Lily Foliage

I use the "worry about it later" approach too. After all, who's to say some catastrophe might come along and wipe them out, or, then you'll have extra for friends, or maybe you'll win the lottery and buy an estate. Ya know, you never know(!) And if it came to the worst, and you had to throw them out, would gaining all that experience be so bad? I think not.

I am so envious of you and that nursery, bonitin.

We have 32 acres of woods with some cleared land where we built house, greenhouse and shops. Does that count as an "estate"? LIZ

Thanks for the responses!


Here a picture of my new Martagon babies:

I've gone green........with envy!

Wallaby, I don't know if they are still going to bloom this year, perhaps the tallest will. If any does I can save the seeds for you if that could be a consolation ?
I have no greenhouse to grow babies, so I gladly save them for you who has the possibilities to raise them.
Now its my turn to get green with envy!

Such diversity there, Bonitin. I especially like that one with the widest leaves.

You know, you don't need a greenhouse to grow martagons from seed. I do it without a greenhouse, and the normal winter low tempertature is -25F (-32C). It takes a bit of studying though, as the germination process is different than most seeds. And of course, my seedlings don't grow as quickly as Wallaby's might.

Thanks Leftwood for the info that no greenhouse is needed for growing them. But even if I managed to grow them from seeds, where would I plant them ???????,
not mentioning finding the space for raising them.

Do you mean, the one with the widest leaves, the one at the right bottom of the picture ?

Thanks again bonitin, it would be a shame for any seed to go to waste off those beauties wouldn't it?

I think I have ideal conditions for germinating martagons, I have some in the garage under a south facing window which have germinated. I saw a seed with a reasonable sized but still small bulb made out of the seed recently, buried it, today I watered them and uncovered a proper little white bulb!

Lefty, you think we have warm weather? Sometimes we do, with the emphasis on 'sometimes'! Last week it descended to 5C days, around freezing nights. It probably suits lilies more than it does me,

Bonitin, yes, the bottom left one is my favorite - exquisite foliage.

Wallaby, I guess it is all relative. Obviously my winters are colder, but my summers are hotter too. Right now, we seem to be about the same.

Leftwood, I think you meant the bottom RIGHT and not 'left' one ?

My red asiatic lilies, no name! They have made lots of babies, I took a dozen off in the autumn from a couple of them.

The one at the back left does look different, I grew them from bulblets off the original 3 which all look the same, flowers look the same.

L. philippinense/poilanei look alike. The one that made seeds.

The second one to flower last year, which I pollinated with #3, it made a pod with non-viable seeds.

How silly of me,Bonitin, yes, the bottom right.

Leftwood, thanks for solving my confusion
There was a moment I thought you might have meant the left one seen from the point of view of the lilies!

Wallaby and leftwood,
guess what I found growing at the foot of my survivor L.martagon with the pale-green leaves.
Do you think it is growing from the main bulb or could it be sprouting seeds ?

Congratulations! They could be bulblets as they are close to the stem.

Propogation from scales, seed, or bulb division.

http://www.deflorum.com/species/martagon.html

That great, then I can send them to you both, (together with its eventual seeds), when I can dig them up in the late autumn. If they are bulblets then they must be the same as the parent ?

I havent looked yet at the web you gave, will do later, when I will have the time.

Oh you are kind bonitin! They would be the same, also from seeds unless cross pollinated they would be the same.

You might like the complete page of species to look at, it's a great site but can be difficult to realize all the links. It's a NZ site, they are supposed to be opening a store, it would be a shame if it disappeared!

http://www.deflorum.com/lilium/species.html

Wallaby, in the site you gave I found that lilies are usually doing well on a slope and that's exactly the place where mine is planted. That means that I'll have to plant my new ones in similar conditions.
Do you think they can bear with the concurence of tree roots ?

