2014 lilies

Oh Rosemary, it's beautiful!

I love going to the conservatories while it's really still winter to see the camellias in bloom. They, as you know, are not hardy here, and the first time I saw them in bloom I had no idea what they were, or how I could have missed something so gorgeous.

Well I can see that I shall have to get into the genetics of plants to stay up with this bunch! lol. Actually it does sound interesting so it is a natural next step. To understand why my plant varieties do what and how they do, not just growing them in total ignorance. Sometimes trying to grow against the genetics of the plant as to soil, weather, sunlight, etc. Fertilizer. Type, volume and frequency.

I agree with Mary that plant genetics must be pretty cool stuff. As much as I like to plant natives, I am not opposed to science knowledge. One garden blog I read referred to his garden with this concept as the "Pangea Garden". They gave me the idea to plant the acer 'Gingerbread' because let's face it, these are Asian.

There is a very active camellia Society of massachusetts. They grow most of theirs in conservatories, but last year the Isabella Stewart Gardener museum planted hardy camellias in their outdoor walled garden. I work near the Lyman Estate which has a camellia house. Mid to late Feb is the time to go. Can't grow gorgeous lilies in February. If I were in Chicago, I'd be scouting them out there. Perhaps the Chicago Botanic Garden?

I finally got a hardy hibiscus. Or I think it is a hibiscus. Another DG'r sent me a few plants. They are yellow and cover the short bushes. I will post a picture when I am on the other computer. I have a couple of lilies opened but one or two aren't really picture ready yet. May post them any way. Need help identifying some short red ones I have. I know what I bought or traded for but they are so similar I am not sure which is which. Maybe even with the poor photos you can spot it.

Garfield Park Conservatory and Lincoln Park Conservatory are both under glass. And both free!

Two hardy hibiscus were planted for me in my original garden plant. Lord and Lady Baltimore. Fully hardy in zone five. Made a heck of a statement. Unfortunately they were planted between two viburnums that shaded them out. I keep wanting to find a place for them, but they're huge, and japanese beetles love them.

Well here is the backside of Pink Dream, a short (at least in my garden) downward facing

Oh, here is my Golden Feverfew

Love the golden feverfew and of course the lily too.

I'm sure if I still lived in Chicago I'd haunt those conservatories. Because the Arnold Arboretum is on Morton Street, people around here think I'm out of it if i happen to call it the Morton Arboretum--just a momentary slip. Because my mother was a history buff we often went to the gardens at the McCormack estate, I think that's Cantigny.

Oh Mary, how delightful. What gorgeous pictures. Love your feverfew, and that's the prettiest backside I've ever seen!

Is the Arnold still free? Nothing here is, but because I belong to Raulston I get in free. I was so impressed that I could start at Harvard Square and be spitting distance of the Arnp;d. Boston has such an amazing transportation system. I tell people that you can take the equivalent of the el well into the suburbs, and they look at me like I'm insane. Here, you need to drive to your Metra station, because most of them aren't walkable, go into Union Station, and heaven forbid the CTA.

I was thinking about going on vacation in a city where you don't need a car and realized - Cambridge and Boston. There is a wonderful and inexpensive hotel at the medical school where I have stayed a few times. It just came up in a story about great hotels with low prices and I wanted to tell them to be quiet!

It's terrible - I have never been to Cantigny!

Please keep me informed about your travel plans, Donna. Have to see where I'll be then but we could see an art museum or a garden. It would be fun to see it through your eyes. I didn't know about the great hotel deal.

It's the Inn at Harvard Medical School. They put me up there when I was interviewing for a planned giving gig at the B School. Very nice and cozy. Years later when the ex was sent by his company to New Jersey for a conference, we used the fact that I had a two day stay to take a mini-vacation. Sears was nice enough to let him fly back from Boston. Nice to know it's still a bargain. Do tell friends who are coming about it.

I'd LOVE to get together! The Museum of Fine Arts, the Busch Reisinger at Harvard, or the Fogg (where I took lots of classes) would be a blast. Often the biggest issue on vacations is a nice place to stay and not needing a car (indeed, in Boston and Cambridge a car is ill-advised).

I will certainly let you know. It would be a blast to meet you in person.

Donna

Fogg doesn't open again until fall sometimes--renovations. Just have to be in town and not buried in some obligation, and I'm up for an outing.

It just seems so weird that a place I took classes in twice a week would ever be closed.

I was gone all day downtown and came home to such gorgeousness I carried my tired bottom out to photograph it.

Dimension (yes, you've seen it before but I can't resist)

Hiawatha (with feverfew, nepeta Dawn to Dusk, Rose Marie Pavie

Crystal Blanca (it blooms a little before Casa, which I also have, and it is a little shorter and the stem a little stronger)

And in a row, Crystal Blanca, Anastasia and Acapulco.

Honestly, didn't know which was which. Most of them didn't bloom last year so I dug them up, put them in pots, and while I put lilies of a type together I didn't know what those types were.

So just about everything is a surprise.

Glad you could share your joyful lilies, Donna.

I have a surprise lily in my back that does not look like pictures of After eight or Sphinx which were planted there. Could it be a tardy Martagon?

Then this front yard lily is new too. Looks like I might have added more Gold Band there .

I thought I had lost this one. It was sent from TLG as a freebie. I had ordered Ariadne but this came instead. If you look on TLG Iona and Ariadne are very similar even unto the descriptions although Ariadne is taller.

