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 with overflowing 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 kinds of flowers will not tolerate being crowded in between other things because of the space they naturally demand. Lilies are different; 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.
The variety of possibilities with lilies is almost unimaginable, but I fancy you are thinking, “What kind of lilies should I plant?”
Garden Of Lilies
We will suppose your garden is the usual plot with ordinary soil, and you are an average gardener who has visions of lilies in all their perfection gracing the garden picture.
We imagine you want a selection of lilies that will bloom from early spring to late fall and include 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.
Flowering Season
First, we must consider the flowering season. The earliest lilies start flowering in May, depending somewhat on climatic conditions and variations in seasons.
The gay and cheerful coral lily, Lilium pumilum (tenuifolium), either 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, which demands full sunshine, but with the soil shaded, 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
Earlier than the coral lily, it is primarily for the connoisseur; it is rather difficult and uncertain at times but an exquisite gem, long-lived under ideal conditions. It 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, and 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
One of the loveliest of this season is the dainty white L. 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 Turk’s cap lily not too difficult and long-lived in congenial surroundings. L. 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
L. 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, L. concolor racemosa, is taller and more robust. A true sealing wax red, it is a distinct addition to any garden.
Lilium Candidum
L. candidum, the beloved Madonna lily known in gardens for over 3,000 years, should be included in every lily planting.
This lovely lily has been 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.
Regal Lily
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!
Another trumpet lily makes its bow as the regal display is on the wane. The Olympic Strain of centifolium hybrids is fast becoming almost as well known as the regal.
These extend the season another two to three weeks. They are vigorous and healthy, free-blooming, and unbeatable for mass effects.
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 L. 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 have to 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 L. 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.
Rubrum
Mid-August into September finds the speciosum lilies in flower. Many of you know them as “rubrum,” and surely they are one of the highlights of the lily pageant.
The early variety, L. speciosum punctatum, starts the show, but the main display comes two weeks later.
As a general rule, named forms are better than the wild type, usually sold as rubrum. L. speciosum magnificum is extremely doh in coloring. One of the darkest is Carmine pink Oregon.
Giant
Giant is among the best, with very favorable reports on it has come from all parts of the country. L. speciosum kraetzeri is an exquisitely lovely white form with a pale green midrib, a bit later than most of the others and very popular. L. speciosum may well be the mainstay of the late-summer lily show.
Aurelian Hybrids
Lilies for the late-summer garden should include the new Aurelian Hybrids, one of the most outstanding new lily strains.
This unusual strain, developed by crossing the Chinese species, L. henryi, with L. myriophyllum superbum (sulphureum) from Burma, comes in various shades and forms.
There are reflexed Turk’s 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 they are so spectacular you will want them anyhow. They are, without doubt, the most important of the new strains available.
Lilium Formosanum
The latest of all to bloom is.L. formosanum, late form. It is a narrow funnel-shaped bloom white with a wine-purple exterior. In their native Formosa, they are said to flower year-round.
Here in Oregon and down South, they start in September and bloom until well into the winter months.
I cut them at Thanksgiving time with numerous buds still unopened. L. 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: Carrier Of Disease
No article about lilies should fail to mention the tiger lily and urge that it be rigorously excluded from every garden.
The tiger lily is a menace to every garden, a “Typhoid Mary,” a carrier of the disease, though not itself affected by the disease. So if you have any tiger lilies in your garden, by all means, dig and burn them.
We know of no source of disease-free tiger lilies. In their place is a plant that lilies with the jaw-breaking name of L. leichtlinii maximowiczii. It is a far better lily than the old, dangerous tiger lily and remarkably healthy.
44659 by R Ware