The luxury of the lily
Published 6:25 pm Monday, November 24, 2008
From the earliest times, lilies have been found in flower gardens. Few gardeners are indifferent to them. Their color, beauty of form and heady scent all add to the beauty of the garden, and, in addition, they can help beautify a room when used as cut flowers. Of the scented types, even one stem can perfume a room.
Although thought of as expensive, their actual cost is rarely much more than that of tulips or the newer introductions of daffodils. When you consider that it takes seven years from seed or four from the tiny bulbils formed by some species, the cost is understandable. Factor in their long life, however, and they become reasonable.
Although the North American Lily Society divides lilies into nine divisions, only three are easily available: Asiatic hybrids, Aurelian (or trumpet) hybrids and Oriental hybrids. The others are Martagon hybrids, Candidum hybrids, American hybrids, Longiflorum hybrids, all other hybrids not covered by the other divisions and true species. Many of the hybrids are so mixed that it is impossible to trace their origins. Each division has specific requirements for a bulb to be placed there.
The Asiatic hybrids revel in color. In all the warm tones, they vary in intensity from soft pastels to bright, bold colors to dark and dusky. They are the most widely grown lilies and the easiest to start with. They grow from about 18 inches to about four feet and are the earliest to bloom. Following soon after are the Aurelian (or trumpet) hybrids. At their glory in July and early August, these highly scented blossoms grace their three- to six-foot stems with as many as 20 flowers. Their color range is white through pink and cream through gold. The Orientals are the last to bloom of the easily found lilies. Tall and stately, highly scented, they bloom with colors from white to deep red. All lilies should be cut with as little stem as possible for your arrangement, as they need their leaves to regenerate.
The most important factor in growing beautiful lilies is deep, loose, neutral to acid, well-drained soil. For many Pacific Northwest gardeners, that means creating a special bed that keeps the bulbs away from the clay so many gardens have. Adding copious quantities of leaf mould, pumice or even perlite to the soil to keep it from becoming waterlogged is highly beneficial. The plants are reasonably heavy feeders, also, so they should be planted with a good bulb fertilizer or bone meal (although bone meal will draw voles and gophers, which happen to love lily bulbs), and top dressed with a good, organic fertilizer both as the stems emerge in the spring and just after the last blooms fade away. Dead-head all fading blossoms so that the energy from the leaves feeds the bulbs, not seed development.
Dig down at least 12 inches to create your lily bed if gardening on sand, 18 inches if on clay. Add the amended topsoil to the bottom of the hole to bring the bottom up to the level the bulb should be planted, place the bulb and fill it in. Generally speaking, the bulb should have twice the amount of soil above it as it is in size; in other words a three-inch bulb should have six inches; a two-inch bulb should have four inches above it. The exceptions would be very large bulbs, which shouldn’t be planted more than six inches below the surface and Madona lilies (which need lots of special care including yearly treatment with lime) should never be planted deeper than one inch.
By adding lilies to your garden, you will continue a tradition that traces back to the earliest cultivated flower gardens. And by bringing your cut blossoms into your home, you can create new traditions that will stretch far into the future.
A correction: if anyone has tried to reach me by e-mail for the past couple of columns, my new e-mail address is: lindagardenlady@speakeasy.net. I welcome questions and comments.