Nice, especially Anastasia. I think I planted that on the Crab hill but not one of them made it through the winter. Bummer. And I can't find my Dimensions. I know where it was but don't see a sign of it. Did locate one that I have not quite figured out a name for. Thought it died.

Mary and Rosemary, I love your pictures. Rosemary, the two yellowish ones look almost edible. I'm glad I ordered Gold Band. Mary, I have been thinking of reordering Ariadne so I could do the Ariadne/Rosepoint Lace/Campanula Bernice thing I did at my former home, but Rosepoint Lace seems to have disappeared. What a pretty lily you are holding in your hand. And that shot of your yard! Gorgeous!

I still have other lilies that will open. I'm hoping I saved an Emerald Temple. Should be somewhere!

Here is a more developed photo of the unexpected trio, Crystal Blanca, Anastasia and Acapulco. Sadly, I think Ametyst Temple and Emerald Temple did not make it, and I have 1 Silk Road instead of 4, but Anastasia is everywhere!

I did not realize that I had tucked an Anastasia in my Constance Spry bed. The white plant is Salvia Swan Lake.

Oddly, Red Alert disappeared. Normally very robust, and I've had it for years. But happily, easy to replace.

White Henryi vanished too. But it's on order fro Old House Gardens.

Most of my lilies have bloom - I am waiting for various forms of speciosum.

A friend of mine gave me a lot of geraniums a couple of years ago. In the bottom of the bucket were seed bulblets, which I put first in the ground and, after they were dug up a few times by curious creatures, I put them in a pot. They bloomed.

I have an orange spotted martagon. Can anyone identify it more specifically for me? Even the giver doesn't know!

Sure is pretty. And I know you like that form. I have a downward facing Orienpet Miss Libby that has finally reached a decent height and just opened up. No trumpets have survived in my garden though. Really disappointing as they are so lovey. I do have Iona a tiny little hybrid, downward facing and very recurved. The only one I have like that. All the rest are sort of 'garden variety' asiatics, orientals, and orienpets.

My Casa Blancas are getting ready to bloom. They don't seem to mind having been dug up and put in pots.a few weeks ago. I've been soaking them with Spinosad, but we've had lots of rain lately. Last night we got 1"- yep, a full inch, that's not a typo. Today for the first time since moving them I saw one adult Red Lily Beetle and grabbed the spray for another dousing. Now we'll be away for 10 days, so I have my fingers crossed.

Mine are a few weeks out along with a plethora of noids. They seem to hide out for a season or so sometimes so I will be anxious to see who has survived that I thought were long gone.

Both my Casa and Crystal Blancas bloomed - Casa is still going. I can't find my Emerald Temples, Amethyst Temples or White Henryis, but I also have two or three lilies that got nipped or shaded out by rampant nepeta, so I am digging them up and potting them for installation later in the year. Amethyst Temple had a tendency for years to fail to bloom if not mulched, so I still have my fingers crossed on that one for next year.

Here is Miss Libby

Oh, my goodness - she is beautiful! Is she from The Lily Garden?

Yup A freebie with my order last summer. Or may be it was the fall before that -- 2012. Supposed to hit 6-8' under ideal conditions.

Miss Libby is stunning! She looks tropical. And the catalogs are starting to arrive...

Is TLG back in business?? Wasn't sure the decision had been made yet after her horrendous 2014

I don't know. I'm referring to the catalogs in general, many with lily offerings.

Do you mean Faraway Flowers? Or did TLG have problems too (I hope not!) Rosepoint Lace is not longer in their catalog, and I want to reacquire it along with Ariadne.

I thought that TLG had no end of trouble with imports that had to be returned due to customs problems etc.

You know, while I think that the lily I am looking at at the moment is always my favorite, I think this one is my all time favorite. Tiramusa from TLG. Last year my picture was rather light and the color of the base lily was white; this year's picture is true to how it looks in 'real life'. A warm lemon yellow

Taa-daa

Great pictures everyone!

Thanks for telling us about the Lily Forum Mary, your Tiramusa is beautiful. What is TLG? As I mentioned briefly on another forum I have a few Lilies and just ordered a ton. LOL. Next year you will see me more for sure. My Favorite is Tom Ponce and I finally got one that is true to name.

TLG is "The Lily Garden"; I have bought many lilies from Judith Freeman who hybridizes many of her own. I bought Tom Ponce last year from Lowe's and am waiting for it to bloom. I need to move it where I put it is now hemmed in with a huge delphinium on the south side and a liatris and astrantia in front. Didn't realize that some astrantia can get really tall and bushy.

I just looked up the lily Tom Pouce which is what I have. I know that there is apparently a daylily Tom Ponce also.

This message was edited Aug 10, 2014 5:22 AM

Mary, you frequently are on the cutting edge of lilydom. I would have to look up many of yours if you weren't kind enough to post pictures. Probably because you purchase from The Lily Garden. I got many lovely lilies from her over the years. And got neat gifts too!

Ooooohhhhh. Cutting Edge? Now I don't feel so badly. Seeing all these people who hybridize and create their own lilies was sort of making me feel like a bit of a dud. I guess I am just happy to have what the market offers,.

Oh yes, the NALS people. All that painstaking hybridizing. I think they are incredible. I buy their goodies. But when I read about what you have to do to hybridize, it makes my head spin!

And you do the edgy stuff that I didn't even know was available on the market. Makes you pretty cool to me!

The name is Tom Pouce. Named after a fav Dutch dessert that is oh so yummy, even it you make it with graham cracker crust instead of puff pastry. :)

Red Velvet popped up and open