For what they are and what they mean to us, their beauty and symbolism, lilies have earned a place in our hearts.
And, biased in their favor though I am, with more than a hundred acres of lilies to watch over and enjoy, increasingly, they seem to be taking their merited place in our gardens.
Already I have seen full carloads of lilies—all fine new varieties—leave the Pacific Coast on their way to the Eastern Seaboard. Truckload after truckload pulls out of Oregon nurseries heading southward.
For the thrill that comes once in a lifetime to the plant breeder, I have turned a corner to be confronted with a beautiful display of my new hybrids that were but a few years ago, or so it seems, only an idea that might or might not work.
Lecture On Lilies
Mid-Century Hybrids in vibrant colors next to Olympic lilies reaching for the sky are thriving in well-earned-for gardens, cherished by owners unknown to me. But conversely, I have seen many gardens that would provide perfect settings for lilies and found no sign of them.
The fact that both Dr. S. L. Emsweller and I were invited to lecture on our lilies by the Royal Horticultural Society of England and the stacks of letters I have received from Africa, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, and nearly every other civilized country in the Northern Hemisphere prove that the new American-grown lilies are the cynosure of foreign gardeners.
In their eyes, and I believe it to be true, they constitute a genuine American contribution to horticulture.
Moreover, neither climates nor soils seem to limit their use as much as the experts had feared. For example, when traveling this winter, I found many varieties growing well where I would never have expected a lily to grow.
Lilies Culture
But gardeners still have much to learn about their culture. First, a lily is not a bulb that can be treated like a tulip or hyacinth—as if it had a fully dormant period. A living plant, the lily should never want moisture or food.
It needs well-balanced soil that is both moist and adequately drained, either neutral or slightly acidic, and well-aerated to satisfy the lily’s high oxygen requirement.
Good exposure to sunlight allows the plant to develop straight stems and many flowers.
Tiger Lilies
Easy-to-grow, attractive, tolerant of different climates and soils, persistent (in the biological sense of “continuing,” “persevering”)—these qualities are becoming more and more synonymous with the appellation “of hybrid origin.”
Certainly, indeed, the strong-growing, disease-resistant varieties of lilies now on the market are invariable of hybrid ancestry.
The opposite is demonstrated all too clearly by the true tiger lily, which exhibits symptoms of virus disease in its striped foliage and often even in its flowers.
Madonna Lilies
The old-fashioned Madonna lilies are becoming increasingly subject to fungus diseases, largely because of a virus-weakened condition. As a result, even the stocks of regal lily are no longer as vigorous and fine as I remember them from years past.
All three of these lilies have now been surpassed by stronger, healthier, and prettier lilies of hybrid origin.
Three Popular Lily Garden Types
Let us see what lily growers have done with these three popular garden types. The tiger has been combined with the candlestick lilies to produce a race of hybrids that have fine color, hardiness, resistance to drought or excess rain, and heat or cold to a greater degree than either of the parents.
Especially is this true of color, for the hybrids have a vibrant quality that gives many an arresting beauty.
Tiger Lily Hybrids
The tiger lily hybrids called the Mid-Century group, are fully described in the current bulb catalogs, so there is no need to list them here, although the freckled faces and lovely center eyes of outward-facing ones beg for special mention, while the aloof, upright-flowering types beckon to sun and butterflies with richly colored cups and bawls.
But I shall not even mention my favorite, Enchantment, nor the lovely Pagoda.
The Madonna Lily
The Madonna lily (Lilium candidum) is the oldest cultivated garden plant in the world. No strong-growing hybrid strains are available, but there is a new seedling race, the Cascade Strain.
Botanically speaking, the Cascade Strain is not of hybrid origin. Yet, it came from widely divergent selections made in foreign countries where the parent stock has been grown for so many years that the lilies act and look like different species.
First grown in large quantities from seed, then reselected down to only six plants in front of which a large stock has been built up through vegetative means, the Cascade Strain is free from diseases and strongly resistant to them.
True hybrids between this new strain and other species, such as L. chalcedonicum have been developed.
