Lilies: Fall orders and planting, 1 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
How funny! I have an excel spreadsheet too! I have one for lilies, one for roses, and one for every plant I ever bought, complete with supplier and installation date.

Frankly, your aversion to upright Asiatics was shared by me. I found them small and uninteresting, lacking scent and being the lilies people just stuck in their yards. And then I discovered that oriental lilies are temperamental. There is actually a thread somewhere on DG about reliable orientals and red orientals. My very first lilies were from Brent and Becky (5 regales for $6.00, if you can imagine) that I still have today, and 5 Montreux, which I drowned. Then White Flower Farm had a special on a dozen Casablancas. I put them almost a foot down, thinking it was necessary, in soil next to the house with lots of gravel in it (didn't realize it, but that provides sharp drainage) and they were unbelievable. Thy were growing from the base of our foundation plants, which were bayberries, and the combo was magical! I was sold. But there are only a handful of reliable orientals (Sorbonne and Acapulco amonst them) so I moved on to trumpets.

I got lilum martagon, White Henryi and Silver Sunburst from OHG. I got Amethyst Temple from White Flower Farm. The last two are very difficult to find in commerce, as are Emerald Temple and Logidragon, which came from B&D. Once I discovered The Lily Garden, and subsequently B&D, I bought exclusively from them for many years. Then a couple of years ago I found Buggy Crazy (sadly, out of business) and Faraway Flowers.

The mini daffs should keep them safe. I discovered it a few years ago and started writing about it everywhere on DG. I kept recommending WP Milner, and was amused to find that it was sold out everywhere. Before that, 50 plus lilies were wiped out by voles one year. Since then - not a one! Is there anything more disappointing than planting these beauties, only to look up in spring and find them gone? Then there the lilies that had their little heads bitten off by rabbits. After at least five years of having the same lilies disappear every year (my rabbits have a favorite spot) I put mini daffs where I though the stems were, and the next year "found" Jubileo, Coral Babies (gifts from TLG) and Longidragon. It was like Christmas. And the most satusfying thing? Because the bulbs hadn't bloomed in 5 years, they were huge, and when they bloomed, they made up for lost time.

Don't worry too much about your bulbs. I noticed this spring that a Silk Road had risen to the surface during the winter. I spotted the yellow in the bulb. Panicking, I pulled it up and put it in a pot. It was one of my best bloomers (go figure).

And wow, I miss Buggy. This is Lilium Champagne.

This message was edited Nov 6, 2011 12:54 AM