low-land lily lovers to plants that will grow in valley gardens — and are at least “part Lemon Lily”.

Genetically variable populations in the wild are important for lemon lilies to persist; lilies must have a pollinator to produce seed. Available information suggests that sphinx moths (Hyles lineata and Sphinx perelegans) are the main pollinators. It makes sense; the lemon lily flowers are the most fragrant at dusk when moths would be flying. We really need to do a lemon lily “stake-out” and watch plants for a day and late evening to find out who is visiting our lilies here.

In one of the earliest floras of the San Jacinto Mountains, an observation was made of the incredible collecting pressures by admirers trying to get the lemon lily in the nursery trade. With so many bulbs removed from our mountains, it’s no wonder that the lemon lily is a rare plant. The drought in the 1970s may also have dried up much of the lily’s habitat as well; fluctuating water levels have affected lily populations in Arizona.

With a little care and attention, the Lemon Lily will continue to grace our mountains and be part of our lives.

Silverado bluegrass band performs Saturday. Courtesy Silverado

Free Bluegrass concert Saturday, July 21, 4:30-8:30 p.m.

and Sunday, July 22, noon to 4 p.m.

Featuring Silverado bluegrass band

In the Center of Town

This year’s festival is called “The 2012 Idyllwild Lemon Lily Festival & A Little Bluegrass.” The bluegrass headliner is “Silverado,” slated for the evening of Saturday, July 21 between the Fort and Jo’An’s Restaurant. The street will be closed off and set with tables, along with food and beer service.

This year, the Associates of Idyllwild Arts are partnering with the Lemon Lily Festival committee to run a refreshment truck serving cold beer on Park Lane during the bluegrass concerts. Proceeds will go to support Idyllwild Jazz in the Pines and the Lemon Lily Festival.

The “Reedy Creek Rogues” (Don Reed, dobro and mandolin, Dennis Reed, guitar and vocals, Hojo Reynolds, bass and vocals and John King, fiddle and vocals) precede “Silverado,” starting at 4:30 p.m. “Silverado” takes stage for two sets at 5:45 p.m. and plays until 8:30.

On Sunday, “Bucket List” (Jamie Olsen, guitar and vocals, Kathleen Johnson, autoharp and vocals, Eric Uglum, guitar, mandolin and vocals, Fred Wade, bass and Don Reed, dobro and mandolin) plays from noon until 1:30 p.m. and the “Bodie Mountain Express” (Chuck Stewart, guitar and vocals, Bill Purcell, banjo and vocals, Conrad Norton, bass and vocals, Duane Michaels, fiddle and vocals, and Chuck Tucker, mandolin and vocals) plays from 1:45 until 3 p.m. From 3 to 4 musicians will jam together.

The “Reedy Creek Rogues” (top left, Dennis Reed, top right, Don Reed, above left, Hojo Reynolds and above right, John King) perform Saturday before Silverado.

Headliner “Silverado” is one of the West Coast’s premiere bluegrass bands. He has been comfortably immersed in the bluegrass niche for more than 30 years. Nadolson (guitar and vocals), Noel Taggart (mandolin and vocals), Kevin Gore (banjo and vocals) and Fred Wade (upright bass) bring this Celtic influenced, Appalachian offshoot of country music as the premiere in-town event of this year’s festival. Mandolin player Taggart, true to the fusion nature of bluegrass, brings a history of playing with bluegrass gospel groups.

Kathleen Johnson and Jamie Olsen perform with “Bucket List” on Sunday.

In addition to providing some high-energy musical entertainment for Lemon Lily Festival patrons, this inaugural free evening of bluegrass music and next day concert and jam will allow festival attendees to eat, drink, twirl, stomp and dance in Idyllwild’s warm evening summer air. “We want this first bluegrass music event to set the precedent for next year,” said local businessman and festival organizer Bryan Tallent. “We want the appearance to be right, nice without being overdone.”

“Bodie Mountain Express” performs Sunday . Courtesy Bodie Mountain Express

Map of bluegrass concert area

Cid Castillo hangs Caroline Carlson’s Lemon Lily Festival banner in downtown Idyllwild. Photo by Marshall Smith

Spearheaded by festival volunteer Pat Hughes, the festive public art will remain displayed in town until the festival concludes on Sunday, July 22. On Friday, June 22 a three-judge panel reviewed the 15 banners. The winning artists will be announced at the festival’s concluding ceremony on July 22 with 3rd District Supervisor Jeff Stone making the presentation to the three winners.

Painting the banners presented a number of challenges to participating artists, not the least of which was the two-week time frame to complete the work. “In most cities where we develop these programs it takes six months to a year to get the funding and artists have up to three months to complete their work,” said Hughes. “Here no one grumbled, everyone painted using acrylics, the only material that would work on the banners, and all completed their submissions on time. The town artists all stepped up.”

The banners will be auctioned in the spring with 50 percent of the proceeds going to the artist and the remaining amount used to seed next year’s banner project. The resulting assortment of banners is colorful, widely varied in style and theme, and overall, beautifully executed. Banners are two feet wide by four feet long and will be a celebratory addition to Idyllwild’s downtown.

Judging took place at noon, Friday, June 22 at the Nature Center. The three judges who performed the adjudication were Mallory Cremin, photographer and educator and manager of Parks Exhibition Center at Idyllwild Arts, celebrated local artist David Reid-Marr, internationally recognized portrait artist David Fairrington and Sophia Dean, pilot and photographer. Artists were asked to incorporate shades of yellow whenever possible and design something that could be viewed and understood by passing traffic. Judges were asked to consider design, color use, theme, use of proper artist materials and finish.

“These were entries designed from the heart,” said a very pleased Hughes. “It’s the heart that drives the art.” Participating artists include: Hughes, Reba Coulter, Karlis Dabols, Colin Garth Smith, Jan Jaspers-Fayer, Lea Deesing, Robert Bush, Evalia Nash, Jan Bruner, Halie Johnson, Norm Deesing, Laurie Brinkmann, Cher Townsend, Caroline Carlson and Maritha (Mimi) Lamp. All are Hill artists representing the communities of Poppet Flat, Mountain Center, Pine Cove and Idyllwild.

Click here to view the banners and vote for your favorite.