What about some orienpets?

Following is one of my new orienpets this yr. Heat has been hard on them with the lack of moisture.
Contrast OP

Maxine

That's beautiful, Maxine!

Another one. Albany OP

One more to start the day out right.

Contrast OP

Maxine---love your OP with the gazing ball. Very fun combination. Wish I had a lily garden--they are definitely the Royalty of the summer garden. So pretty! t.

It's never too late, tabasco. Prime fall planting season is just around the corner!

You're so lucky to be able to see that gazing ball. Just got some of the weeds cleaned out before they bloomed.
Hot and humid weather about done me in!!

Godzilla OP. One of the first lilies that I had, lost it in our severe winter 3 yrs ago[no snow cover] and just purchased it this spring from Buggy Crazzy.

Many of my OPs come from scales which 'drop off' when bagging lilies for our bulb sale. Of course it takes years for them to grow to any height. It is exciting though, when one blooms and we can ID it. have a ton of Martagon seedlings and scale growths. Have to wait longer for them. They live under wire to keep off cats/bunnies.

Inanda where Henryii is in full bloom and Tetra Black Beauty is full of buds. Hoping for a L A T E frost.

How long does it take for Martagon's to emerge and get some growth? Did I make my self clear, probably not.
A friend gave me a martagon baby, it hadn't emerged yet from the dirt. I uncovered to where I could see what it is doing and it is starting.
How many yrs. does it take for them to get to a blooming stage?

Where is the best place to buy orienpets?

LisaM

The Lily Garden is a good place to start. http://www.thelilygarden.com/index.html

I like B and D for quality and size of bulbs. They also stand behind their bulbs and I have never had a bulb be wrong for what I ordered. Hope I made my self clear.?
Will check, but think this is "Bright Star"

Posting another this morning.

OK--you gals convinced me! I ordered 35 orienpets, some martagons and already have some others in containers that I am going to try to plant out in the garden I just made. Now, if I can figure out how to keep the rabbits, voles and deer away I'll be in luck next summer!

Yours are all so gorgeously pretty. I LUV lilies but always thought they were so hard to grow....I know they must be, but you all make it look worth it, anyway!

p.s. what are 'companion plants' for Orienpets? Any good ideas?

thanks. t.

Hard to grow? pish...!

Number One thing to take care of is drainage. After that, fending off the munching critters is my only problem. But there is a variety of ways to handle that.

Maxine, your lilies are fantastic! That last one is really awsome; is that 'Luminaries'? And what are those bright blue flowers in the upper right side of the pic of Albany? Delphiniums?

tabasco, what orienpets did you order? You're about to embark on a journey into lily obsession! Butterflies and hummingbirds love lilies, especially the fragrant ones. I've scattered blood meal around to deter bunnies and that worked well. I've also heard of scattering branches of evergreens over lily beds as they emerge in spring to keep rabbits away. Lilies are said to like sun on their leaves, but to prefer cool roots, so mulch or ground cover plants are often recommended to shade the soil. Mine respond really well to generous amounts of manure.

Blue flowers are balloon flowers and are almost like weeds. I must get out there and snap off the dead flowers so they don't seed all over.

I named all of them. The last one is Bright Star from B and D, I think. Too lazy too pull my catalog from them.

Shocking was the only one of my Orienpets that managed to bloom this year. It was worth the wait.

wanda--your 'shocking' is gorgeous...will the other bulbs come up next year, or do you think you've lost them...just wondering...t.

Wanda, I was wondering as well if you knew what the problem is with some of your orienpets not blooming this year. I planted Shocking last year in spring and it bloomed, but this year only 1 out of 3 came back and it was too small to bloom (strange for a lily). The other lilies in the same bed are fine, so I have'nt figured out the problem. I've had a theory though: some of the orienpets have Easter lily genes, which are only hardy to zone 7(while others have hardy Chinese trumpet lily genes). So I've been wondering if the hardiness of some is diminished. Any thoughts from lily people out there?

tabasco, you'll appreciate this; when my Shocking lilies bloomed last year they were in front of Tropicana canas and the color in the center of each lily petal perfectly echo'd the color of the canna leaves-it was striking! The subtle, muted coloring of many of the orienpets I've seen are really nice with home decor colors to, so I think you'd really enjoy them as cut flowers to(remembering the lovely centerpieces you posted pics of).

gemini--your shocking/tropicana combination sounds out of this world! what a great idea! Next year I hope you get some pics to share!

and, yes, I did order the orienpets with the idea that I would cut some or bring them inside in pots to put by the fireplace along with a big fern.