One of them appeared on the August cover of FLOWER GROWER last year–a charming little—white recurved lily with orange-red anthers. This and others like it will soon be named and put on the market to make their way into home gardens.
Regal Lilies
Of the third favorite, the ubiquitous regal lily, nothing but good has been said for some 30 or 40 years. When well-grown from good bulbs, it is still a lovely lily.
Yet, many years of undiscriminating mass production with emphasis on rapid bulb growth rather than on the beauty of flowers have caused all too apparent deterioration.
No wonder it is now being supplanted by the Olympic Strain, derived from crosses between the true, wild L. leucanthum var. centifolium and other trumpet lilies.
Seed is raised only from the best plants, with pyramidal flower heads and good color. These new trumpet lilies were crossed with the later-flowering L. sargentiae to extend the season to produce the lovely Green Mountain Hybrids.
Still later are the L. sulphureum hybrids, a few of which are still on the market. However, should a real demand for them develop, they can soon be raised in quantity.
Fiesta Hybrids
In other species, the old well-known types are, I believe, being replaced by better, newer hybrids—both here in the United States and in many other countries. Consider, for instance, the lovely little Asian lilies such as L. pumilum. L. Amabile and L. davidii.
Though they are nice garden plants, the hybrid strain marked under the name of Fiesta Hybrids has all of their good traits, plus many others, making them better suited to average garden conditions.
It is true that, in hybridizing, something of the charm found at times in the frail and miniature character of the true species is Lust. Yet from any group of these true species raised from seed, even the amateur gardener will point out one or two as the prettiest or best.
If this is done year after year, and the opinions of other competent gardeners are checked, a definite type of lily will emerge that is well-colored, well-balanced, sturdy, and vigorous, with foliage a rich and healthy color and stems straight and strong.
Should such a lily also produce a nice large and smooth bulb, then we commercial growers consider that such an all-around plant can and should be multiplied for stock.
Various Crossed Species
Such ideal plants of various species are crossed with one another persistently until a hybrid strain emerges that shows a very high percentage of well-formed plants, all with clear and clean colors.
Thus the Fiesta Hybrids were developed by such breeders as the late Dr. H. Abel. Dr. F. L. Skinner of Manitoba. R. W. Wallace and W. A. Constable of England and several others.
I believe these easily raised_ cheap lilies should soon be among our most popular garden plants. But, then and only then should they be introduced in named varieties.
Right now, we can still make too much progress in this strain to “freeze” any particular lily as one destined to become a popular variety. After all, its descendants will undoubtedly soon appear to outshine it.
Lilium Henryi
Another example: L. henryi, with its willowy stems and small recurved flowers of pale orange that bleach in the sun, is no great treasure in the garden. In mine, it is apt to lie down and entangle our feet unless staked like a raspberry bush.
A cross with the best form of trumpet lilies, the selected Olympics, brought a hatch of plants to gladden the heart of any true gardener.
From this cross and subsequent ones between the best hybrids has sprung a seemingly endless variety of forms and colors listed as the Aurelian hybrids. All of them are hardy, vigorous, disease-resistant, and lovely, too.
The Aurelian Strains
Picture broad star-shaped flowers in colors of another and gold, ivory, and emerald green, borne on 7-foot stems. As many as 20 large flowers per plant.
They have long pedicels, so individual blooms can be picked for arrangement or corsage and still leave plenty in the garden.
That is the Aurelian Sunburst Strain. And on their way to American gardens are beautifully formed trumpet lilies in orange and golden yellow or lemon and salmon—the Aurelian Golden Clarion Strain.
As if this were not enough, imagine huge bowl-shaped flowers borne on strong pedicels, in colors of fawn and gold or warm-toned ivory, sometimes with orange hearts and always sweetly scented.
That is the Aurelian Heart’s Desire strain. Such lilies combined with the deep blue of aconites and delphinium against a background of green shrubs or an old garden wall may sound like a dreamer’s image, but it is a picture easily realized.
Other Example Hybrids
There are many other examples hybrids between the lovely pink L. rubellum or the slightly taller L. japonicum and the large-flowered L. auratum platyphyllum from Japan; crosses between the last and L. speciosum, which gave rise to the Australian Wallace and a fine group of lilies raised by the United States Department of Agriculture at Beltsville, Maryland.
