“Flowers A Luxury" —Lily Grower’s Wife

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30956, 12 January 1966, Page 2

“Flowers A Luxury" —Lily Grower’s Wife

Americans were not as crazy about flowers as New Zealanders, said Mrs Peggy de Graaf, the wife of Mr Jan de Graaf, one of the world’s leading lily growers.

“Flowers are a luxury in America. Here they are part of life,” said Mrs de Graaf. Part of the reason for this was that Americans shifted around so much and had so many other interests that flower growing took a back Seat. Although Mrs de Graaf is very interested in lilies and helps choose names for new varieties she does not take an active part in her husband’s lily farm which is in Gresham, Oregon. “It’s a big business, highly mechanised with 200 employees,” she said. Her main interests, which she said amounted to a fulltime job, are doing voluntary work for the 4Lyear-old Junior Symphony and Preparatory Orchestra, and a complementary organisation called Young Audience. Mrs de Graaf who graduated from Bryn Mawr College and worked as a journalist on the city desks of the “Evening

World” in New York and the “Paris-Herald” in Paris before her marriage 35 years ago does a lot of publicity work for the orchestra and Young Audience.

The orchestra comprises 200 young musicians under 21 and has a professional conductor, Mr J. Avshalomov. It gives several public concerts each year. “Whether its members become professional musicians later does not matter. It enriches their lives,” said Mrs de Graaf. Young Audience is closely associated with the orchestra. Mrs de Graaf said it brought professional musicians to school children and did valuable work in giving young people a love and appreciation of music. Mr and Mrs de Graaf spend four months of each year travelling. Before they return to Oregon in April they will visit Australia to attend a lily show in Melbourne and Europe where they will see their daughter, a laboratory technician in Geneva, and their son, who is in the film industry in Paris.