I took my mom (in the nursing home) a bouquet of my home grown trumpet lilies last month and she almost started crying and couldn't believe I grew them (I couldn't either--I was so excited about them, too). What a joy they were and I can't wait to try more!

OOOhh! can't wait to see those pics! Thanks for sharing your bouquet for your mother story. My mother is soon going into a nursing home, and I've already been thinking of keeping flowers in her room.

Hey! I just discovered a neat trick for extending the season...buy lilies in the middle of the summer...got this from WFF sale and potted it up. I wasn't sure if I would like it (I am not sure why - what was I thinking?) There are a few more on the way...American Spirit and Orania for the OT's....

Here is another view

Not an orienpet but a nice unnamed red upfacing asiatic....

lol, esw Nice going!

I am amazed they came up and are blooming so soon. They were planted the last week of June/first of July from my best estimation. Hopefully they will establish without problems once I dig them into the garden...

Ok, first American Spirit with its cousing American Sentinel...I think I like the stronger colors of Sentinel

Now for the wierdness....this is Orania...(on steroids or psychedelics - you decide)
Has anyone noticed a tendency towards misshapen flowers with the orienpets and the triploids/tetraploids? I had a china express come out a little wierd and some of the brushstroke blooms had 5 instead of 6 petals...Some of the asiatics that I swear are tetraploid (I don't know for sure) had extra leaves that did'nt quite separate from the bud some of which took on the color of the petal, some stayed green....

Ohhhh! esw, they're both exsquisite! I agree as for a favorite-I'm a bold color fiend! But, imagine American sentinal against a background of dark foliage, perhaps underplanted with something gold leaved. It's one of those flower colors that is somewhat lost among bright colored flowers. That's something I'm noticing about several of the Orienpets; that they look extra nice with colored leaved plants.

And Orania is weird, but so beautiful. Some of my Visaversa blooms were distorted like that. Makes sense, the chromozones have been tripled or quadrupled.

Neal.

Neal,
You have a good point re the surroundings can make or break the flower...this one just looks to much like some of the daylilies with that color band. Not my favorite....but I am sure I can find a spot where it will add to the decor!
I hadn't seen the distorted blooms before this year and I was not sure if it was related to the ploidy or the weather or what.... I suspect it is the ploidy.

It's a poly!
My Kiss Me Kate's came up one short on the first blooms. Normal after that.

Very nice for missing one set of parts....it looks pretty normal! Some of the ones that I had came out quite defomed - twisted up with misshaped petals....these were in pots.

I always seem to have a few buds that get weird, most of the time I've noticed it on asiatics.

Kiss me Kate looks like a 5 pointed star! Cool.

Thanks! (polishing nails on shirt) Nah... Interesting tho ~ it doesn't look like it's missing parts, like that's the way Mother Nature intended it to be.

The funny thing is that I had 2 blooms like that ~ at the same time, on different stems. First blooms on both stems.

An update...
So the lily experts from the yahoo lily group think the funky blooms are because of environmental conditions....too hot/cold with exposure in too small pots....likely drying out more than they like etc. In other words I am a bad bad lily torturer to make the lilies do that :(
Well, now I know how not to plant lilies....into the garden with them and I will stick to only one per 1 gallon pot and put them in a bit more shade...sigh.
It is amazing that I got any decent blooms at all I guess.

I'll ask llilyfan--she grows more kinds of lilies than me and has been at it longer. I belong to a Lily Society out of Des Moines too with anahi, Moby, llilyfan & Iowaron--I bet some of the older members would have good answers to these questions.

I was very dissapointed this year, but I can't remember ever having a hard frost past April 19. We had 70 degree weather in late March & April waking up everything early with 2 hard frosts April 29 &30th. Wake em up & kill em. Good Iowa garden plan.

What is the company you all keep referring to called B&D?
Brent and Becky's has about 7 varieties, including Shaherazade, which I want. They are 5/$20.
but a lot of their bulbs are 5/$12.
John Scheeper's has about 6 varieties and they are only 5/$8.75.
The Lily Garden has excellent large bulbs but they are much more expensive.
Doesn't anyone have some nice large Sherherazades they want to give away?lol