The regal lily comes from a small, bleak, rocky, windswept valley in western China. It grows in the narrow, semi-arid valley of the Min River and is native to an area of about 50 miles in extent — a surprisingly limited distribution.
The altitude varies from 2,500 to 6,000 feet. Although the summers are hot, the winters are severely cold, and strong winds blow constantly.
In fact, there are warnings in Chinese characters carved in the rocks advising travelers not to loiter there.
When taken from the small locality where it is native, the regal lily will thrive wherever the common apple tree can be grown successfully.
It comes easily from seeds but does not commonly produce bulb offsets like some lilies, such as the speciosums.
Pure White Regal Lilies
Some lily lovers object to the purple or brown markings outside the trumpets of the regal lily. Still, this characteristic has been eliminated by producing pure white strains, both in the United States and France.
With the white regal’s early, midseason, and late strains, it can be enjoyed for three weeks or even a month in a cool season, with the last of June and the first of July filling the air with its fragrance and beauty.
Some gardeners warn us that regals should not be planted near other lilies. They claim that the regals are like tiger lilies — so healthy and vigorous that they carry diseases and infections without harm to themselves, which injure, damage, and kill other less sturdy varieties.
This has not been my experience with either regals or tiger lilies, grown with more than 50 species and varieties.
This is all about the will to succeed in this climate, which is possibly even more trying and difficult for plants and hardy perennials than the Min River valley of far western China.
We do not have the rocks or as much wind, but we do have thaws in winter with no snow for protection.
Regal lilies can even be planted early in the spring, when held in winter storage under proper conditions, and will grow and bloom that same season.
Fall Planting
Auratums and many other lilies when spring-planted sulk that season, refuse to come up at all or if so, they are puny and do not bloom.
It takes them the second or even the third year to develop as they should. They need to be fall-planted and not too deeply, a mistake made by many.
Auratums here would grow one season and then be gone. Why? They are hardy enough, so something evidently did not suit them.
Thus I used trace elements or rare earth and copper spray. Now in my garden, the auratums flourish the third and fourth year after planting, and they are stronger and better than ever.
L. speciosum album has acted the same, although L. speciosum rubrum magnificum is very successful.
Planting Lily Seeds
When lily seeds are planted in sub-irrigated flats indoors in winter, most kinds germinate very well and make nice seedlings by spring.
I have plenty of trouble trying to move them to a permanent outdoor location. In most cases, they do not survive the transplanting, even with watering, shading, and whatever I can think of to accomplish the shift.
Consequently, I have tried planting the seeds where they are to remain, which is a tricky practice.
Some lilies, such as L. pumilum, the Siberian coral lily, formerly known as L. tenuifolium, seem to do best if the seeds are planted where they are to remain permanently.
Short Life of Lilies
This may be how to handle other short-lived lilies, such as L. testaceum and others. When lily seeds are planted outside where the bulbs are to remain permanently, many lilies refuse to germinate.
They should be sown as early as it is safe; in fact, the earlier, the better. If a dry spell occurs, the rows should be watered, and an anchored burlap or newspaper covering should be put on to hold the moisture.
In the Pacific Northwest, regal lily bulbs are grown from seed, as one grower put it, “like radishes.”
The regal lily seeds freely and sets seeds from its own pollen. It comes true from seed, while other lilies, such as ageratum, vary greatly from seed.
Dainty Yellow Lily
In the Autumn of 1949, I was fortunate enough to get three bulbs of Yellow Bunting, a hybrid of Lilium pumilum, from the originator, Mr. F. L. Skinner, Dropntore, Manitoba, Canada, which is several hundred miles north of the U. S.-Canadian boundary line.
My three bulbs bloomed a year ago. But the L. pumilum type, formerly known as L. tenuifolium, and popularly called the Siberian coral lily because of the coral-red color of the type, is claimed to be a short-lived lily when the bulbs are transplanted.
After they bloomed, the plants died down since it was a very dry Summer. I feared I had lost them. I mulched and even watered some to offset the very dry season, which was severe enough to kill such lilies as L. speciosum.
Yellow Bunting
I was glad to see two of the Yellow Bunting come up the following spring. There was also another lily plant near that looked like an L. pumilum but was twice as tall as the two, so I concluded it must be something else.
But when the buds came, it was the third Yellow Bunting bulb with eight buds. Of the other two, one had two buds, and the other three.
They were in bloom for June first, almost in time for Memorial Day. The color of Yellow Bunting is clear yellow, even a little more yellow than the old Harison’s yellow rose, which is as hardy as a wild rose.
Planting Seeds
The reputed short life of L. pumilum lilies can be prevented, it is claimed, by planting the seeds where they are to remain permanently as bulbs.
Yet this may not always be feasible. I have one planting of the coral lily that is now more than 20 years old, and that is a fairly long life for any lily.
This species seeds freely and sets seeds from its own pollen, and the seed germinates quickly. The blooms have a faint but pleasant honey fragrance, yet they are not listed among the fragrant lilies.
44659 by H. Roy Mosnat