The hundreds of letters that came in answer to “The Beginning Gardener” lily quiz in the March issue were almost overwhelming. More than 1,100 answers (from all 50 states except Nevada and Hawaii) were received.
Over 72% percent had correct lists, meaning about 800 packets of lily and hemerocallis seeds were sent. Many more chose lily seeds than daylily seeds. This indicates a real interest in the true lilies.
We are grateful to Mrs. D. Birch (Okla.), Mrs. J. Aldrich and Mrs. S. Thiel (Mo.), and Mrs. G. Fisher (Wis.), for donating seeds to help fill the packets. Our supply, which looked limited at the start, would have needed to be more.
Letters containing such comments as: “I learned a lot about lilies; therefore, even if I do not win, the quiz was fun” made it fun for us, too.
The quiz proved again how confusing common names could be. One plant may have several common names, or the same name may be applied to several very different plants.
Plants And Its Common Names
True Lilies
The true lilies (there were five) in the list of ten were: No. 4, gold Meadow lily—Lilium condense, a true lily, banded lily, Lilium auratum, a beautiful lily with bowl-shaped blossoms.
Hybridizers are using it to produce wonderful new hybrids. No. 6, Madonna lily, L. candiduria, one of the oldest garden lilies known, is the pure white lily used for June weddings.
No. 8, Meadow lily, is Lilium canadense, native to some of the eastern and middle southern states—a lovely lily to have in the garden. Its bell-shaped blossoms, spotted on the inside, maybe shades of red or yellow.
No. 9, tiger lily, L. tigrinum, an orange-colored, spotted lily, has bulbils in the leaf axils. No. 10, Turk’s cap lily, is L. superbum, another native in the eastern states. Turk’s cap is also applied to L. martagon and others of the type having blossoms with reflexed segments.
Not True Lilies
Among the five that were not true or real lilies, belladonna-lily and mariposa-lily were often incorrectly named true lilies.
Several readers remembered Maud R. Jacobs’ excellent article about belIadonna-lily in the August 1959 issue of Flower & Garden. But, as Mrs. Jacobs explains so well, its botanical or Latin name must be clearer.
It may be Amaryllis belladonna or Brunsuigia rosea. It has also been called Callicore rosca. It is a temperamental member of the Amaryllis family. Its leafless flower stem is one clue that it is not a true lily.
Webster says of mariposa-lily: “Any of a genus (Calochortus) of plants of the Lily family, of Western North America.”
The plants grow from corms. When the blackberry lily, Belamcanda chinensis, a member of his family, is not in bloom, it could be mistaken for a clump of the iris.
Unlike the paper-thin seeds of a true lily, the clusters of shiny black seeds remind one of a ripe blackberry.
Arum Family
Calla-lily is a member of the Arum family and is of the genus Zanledeschia. The tiny true flowers are on a spadix surrounded by a spathe, the showy part of the “flower.”
Lily-of-the-valley belongs to the Lily family but to a different genus, Convallaria. The fleshy pips have many fibrous roots. The fragrant little bells hang on leafless stems.
I can sympathize with those who felt frustrated after searching for hours for the correct answers to the quiz and then not finding them. Some of the questions about identity that came in the letters baffled me completely. This month’s readers may help.
It’s the same old trouble, common names, and no way of knowing which plants they prefer. Does anyone know what candlestick lily is when it does not refer to the true dauricum or utnbellattnn type?
A Massachusetts gardener described her plants thus: “I have something from an 80-year-old planting a lady in Maine gave me. She called it ‘candlestick-lily,’ but it has big plantain-lily leaves.”
St. Joseph Lily
St. Joseph lily is another common name for Lilium candidum. A California woman is looking for some other plant with that name.
She wrote: “I have tried for years to get the St. Joseph lily bulbs, have gone to every nursery here in San Francisco, but to no avail. I have tried around the Bay area, but no one knows what I mean.
When I was a little girl at home, which was many, many years ago, we had a St. Joseph lily in the garden. They were not true lilies, as the bulbs are like onion sets.
It is pure white, no other color. The leaves are long and spiral and bloom like a very small gladiolus. One nurseryman told me he thought they were also called St. Joseph’s staff, but he said they were a very old variety.”
A gardener from San Antonio, Tex., wants to know what lily (she thinks it is a true lily) bears the name `Imperial Lily.’
She states: “I have several that were given to me. They grow massive. One stalk of blossoms will include 16 to 20 trumpets on a stalk as large as an average woman’s forearm.
They are heavily scented, a little purplish on the outside—white with a lavender tinge and purple stripes inside. Large beds of these lilies are in a Corpus Christi park along Ocean View Drive. They were blooming there in November. I have regal lilies, so know they are not the same, even though similar.”
Meadow Lily
A South Dakota reader has a real puzzler. She said the meadow lily of her childhood days (about 1897) was untrue, for it bloomed on a smooth, leafless, 2’ foot stalk.
The blossom (one to a plant) was about 3” inches long and 3” inches in diameter, spotted much as the ‘Fire Lily,’ which used to be called ‘Red Russian.’
She couldn’t remember the leaves, but they could have been close to the ground. The plants, native to northwest Iowa, bloomed in late July or August in the tall grass in the “low swamp of a swale or slough.”
Her mother used to say: “Solomon was not arrayed like one of these.” It was always called meadow-lily.
A request came from Nebraska to identify a lily that came up very early. “It is usually up higher than a bushel basket by May first. The lily stems are three-sided. My plant, seven or eight years old, has not bloomed. Some tell me that the buds freeze.
I grew it from a seed an Omaha friend gave to me. It goes dormant when hot weather comes in July. The leaves are wide like an ordinary amaryllis but three-sided. They stand up straight until about 18” inches high, then drop over like daffodils do when they mature.”
For those who requested more information about planting lily and hemerocallis seeds, the important thing to remember is that whenever and wherever the seeds are planted, the soil (or whatever medium is used) must be kept at that “nicely moist” stage—neither too wet nor too dry—until the seeds germinate.
He did this best in a seed frame, a flower pot, or a flat. Cover the frame with burlap to conserve moisture.
Set movable containers in a sheltered location or a cool, sunny window inside. Cover with plastic or burlap. It takes a degree of patience, too. Sometimes 2° degrees Fahrenheit! But it’s fun!
44659 by Olga R. Tiemann