When planting your new lilies in the garden this fall, whether you’re putting in a few or several hundred, don’t sell them short!
Use them where they will be most effective, where their regal beauty will accent, contrast or complement their garden companions.
And plant them properly so that the bulbs will not be forced to undergo Horatio Alger’s tribulations to succeed.
How Can You Use Lilies Most Effectively?
Well, there are four factors that must influence your choice of plants. These are:
- Height
- The direction in which the blossom faces
- Blooming time
- Color
Lilies should be placed where they will not be drowned out by taller-growing plants, where their blooms look garden visitors frankly in the face (upward-facers should go below eye level, outward-facers at eye level, and downward-facers at or above eye level).
Where their time of bloom coincides with or supplements their neighbors’ and, above all, where their colors will be most effective.
And, with today’s ever-widening range of lily colors and the much-extended blooming period – June to frost, the exciting uses to which lilies may be put are many indeed.
Complement The Flower Color Spectrum
As a colorist, my advice to gardeners would be to shun the use of hot-colored flowers as companions for vivid lilies.
Put the orange, bright red, and intense yellow lilies with pale, pastel companions so that there is contrast, not competition flattery, not visual vituperation.
And when selecting pink neighbors for these warm-colored lilies, hew to the warm side of the color chart, to the salmon pinks, for bluish pinks will jangle.
White lilies, on the other hand, complement and enhance warm- or even hot-colored flowers. And white lilies are particularly delightful, I think, with cool-colored flowers.
On midsummer dog days, when even a scrap of shade is welcome, white lilies waving gracefully among blue, blue-violet, pale pink, and white flowers can make a garden look air-conditioned, particularly if the flowers are seen against shade. Stay on the cool side of the flower spectrum, and you’ll feel cooler.
Another ideal use for white or pale-colored lilies is against and among darker plants. Needled and broad-leaved evergreens, deep-colored, shaded leafy screens, and hedges will silhouette the lilies as the sun picks them out.
Choosing Companion For Lilies
Remember, too, when choosing companions for lilies, that the foliage of all plants used together should be related.
Large lilies with coarse foliage will look even coarser if the supporting cast is unduly delicate.
Smaller and more delicate lilies can be made to look more important by furnishing them with companions of greater fragility and refinement.
For the best effect, lilies should dominate in some compositions, while in others, they must play a supporting role, albeit with the assurance of a star.
Combining Plants Beautifully
But to get down to cases.
Golden Chalice and Rainbow strain lilies or L. martagon album and its hybrids, followed closely by the Madonna and Cascade strain group, combine beautifully for early-in-the-season bloom in the garden border with white, blue, blue-violet, and purple delphiniums.
Libunt testaccum’s amber orange, for instance, and the warm hues of the L. hollandicum-tigrinum hybrids highlight the deep dark tones of delphinium and are also pleasing with the whites.
For a finishing touch, add a base planting of dwarf or medium-sized lemon marigolds. These will enhance the lilies’ warm colors, shade their roots, and provide a living mulch.
During Torrid August
During torrid August, it is pleasant to see the Olympic Hybrids, the pink selections (Leucanthemum hybrid), and the white-with-brownish-reverse of L. sargentiae in the border either with the late-summer perennial phlox, fall asters, double and single Shasta daisies, and early chrysanthemums or with annuals which are then beginning to come into their own full glory at that time.
In September
September brings L. speciosum with its white and pink-or red-spotted hybrids. They look best with annuals, chrysanthemums, and fall asters, especially the new compact dwarf varieties whose pinks, lavenders, whites, and blues flatter the lilies.
Blue aster Frikarti, which does well for me, although some gardeners find it capricious, is excellent also with L. formosanum and its hybrids, whose white and purplish brown reverses are a good foil for the blue aster.
Lilies In Rock Gardens
Of course, these are only a few of the lilies that may be used, and only a fraction of the effective combinations for them in the garden border.
There remains now the use of lilies in rock gardens. Here, the smaller, shorter-stemmed varieties, such as:
- L. amabile
- L. cernuum
- L. concolor
- L. rubellum
- L. maculatum (elegans)
- L. pumilum (tenuifolium)
It should be used, particularly if the area is small. Plant them where their roots will be shaded, on the north side of a large rock, for instance, because the rock garden may be too well drained and dry for their liking.
Woodlands With Light Shade
Even woodlands with light shade or a place where the sun penetrates only a few hours a day are not impossible places for lilies.
- Bellingham Hybrids
- L. auratum
- L. henryi
- L. hansoni
- L. canadense
- L. superbum
- L. rubellum
- L. japonicum
- L. Humboldt
- Green Mountain
- Olympic Hybrids
It has been used where the shade was not too dense and soil and drainage good.
Ferns make excellent groundcovers in these spots, and ajuga hosta and other woodland denizens with a shady past and future will flourish as companions.
Where lilies are naturalized, native shade plants can be used as accompaniments, and both blue and Hills of Snow hydrangeas make good shrub neighbors. Actually, the possibilities for using lilies are limited only by imagination.
Favorable Growing Conditions For Lilies
Lilies are not as capricious inmates of the garden as once believed. And if we provide them with favorable conditions for growth and health, they’ll thank us with unstinted bloom.
Well-Drained Soil
Well-drained soil is the first requisite, for bulbs should not have to deal with excess moisture, especially during dormancy or rot and fungus diseases may result.
Even lilies which are natives to boggy regions, perch themselves on hummocks so that only the roots rest in soggy soil.
Therefore, cultivate the soil deeply before planting and add drainage where necessary. An open, porous, rich-in-humus soil that allows excess water to drain off but is still spongy enough to hold moisture during the growing season is ideal.
Fertilizer
It’s generally agreed that a fertilizer with a high potash content makes lilies more disease-resistant, while one high in nitrogen results in soft, weak sterns.
One authority recommends 3 parts dried manure to 1 part bonemeal, with 3 or more parts wood ashes (potash) unless the soil is unduly alkaline. Most lilies prefer neutral to slightly acid soils.
Those with 2-8-10 or 0-10-10 analyses are preferred if commercial plant foods are used, although a 5-10-5 one is all right if extra potash is added in some other form.
Avoid air stagnation around lilies. Air movement will assist in maintaining their health, but sweeping winds, of course, will result in snapped stems and damaged flowers despite staking and tying.
Mulching
Mulching during the growing season conserves moisture and eliminates weeding, but use an open, porous mulching material so that air and rain may penetrate freely. A winter mulch is appreciated, especially in the first year of planting.
It prevents heaving and breakage of new roots and too-early spring growth, which late spring frosts may nip.
These, then, are the quick facts about lilies and their use. Don’t shortchange them, but use them to their fullest, surround them with good companions, and invite yourself to the garden party.
44659 by John Burton Brewer