lilies

August Lilies

August 14, 2013 by Ilona Erwin

Lilies are one of the main joys of August, if you ask me. These are not the blooms of the Asian lilies that come earlier in the season, but those lushly fragrant Oriental lilies and the tall spires of Trumpet and Aurelian strains.

These are opulent flowers, luxurious in color, form and perfume.

If you don’t have the late season lilies blooming in your garden, the time to order them is now, along with other fall planted bulbs. They will be available in local stores sometime in September, usually. I have so fallen in love with the newer “Orienpet” selections that I hope to plant some in my garden this fall. I photographed some in the Inniswood garden in years past.

In my first garden there were some tall Trumpet lilies, such as the ‘Black Dragon Strain’. Here I tried Lilium regale, but the voracious rodents soon took care of that experiment. This time I hope to “box” the bulbs in hardware cloth. These bulbs are worth the trouble to protect and to plant with amended soil because they bring so much beauty to the summer garden.

They rival roses in all but the fact that they aren’t shrubs, and so don’t have quite the substance of form, but their vertical visuals make up for that. In fact, it is in the Rose garden section that the park at Inniswood has their most exciting display of many lilies.

Lilies will start in July, and with the Oriental species and hybrids, they will continue into fall.

What do you need to plant lilies in your own garden?

Sunshine, at least a half day
A well-drained location
A spot ventilated by air, not so close as to encourage disease.
If they love their spot and get crowded, lift and divide them in September or October.

How To Care for Them

Plant the bulbs 4″ to 6″ deep
Mulch them
Fertilize at emerging time and then a month later, beware of too much nitrogen. Bone meal is welcome.
Water sparingly, lilies are used to dry conditions, normally.

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© 2013 written for Ilona’s Garden Journal by Ilona E. An excellent blog.

True Lilies

March 26, 2011 by Ilona Erwin

Glorious Lilies

I mentioned that lilies do well for me. They do, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had some learning experiences along the way. For one thing, I have a country garden with all the attendant critters that like to munch on lily bulbs. Also, as a genus lilies are not uniform in their requirements. So even though my Madonna lilies have struggled, my neighbors seem to flourish.

Lilium candidum

Madonna lilies are elegantly beautiful when they do well.

Mine have given different results in different years, they are planted closer to the surface than other lilies and they are available for planting earlier in the season (fall is the planting season for lily bulbs, but spring is the second best time). They bloom earlier, too; usually seen in June gardens.

Asiatic Hybrids

One of my first attempts with growing lilies was the Asiatic lily, Enchantment. A deep orange, I had paired it with the rose, Fragrant Cloud. Oh, those were the days! In that city garden I could keep the hybrid tea roses from freezing to death over the winter.

Asiatic lilies are one of the easiest lilies to grow and I have a huge stand of golden ones of generic type. (I bought one of those grab bags for economical reasons).

Trumpet Lilies

They don’t have the fragrance of some of the other types, but they sure put on a beautiful show. Trumpet lilies are just as easy, and I grew several types in the city garden, they are tall for a windy country place, but fine if staked. I’m thinking of getting some in the fall, Black Dragon was one of my favorites.

Oriental Hybrids

For both the show and the sweetest of smells, Oriental lilies which bloom later in the season take all honors. They are a littler trickier to grow, liking rich soil and slightly acid or neutral pH.

These are flowers that really stand out and say “Garden!”. Think powerful presence flowers like peonies, hibiscus, etc.

Columbia-Platte Lilies

Columbia-Platte Lilies are particularly beautiful. I still have ‘Tiger Babies’ and one of the ‘Butterfly’ hybrids…. although I better check for that one. The remodeling projects and house painting has wrecked havoc on my plantings.

Most of my lilies I bought through White Flower Farm. I notice that this year they have a mixed bag of butterfly hybrids. I would definitely consider purchasing those. The only drawback is not knowing what colors one is getting.

Lilium Regale

A frugal way to buy bulbs.
My L. regale was the result of buying up the sale clearance of Easter lily promotion at Krogers one year. Mainly because I totally lost all the ones I bought through WWF. Rodents….. the one bane of lilies in my garden. Rodents like to eat bulbs and lilies are especially toothsome, it seems.

Or Buy A Bag Of Bulbs

If you plant them in a basket, or a box made of hardware cloth, it will keep your plants safe from those hungry rodents.

Grown En Masse

Years ago I had read in an old garden book of a scheme of herbaceous plantings based upon lily choices, now that I’ve grown lilies and seen how much they add to a garden I think it seems like a sensational idea.

An example of one garden implementing such an idea: the long borders rimming each side of the path are centered with lilies.

lily garden — In Reford Gardens; source: Plinth et al. blog

The beauty fo such a garden is obvious, but can you imagine the heady scent on a summer’s day? It must be intoxicating and wonderful.

Read all about Asiatic Garden Lilies on the profile page, (more photos and good varieties to look for…)

::repost from 7/9/06::

Arrange the July garden around lilies

July 5, 2009 by Ilona Erwin

Every month has it’s supreme leading lady flower of the garden; June has the Rose, but July has the Lily. Especially now that the “Orienpets” have been created. They were the belle of several beds at the Inniswood Gardens Metro Park, and I would love to have some in my garden next year. “Orania” was the one I was most taken with because of her blonde and blush coloring, but there were others that were just as lovely.

You know, in gardening you sort of run out of superlatives when you see a stand of flowers that overflows with color, form and fragrance. I suppose you can just stand there without words, but that doesn’t work so well when trying to describe an impression of the senses to others. Not even the photos do justice to the way the eye is glutted with such delicious blooms, not to mention soft cotton candy scent- it is that sweet!

I’ve written about other lilies previously, and I really think you could build garden pictures around many of these perennial bulbs with their tall vertical lines, large flowers and delightfully harmonious colors- they manage to combine oranges, purples and pinks equally well. I think it is their subtleties that do it. Softened like ice cream sherberts and sorbets or sparkling with deep and intense hues, they hold your attention in the bright sunshine and colorfully clad neighbors vying with each other in the height of the bloom season.