A wonderful lily adventure

Still a few patches of snow here, but I can now see all the branches in they yard that need picking up. Not today or tommorrow. I had to attend an in-law funeral over the weekend in Illinois--6 hours each way. Tonight we take our youngest daughter to Des Moines to ship off for the Navy tommorrow. THEN I get to think of my garden...

I am so very impressed with the bulbs I received...and oh was it worth the wait! Carefully packed and what HUGE bulbs those Japanese Hybrids are!!!
This is Madame Butterfly

This is Maywood

How about Geisha Girl

Love Story was one of the bonus bulbs I got when Faraway Flowers had that promotion around Valentine's Day, perfect for the front border ;)
Out to plant I go !

Very nice. I expect mine today in about 3 hours, hopefully :*)

Ooops on the sideways Love Story.
Let me know if you see them today intercessor.

They're here! Nice size, the socrates replacement is 3.25 inches across :*)

This message was edited Apr 27, 2007 5:07 PM

What a great replacement for Socrates it was too. Don't you think? ;)
I just love lily season, does it show?

Waahaaa, I'm the last house on this mail route!

Recd. mine also today, tags are made out and I am out the door to plant.

see you later. Going to scale most of them.

Maxine

Received mine today and was disappointed how small they were. Except for Salmon Star, not even Lily Garden sized. However, they were packaged nicely and they look to be very healthy.

I must say, I got two double orientals from Faraway and my sister, bless her little heart, couldn't figure out how to get in touch with Faraway Flowers, but somehow stumbled upon Dutch Gardens double oriental mix and ordered it for me for Christmas (aww, wasn't that sweet though?). Let me tell you, I have both in hand now. What I received from Dutch Gardens had shriveled up root systems upon arrival and two were mushy soft (I mean compost material, no kidding). (I must say, Dutch Garden did credit me my two "trash bulbs")
Today what I got was exactly what was advertised (I took notes), FF advertised 16 cm bulbs for those as well as Mambo, which was described to be the same size. The roots on those were fresh and the bulbs, as described. The FF bulbs were more $, but every penny more worth it.
Now.....I've gotta win that photo contest! Off to practice (lol!)

If you enter Love Story in the Photo Contest, be sure to get it right side up... LOL

I don't think a comparison to Dutch Bulbs is a fair one. The "dutch" sites are notorious for having inferior products. A better comparison would be to the Lily Garden or Lily Nook and those two sites have Faraway beat hands down when it comes to cost.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not upset. I'm just stating a fact and the bulb size of the ones I received appears to be smaller than advertised except for the Salmon Star which are normal size. There are some plusses for smaller bulbs. They seem to settle in and have better longivity. You just have to wait longer for the show.

Salmon Star ,1.5 across, was smaller for me but I ordered a couple of the orientpets which seem to grow bigger. I ordered some lilies from the Lily Garden and some of those were only 1.25" tall and about the same across which I consider small, but I read that there was a prolonged drought last summer. So my experience this year is the asiatics that I have gotten seem to be smaller sized, but thats seems to be the case with asiatics.

Well I don't know, Beak, but the lily bulbs that I recd. from Faraway Flowers were spectacular!
Much better than any bulbs that I have recd. from the Lily Garden. Right up their with B & D's extra sized bulbs.

Maxine

I've ordered from The Lily Garden and The Lily Nook & B & D Lilies, all this year (I know, I'm BAD!) I've been happy with all of them and would place Faraway Flowers in the same category. The bulbs I received from the Lily Garden were smaller, the Lily Nook were smaller, some of B&D's were smaller. I love all of the lily lovers favorite companies.
What I do know, is we are very lucky to have these companies and their quality at our doorsteps ;)
Can't wait to see pictures this summer.
Moby, No fair pickking on me and my Love Story ;)

Hey! That was Mainiac! So can I still pick on you?? I'd race you to a photo finish but we're a bit water-logged so I'll put off planting for a couple of days.

I'm very, very happy with my bulbs. A couple of them don't seem so big when when compared to the big fatties, but they're still a respectable size.

ooops, It should've been aimed at Mainiac, my apologies, Moby, you would never say such a thing LOL!
But there I go above in my post over-typing. You guys might not think I knew how to really spell picking. Perhaps between my over-typing and sideways Love Story, I should go back to my garden .
Oh yeah, and when you get the OT bulb big fatties, all perspective is thrown overboard, at least it is for me. Those were some giant OTs.

Got my order today. I think they are very nice bulbs in fact I was surprised they are in such good condition considering their travel time. The few sprouts were very firm and bulbs so well packed they couldn't possibly have broken off. I have received sprouted bulbs from the Lily Garden that had broken off in transit (a mere 65 miles or so to my place). I have never received big oriental lily bulbs from any supplier except buggy and that is because they are not usually dug unless they are sold, so another undisturbed season means bigger bulbs for customers.

Well now I need to find places for all of these. I think I will have to kick out some daylilies:-( Or will it be the Siberian iris? I'll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.

I put these bulbs on the kitchen table for safe keeping until tomorrow but the PRODOFFPUSS found them and decided they smelled so good she took a roll all over them! Naughty Kitty! No harm done though (lucky for PRODO).

LOL Princess EvilPuss did the same thing ~ she likes to nest in any box but immediately went for the lilies.

They must be Inspectors in training

Yup, all three of mine try to get in the act. The other day I found Lefty sitting in a box that couldn't have been more than a 4x5. He just fit. What was funny, it was only about 3 inches tall, so it's not like he could hide in there.

Looks like it will be stiff competetion for the inspector apprentice position. There seems to be a lot of wannabes. Any plant material coming in my place seems to be inspected too. Faraway Flowers passed the vigorous test,
"first we must sniff all material inside box, then we must lay in box, without crushing any sprouted material, then we must spring out of box quickly to make sure we are first at the trough for feeding time. This process maybe repeated as many times as we deem necessary. Meow. "
Wait, Beak, how did you get "Lefty" in your box? Was "Lefty" a bonus option that I missed? Lol!

Ah...Lefty the Cat, not Lefty as in Leftwood.

hee hee hee :0)

Their only similarity, they both have hair on their face.

Awww, your Lefty is darling, beak.

I hope we all will post a rating at the garden watchdog for what we purchased from Faraway. GW is a great way to get the scoop on companies. I was the first feedback for them. Hop on over ;)
http://davesgarden.com/gwd/c/5851/