It's all about the Species

LaPorte Avenue Nursery, in Colorado
http://www.laporteavenuenursery.com

Thanks, plntsrok! I'll definitely have a look there.

LaPorte Avenue, another very respectable nursery. And David, your L. philadelphicum is pretty impressive, I'd say. Good Job!

I just happened to be reading the 1991 Lily Yearbook now. (I got about 10 of 'em from someone.) This particular yearbook seems to be packed with species info. In it is an article from Jim Sullivan of Saskatoon, CA - "A Lily of the Canadian Prairies". This, of course, is about Lilium philadelphicum var. andinum. In the wild, he says, the bulbs are only 1-1.5 inches in diameter, with jointed scales, and usually found at a depth of 2-4 inches. If Canadians measure depth the same as we do in the U.S., that 2-4 inches is from the soil surface to the base of the bulb.

My bulbs are much smaller than yours, and I never saw any segmentation on mine either. I do know what to look for, as my L. disticum bulbs are segmented. I wouldn't give it a second thought, that yours is not segmented. Small bulbs often don't take on the characteristics of mature one.

BTW, Jim Sullivan also said he found some variants of the species that have outfacing flowers, rather than upfacing.

I

I have also come upon the dilemma in the past of how to plant such a bulb like yours, David, where the leaves would be buried if I planted at the desired depth.

What I did was plant in a depression, so the leaves are still above the soil, but outside the depression they would have been buried. I see that your bulb has some very healthy contractile roots, that would have pulled the bulb deeper over the "dormant" season. Unfortunately, and unavoidable, the transplanting will pretty much negate their ability to do so this year, because they won't have a strong enough hold in the soil after transplanting. Oh well.

Leftwood, your "Good job" goes to Laporte Avenue because I just received them.
Another L. philadelphicum enthusiast also said they looked very healthy and asked how old they are. I don't know but so far, so good on the plantings. There is even some visible growth on some of these plants, which I am told are very slow growers. I have also read that they may appear to die but actually haven't. There was a book written about the species which is out of print, but one can download an article version from amazon for six bucks. I think I will see if it available on the NALS site and ask them to make it available if it is not. I tend to be somewhat anti-amazon and pro-independent bookstore. title of the book is Prairie Phoenix.
David

Bonnie Lawrence, co-writer of that book, has a short article on philadelphicum on the SLPG site (Species Lily Preservation Group). Not sure if this has been mentioned on this thread yet, but you might consider joining, as I have. It is part of NALS, but you don't need to join NALS to join SLPG. Being a member of SLPG can give you access to member only pages on the NALS website, but you won't get the yearbook.
The article is here: http://www.species.lilies.org/species-lily-articles/3-species-lilies-information/10-lilium-philadelphicum.html
SLPG: http://www.species.lilies.org/

Also, if you have the Lily yearbooks, you can find philadelphicum articles in 1991, 1992,1993, that I know of.

I was just about to provide that same link to the article. I am a member of both groups.

Thanks for all of the wonderful pictures and information on this thread. You all inspired me to place an order and give species lillies a try. I received l. amabile v luteum, l. columbianum, l. henryi, and l. martagon in the mail from Buggy Crazy, and planted them last weekend. I can't wait to see what happens next spring. Is there any way to fast-forward through winter?? :)

If only.... I'm sure you'll be entralled by your new lilies and hopefully it'll be spring in no time!

Actually, for martagons there is a "fast forward". Most of the time in nature, they germinate in spring and grow a tiny bulblet underground, without send up any leaves. Once the bulblet grows, it must go through a winter (or simulated winter) for foliage to emerge.

So if you planted the martagons outside, you probably won't see anything above ground til season two.

The fast forward is planting them in a pot inside, germinating them at room temp, and letting them grow (underground) for 3-4 months, then put in the frig for 3 months, then outside and leaves will emerge.

Rick

Leftwood, Do you think that this is healthy for the plant? I'm willing to sacrifice one year of bloom if it will help the plant to stay around longer.

Yes, it's healthy both ways. I have done both, but since it will take martagons 5-7 years to bloom from seed, any help you can get is a good thing!

Thanks! I'm looking forward to next year.