specie lilies; a new cycle has started!

I'm sitting here looking at your babies and longing for green to return to my yard. Zero degrees tonight & 36 inches of snow still in my yard in some places. Thank goodness for "Global Warming" or this winter would have REALLY been bad!

If it weren't for global warming, I think we in Minneapolis, MN would have gotten all the snow IA and WI has gotten in the last few years.

I see what you mean Leftwood, thanks!

I can imagine, wandasflowers how hard it must be to have to wait soooo... long for the winter to retreat.
So I should reconsider my nagging over the long winters over here, it must sound spoiled...
Next life I want to reincarnate in a warmer zone; lets say a 9b would be fine with me, lol!

Just 3 more inches of snow and we beat our 135 year records----

I was watching a special on "Global Cooling" empahsizing that we have only been"warm " for the past 10,000 years and shoud expect the return of the glaciers in 100,000 years or so. I guess some scientists take the REALLY long view of history..

Sounds like the lectures I got back in college in the 1970s when "Global Cooling" made Time Magazine's cover.

Anyway, I'm lobbying for a new Iowa State Slogan: Iowa, Too Cold for Terrorists!Should bring 'em flocking in, huh?

well I decided to try 3 species lilies this year, just to see what we shall see--somehow I know this won't surprise wallaby and bonitin--lol

I am trying (key word, trying) L leightlinii (Freesia leichtlinii does well so this one might too, perfect reasoning right? lol), L speciosum rubrum 'Uchida', and L tigrinum flore pleno.

Put them in rich soil, feet in shade, afternoon shade. Now I guess prayer is in order.
=)

The wood chip fairy left me a present last Friday and now all my beds with species lilies are covered in an extra 3 inches of wood mulch. Weather is still in the 40s & 50s here with chillier temps at night--I don't want any babies up too early just to frost off.

Like llilyfan says, we've had a few mild winters the last few years & god is getting us back to make the averages come out right for Iowa.

Deb, good luck with those and let us know how they grow! You won't know unless you try, that's my motto, lol.

Wanda, wow, in the 50's hey, we should be getting just over 50 now but having a lot of low 40's! Nights are low too and getting some frost, it's more like winter but that's not unusual for here. I'm just getting fed up with EVERY year being like this! We've been having some snow showers but not the stuff that settles, I was potting up lilies (from last year's seed grown) in sun with snow at the same time. Two weeks ago we had a good covering of snow.

I do have some lilies a few inches tall but they haven't got frosted, probably sheltered.

We had 3/4 inch snow last weekend, but it melted off quickly. I had warning & covered the 5-7 lilies popping up on the east side of the house. I'm in the process of mulching my flowerbeds. I know a local tree-trimmer that will drop off a nice truck load of mulch for FREE onto my driveway. One load down, 2 to go!

We've had mild winters for almost the past thirty years. I think we're moving into one of those weather cycles where we're going to get dumped on for the next few years.. I really wouldn't mind the snow, but I'd just as soon we stopped getting the ice storms.

I'll second that with an amen!

And bring on the sun..I'm tired of gray skies! Watching martagons 7 speices pop up all over my beds here in Iowa....

No lilies up here yet, unless you count Lilium kesselringianum, that emerged (barely) with developed leaves in a pot last fall and still looks as good as ever.

Trillium luteum and T. sessile are though.

My martagons seem to be in a hurry, they already show signs of preparing to bloom;

These two, planted last year became four, all of them are going to flower, plus they have babies on their feet.

One of my L.martagon 'Alba' and a second much smaller behind it;

and the pale-leafed one that got exactly the same soil-mix as the others

I do not have much hopes about the three L.martagon var.albiflorum. Yesterday I checked the one I had planted in a pot and it was completely rotten, the others don't show any sign of life neither. This was a big disapointment, sigh...

And my poor Lilium regale! Wonder if it will still bloom..

I don't want to get your hopes up, but it looks to me as though the growth tip was missed and if they don't get another chance at it it will flower. ^_^

Looking good bonitin! The pale leaved one is very interesting, almost yellow, very nice.

It does look to me like only the ends of the leaves have been eaten on L. regale.

Gosh I have several I grew from seed last year which look like they will flower, so exciting!

Thanks Lillyfan and Wallaby for the hopes on my L.regale.

What kind of lilies are those wallaby that will flower in their first year ?

I will have to check the lilies to see which have buds, but I think L. centifolium is one, davidii, and some hybrids too. Now I will have to take some pics, lol, I have pots of lilies everywhere.

I have some questions--lol

But I also have some seed emails to answer and I need to rinse off a large number of R bifida bulbs to dry, and take some pictures to illustrate my questions--I shall return in about an hour or two. Since the species I'm growing are also different from ya'lls--I think I will also need to provide links to where I got them.
=)

I'm still waiting for many of my species to break ground. I notice l. cernuum popped up yesterday in a couple of spots. Still looking for most of the other species lilies I planted last fall. Asiatics are all coming thru, LA & LO have broken ground, Orientals & Orienpets are still hiding.

I have quite a few species lilies coming up from last year so far, but only in pots:
Lilium
--- canadense - collected in KY (Thanks Neal!)
--- kesselringianum
--- mackliniae
--- x marhan
--- martagon var. album
--- martagon (various selections)
--- speciosum var. rubrum

I have quite a few of the hypogeal species with small leaves too, all in pots. I will have to make a list!

I did manage some pics today, but it was dull at the time so they are not very good. The greenhouse is so full of pots I had a job getting them anyway, lol, I nearly fell over one day tip-toeing amongst the pots.

Many of them look to have buds coming but they will possibly abort as they are small.

At the front is L. centifolium, sown on 11th feb. 07, behind L. sargentias.

At the front is L. pumilum, the bigger ones behind are species type Asiatics.

These pots are about 9" diameter, I put 3 or 4 to a pot when I repotted depending on the size.

Species type Asiatics.

L formosanum, these have been growing over winter so are looking tatty, the left one has small buds but they might drop. The new growth is starting at the bottom. I repotted this without disturbing them much, and hoping it doesn't have vine weevil as many pots had! Keeping my fingers crossed the smaller ones I haven't repotted don't have vine weevil too, if they have I'm in trouble when they hatch.

L. davidii.

L. davidii Yellow Bunting still in a 9cm pot, although tall they are not 'thick'. Lots of small buds.

Asiatic George Slate Hybrids, I sowed these and many others on 27th March 07.

Another pot of L. pumilum, in front is Freesia laxa, flowering after a year from seed.

Trumpet lily from yellow with pink edge (thanks pard), also thanks to Lefty for his contributions and Neal too.

L. amabile, not so far on but looking good and still in original pot.

Another pot of L. davidii

I think this is another pot of L. centifolium with a very robust plant.

Another pot of L. sargentias, with two quite fat noses poking through. The other one is making a baby already!

A corner of the greenhouse.

L. regale, I had to put them outside after repotting, they were a good size with some at least an inch in diameter after a year.

There is another fat one coming to the left, I had to use a few large pots for these and some hybrid crosses which look similar to L. regale bulbs.

These are the L. regale bulbs which I repotted on 8th March 08, seed sown 14th Feb 07.

Confusion here Wallaby . . . . what is a species asiatic, if it is not an asian species?

And I am not sure those are formosanum seedlings. They sure have wide leaves, although, I have seen seedlings grow wider leaves than mature specimens. Still, I don't think I've seen that much of a difference before, at least compared to mine:

L. philippinense(buds) and L. formosanum