I didn't know lily bulbs formed bulblets as a lily bulb looks like made out of many scales, I haven't seen yet a martagon bulb (as the ones I bought had already been grown in a pot, and I didn't dare to disturb them when I planted ) Are these bulblets then attached to the mother bulb ? I think at the moment I see 3 of them and one I'm not sure of because it looks a bit like a thick grass leave,
but it is still in a developing stage.

Thanks for the offer, Bonitin.

As Wallaby said, the bulblets would be exactly the same as the mother plant. Seeds would produce the same martagon lily if pollenated by another martagon, but would not be exactly the same. That variation in foliage in your pic above would be seedlings, although such wide variation probably would not come from the same seed pod. If it was cross pollinated by another species of lily, then all bets are off, and you could get a very, very wide variation in foliage and flower.

If you have bulblets from the mother plant, you are pretty lucky. Martagons don't normally produce offset bulblets (one of the reasons why they are more expensive).

It's the drainage that makes slopes ideal, but not really necessary. My Lilies are on flat ground and do just fine because there is good drainage down into the ground, even though it is clay based.

bonitin, I'm not certain if martagons would tolerate tree roots, but it is likely they would as one of their natural habitats is spruce, oak and deciduous forests. The roots of trees can help with drainage, I guess the roots would have to be not choking the bulb, and not taking all available moisture. There are usually 'available' spaces between roots.

My L. lancifolium flaviflorum is growing very near the stem of a Ceanothus and it still grows fairly well, I keep thinking I should move it but it might like where it is.

Look at my pic of the asiatics above, each one has made many bulblet offsets. When I dug some up I noticed they grew on a stem coming from the mother bulb.

Now I understand,very interesting! thanks for the info!

Lily foliage!

L.speciosum rubrum. Stiff and upright? The big leaves behind are an iris,

I have found that speciosums multiply real well.

Citronella comes up with red/burgundy colored foliage. This first one is "Tall Citronella" from the PNWLS sale.

These Citronella are from a completely different source, one of the Dutch companies...

Uh-oh. I don't remember my citronella foliage looking at all like that. Gimme another month to see, LOL.

I forgot all about you question about tree roots, bonitin. Wallaby is right: nearly everything adapted to shade is adapted to strong root competition too. Some good growers/hybridizers say that some lily species do better with root competition. In particular, I am thinking of Lilium philadelphicum. The theory is that a soil filled with roots drinks up free water quicker, and bulbs susceptible to rot live longer. Although, that's not the case with martagons.

What exactly is Citronella? The foliage looks cool...

It is an old strain of asiatics developed at the Oregon Bulb Farms many years ago. From the Lily Register it involves L. amabile, L. dauricum and L. davidii. It has been very hardy for me. The foliage greens up as the season progresses.

This is a really bad picture as I was just learning to use my camera, but this is a first year Citronella. I expect it to be taller and more blooms this year. Very pretty yellow.

Thanks Leftwood for the reassurance about root competition. I've planted all five of my new martagons;
two close by a cherry tree, one will have to deal with the roots of a fig and another with a Ginkgo biloba and the last one with the competition of ivy roots. The one with the rounded and widest leaves your interested in will get the most sun. That one also has a tiny baby leave at its base, so with some luck I will be able to offer you a tiny bulbet of it. Until now they all look happy.

A Martagon lily coming up.

One of these years I'll be able to acquire a Marty...

That marty was about $11 at the Flower Factory in Stoughton.

This one is Madonna and her unique looking foliage (candidum). She loves it here.

My martagons against the house have poked through. These are all seedlings . Have hopes for BLOOM this year. Time will tell. Put wire fencing all around and over the bed today. Over because kids and soccer.
Iris are doing well.
inanda

Here are 3 that are sprouting. Scheherazade started coming up 1st part of April. Not sure why TLG lists Scheherazade as hers? I thought I saw it registered under someone elses name. I plan on using Tinkerbell for some breeding to see if I can get the whispy foliage with different flowers.

It's registered under Columbia-Platte (or something like that). That's the name Judith Freeman registers all her hybrids under.