Dedicated lily bed... how to construct?

Hi,
I garden on a French limestone hilltop. There isn't much depth of soil.
I am a bit of a seed fanatic and I grow oodles of plants from seed. For the last couple of summers I have been raising quite a lot of lilies from seed... loads of L. regale and some L. henryi and L. philippinense and a few more.
I have a large (300 sq m) unpaved courtyard in full sun that I currently use to grow weeds. ;O)
I was thinking of making a large (maybe 4m diameter) raised bed in the courtyard to plant my lilies, thinking that I could dig down the same amount as I built above ground.
Two questions... does this sound like a good idea?
What total depth of soil should I aim for?

Other question.... any other lilies that can be grown from seed that I should try to grow to complement those mentioned???

Hi there. What a challenge. But of course it is a good idea to plant lilies, assuming your weather is conducive. If you are going to build a raised bed I would think you could take care of the limestone problem. So should I assume that your soil is very alkaline? Dahlias will tolerate acid and alkaline but prefer rather a neutral soil so you may need some amendments to adjust your beds. They are hungry beasties so manure and compost is a good addition to the soil you build the beds with.

Here is a nice general article on growing lilies.
http://www.thelilygarden.com/pages_general/growing_lilies.html

Will you have any other plants in the bed. Lilies are lovely but have what we call 'bare knees'. You can grow the taller ones in the center and there are shorter varieties for around the edges. Might take a while if you are growing from seeds but can be done. Still there are so many flowers that compliment and complement lilies that it would be nice to add them like columbine or babies breath. Light and airy.

Just thoughts. Good luck
Mary

Actually it is only slightly alkaline as soil.... 6.5 about.
I had thought about the bare knees situation and the plan is to add bushy plants later on when the overall structure of the bed has been established. I have oodles of columbines that I could transplant and:or grow more of from seed.
I looked at the link - that's great, thanks.

Actually it is only slightly alkaline as soil....7.5 about.
I had thought about the bare knees situation and the plan is to add bushy plants later on when the overall structure of the bed has been established. I have oodles of columbines that I could transplant and:or grow more of from seed.
I looked at the link - that's great, thanks.

Keep in touch. Let us know how the project is going. We are just FULL of advice. lol

crezieres

I added tons of nicotiana to my lily bed and daffodils and tulips with lupines. The lilies are just starting to bloom and the tulips and daffodils are dying down with the nicotiana just coming on. The nicotiana are big plants that bloom into the fall so you don't see the bare lilies when they're finished just flower. The nicotiana are anuals here but they seed like crazy so its just keep the weeds out and you're done. The nicotiana also come in different heights and colors that work with the lilies and smell wonderful too.

Thanks....