In your garden, be it large or small, there is no reason why you may not enjoy the exquisite perfection of hardy lilies.
Even in a garden filled to over-flowing with other flowers, lilies may be tucked in here and there to enhance the garden picture. And surprising as it may seem, lilies like just such places.
Many flowers will not tolerate being crowded in between other things because of the space they naturally demand.
Lilies are different as they thrive when the foliage of other plants shades the soil and keeps it cool.
They thrust their slender, short-leaved stems into the light and produce exotic blooms of almost unbelievable perfection, a serene beauty that will envy the entire neighborhood.
Over 300+ Lily Varieties To Choose From
The variety of possibilities with lilies is almost unimaginable. but I fancy you are thinking, “What kind of lilies should I plant?”
We will suppose your garden is the usual plot with ordinary soil, and you are an average gardener with visions of lilies in all their perfection gracing the garden picture.
We will imagine you want a selection of lilies that will give bloom from early spring to late fall and include the various types of flowers and a good color range.
Believe it or not, there are more than 300+ varieties of lilies from which we may choose, all grown in the bulb area of the Pacific Northwest and available to you freshly dug in the fall just when they should be planted.
I can imagine your thoughts when you are confronted with the problem of choosing from hundreds of kinds and trying to select the right ones for your particular garden.
Unless you are familiar with them, the task looks almost hopeless.
Planting Lilies Depending On The Flowering Season
First, we must consider the flowering season. The earliest lilies start flowering in May, depending somewhat on climatic conditions and seasonal variations.
Lilium Pumilum
The cheerful coral lily, Lilium pumilum (tenuifolium), in brilliant scarlet or its lesser known yellow form, Golden Gleam, may well be the opening number in the lily parade.
This cheery little beauty demands full sunshine, but with the soil shaded, it grows 2’ feet tall.
It is a dainty Turks cap bloom and should be planted in three or more clumps for the best effect.
Even tiny bulbs, no larger than a marble, will flower with surprising freedom and make delightful pictures.
Lilium Rubellum
Lilium rubellum, earlier than the coral lily, is primarily for the connoisseur.
It is rather difficult and uncertain at times but an exquisite gem, long-lived under ideal conditions. But is worth all the effort it demands.
Golden Chalice Hybrids
Next, we might suggest the new Golden Chalice hybrids, a strain developed by Jan de Graaff and rapidly becoming known for their brilliant garden effect.
Colors range from pale yellow to soft orange.
June brings a veritable flood of lilies extending well into July. Despite the great variety of other flowers blooming at this time, lilies may easily be the top performers in this month’s garden picture.
Lilium Martagon Album
One of the loveliest of this season is the dainty white Lilium martagon album, a native of Europe and Asia known to have been cultivated in gardens since the sixteenth century.
It is a charming, small-flowered Turks cap lily that is not too difficult to grow and long-lived in pleasant surroundings.
Lilium martagon album is delightful among a mass of ferns, where it forms large clumps and becomes a spot of joy year after year.
Lilium Concolor
Lilium concolor has small upright star-shaped blooms, scarlet with self-colored anthers.
It is not a spectacular show flower but a “different” lily whose brilliance you will enjoy.
An improved form, Lilium concolor racemosa, is taller and more robust. A true sealing wax red is a distinct addition to any garden.
Lilum Candidum
Lilium candidum, the beloved Madonna lily known in gardens for more than 3,000 years, should be included in every lily planting.
This lovely lily, known by more than 100 different names, though a great favorite, has long been a headache in some gardens due to its inclination to disease.
However, the new Cascade Strain, a much-improved form welcomed by everyone, has proven far healthier.
As the last week of June fades into July, the world-famous regal lily struts upon the stage.
Maybe you think it is common, but if you were seeing it for the first time, you would consider it among the best.
Today the regal is so plentiful and cheap that mass plantings open vast possibilities for garden pictures. Don’t overlook this beauty!
Trumpet Lily “Olympic Strain”
As the regal display is on the wane, another trumpet lily makes its bow. The Olympic Strain of centifolium hybrids is fast becoming almost as well known as the regal.
These extend the season another 2 to 3 weeks. They are vigorous and healthy, free-blooming, and unbeatable for mass effects.
Lilium Auratum
Lilium auratum, famous as the golden rayed lily, makes its bow. This marvelous beauty was introduced almost 100 years ago, but not until the last decade has it been possible to buy home-grown, disease-free bulbs.
Until American-grown bulbs became available, success with Lilium auratum was a precarious gamble.
Imported bulbs arrive too late for fall planting in most parts of the country, so in addition to the abuse of a long ocean voyage, they must be placed in cold storage for spring planting. This further saps their strength.
However, though many dealers still offer imported auratums, one need not risk failure.
American-grown Lilium auratum bulbs are now available late in the fall at the right planting time.
No small measure of your success with this spectacular garden beauty depends upon this factor.
Mid-August into September finds the speciosum lilies in flower. Many of you know them as “rubrum,” and indeed, they are one of the highlights of the lily pageant.
Lilium Speciosum Punctatum
The early variety, Lilium speciosum punctatum, starts the show, but the main display comes two weeks later.
Generally, named forms are better than wild ones, usually sold as rubrum.
Lilium speciosum magnificum is extremely good in coloring, one of the darkest of all.
Oregon Giant is among the best, with favorable reports on it coming from all parts of the country.
Lilium speciosum kraetzeri is an exquisitely lovely white form with a pale green midrib, a bit later than most others and very popular.
Aurelian Hybrids
Lilium speciosum may well be the mainstay of the late-summer lily show.
There are reflexed Turks cap blooms, flaring trumpets, wide-open flat types, and all kinds in between.
Colors range from white through cream, buff, and orange to yellow and apricot with almost unimaginable blends.
These Aurelian Hybrids are still far from plentiful and a bit costly but so spectacular you will want them anyhow.
They are, without doubt, the most important of the new strains vet available.
Lilium Formosanum
The latest of all to bloom is Lilium formosanum, late form. It is a narrow funnel-shaped bloom, white with a wine-purple exterior.
In its native Formosa, they are said to flower year-round. Here in Oregon and down South, they start in September and keep on blooming until well into the winter months.
I’ve cut them at Thanksgiving time with numerous buds still unopened.
Lilium formosanum is not a long-lived lily, but it is cheap and easily raised from speed, sometimes flowering the first year.
Every garden needs it to provide late lily bloom.
Tiger Lily
No article about lilies should fail to mention the tiger lily and urge it to be rigorously excluded from every garden.
The tiger lily is a menace to every garden, a “Typhoid Mary,” a carrier of a disease, though not itself affected by it.
If you have any tiger lilies in your garden, by all means, dig and burn them. Unfortunately, we know of no source of disease-free tiger lilies.
In their place, a plant that lily with the jaw-breaking name of Lilium leichtlini maximowiczi.
It is a far better lily than the old and dangerous tiger lily and remarkably healthy.