And the new Hollywood Hybrids were derived from front crosses between the vivid red star-shaped L. concolor from Korea and the garden hybrids of the Mid-Century group. They are giant, star-shaped lilies of great decorative value.
As such lilies become available, they will be listed in the lily catalogs and displayed in the gardens of nurseries and lily specialists. Therefore, just enumerating them here serves little purpose.
To hunt them down and see them growing under conditions similar to your own adds to the fun of gardening.
The lily’s needs are no different from any other strong-growing garden plant. And although the variety selection available is increasing.
It is still possible for any gardener to buy a comprehensive collection of the best in hybrid and species lilies for a small outlay.
New lily specialists are opening their display gardens, and many nurseries consider these plants as a special feature of summer displays.
Lilies in Home Garden
Despite regal bearing, fitting lilies into the home garden is no problem. First, they are fine, commanding flowers for a herbaceous border or planting among low-growing shrubs such as azaleas and rhododendrons.
I have used them thus with excellent effect. Another method I highly recommend is setting them in pots or plant boxes for a porch, terrace, or patio.
In keeping with the trend toward outdoor living, plants that respond to pot culture and lilies are easily brought close to the terrace or porch when in bloom, then removed to a secluded corner of the garden.
Lilies can be left in containers for years without transplanting.
For Potting
I have used a mixture made up of two parts of good rich garden loam, one of granulated peat moss and one of very well-rotted cow manure, several years old.
Bulbs are set as soon as they arrive from the deafer in October, then the pots are topped with some coarse leaf mold and river sand. Clean sand or vermiculite on top gives a clean, sterile surface.
Writing this reminds me of some pots of L. auratum platyphyllum from our seedling-raised stock. Some six years ago, I potted up one large bulb, which, in season, produced five large flowers on one stem. The next year two stems and 15 flowers appeared.
The third year I repotted the plant in an 11-inch pot and was rewarded with 49 flowers on three stems. Well, I still have the bulbs, now in a 24-inch ‘it, and expect at least six, perhaps seven, good stems and some smaller ones this year.
Of course, in such a case, strong feeding is necessary. We use liquid manure after the stem roots are fully developed and continue with weekly applications until well after flowering.
Great care should be taken that lilies in containers have perfect drainage, provided in the usual way with pieces of charcoal or fragments of broken pots over the hole. Otherwise, the plant will have little chance of survival.
With A Small Greenhouse
The lily season can be advanced for several months with a deep cold frame or a heated sun porch. Bulbs are stored at a temperature between 31° and 50° degrees Fahrenheit already potted up.
Old pots must be washed thoroughly and allowed to dry before use; new ones should be soaked for about 24 hours.
After six weeks, the lilies are moved into a warmer room where plants develop normally to flower during the latter part of March.
The bulbs may also be stored in damp peat at a temperature between 31° and 40° degrees Fahrenheit, to be taken out and potted at various times during the winter for a succession of blooms from March to May.
Potted Lilies
Once the lilies have bloomed, the pots can be set out in an inconspicuous corner of the garden. But they should not be put in a low spot where water accumulates, nor should they be allowed to dry out. Foliage will probably die during June or July, and they need little water after that.
Even in full flower, lilies can be lifted with bulb, basal, and stem roots to be planted in a large pot for the house or a show.
They should be well watered after transplanting and hardened off for 24 hours in a cool spot before being taken to the living room or exhibition hall.
The points to watch in such drastic moving are container drainage and water, which should be ample but not excessive.
For example, flowering lilies potted up from our fields are often left in the pots, watered, fed well, and then used for subsequent forcing experiments.
We have lilies in flower from February on without exceeding 55° during the winter months. The first varieties open in the fields in May, followed by an ever-changing show until late October or November.
What other plant family gives such a long flowering season? In fact, what else is there with the fragrance, beauty, nobility, and purity of our hardy garden lilies?
Admittedly I’m prejudiced, but to me, they seem the perfect choice for a garden hobby.
44659 by Jan De Graaff