specie lilies; a new cycle has started!

It does sound strange Lefty! That's how I received them, maybe they are closer to Asiatic species than most hybrids! I don't know, lol, but it is named as 'species type'.

I thought the leaves on L. formosanum look broad too, but I haven't grown them before. This might be interesting!

Indeed, it will be interesting to see what they all do for flowering.

Claude Shride is up 3 inches(7.5cm) in the garden, and so is Lilium szovitsianum. They're predicting a couple inches of snow for me tonight. I covered szovitsianum and some of the Claude Shrides with pot and pail. I am really not worried about the martagons, in fact I hadn't planned on covering them at all, but I had brought what turned out to be an extra pail and brick to the garden, so I might as well use them. Szovitsianum, I just don't know about regarding frost sensitivity, and this season should be its first flowering. Lots of anticipation here too.

From experience, I know I need to covered my Lycoris squamigera, whose leaves are up a foot(31cm), and surprise, I have Lycoris radiata that survived the winter unmulched! Of course, they are covered too. All lilies and gladiolus in pots are in the garage. I wouldn't worry about those lilies either, except they are completely soaked by rain today.

very interesting to see all your lily babies wallaby!
wow! so much!!!
Cannot wait to see the flowers of the ones that are ready for it.

L. formosanum is gorgeous, Leftwood. They look so chic with the gray-green leaves! I suppose its a full-sun lover ?

Formosanum does like lots of sun. The pic is fooling you though: leaves are a regular green color. No gray tints.

Last Saturday I have been indulging (once more!) in buying three new martagons from the same nursery I got my others in the past.
They were just looking too tempting, not my fault, lol!!

One I bought is another martagon 'alba' with a head heavy of flowerbuds. Irresistible!
The second (not 'alba') I bought for the remarkable difference in foliage.
The leaves are very rounded and more thick and sturdy than the normal ones, although it has little leaves in comparison with the lush foliage of the others.
The third I bought out of greed because there are 4 flower stems and some babies growing at the bottom in just one pot. So I got at least 4 lilies for the price of one!
I've seen these martagons in autumn in the same nursery being freshly potted up and I know that only one bulb was planted in each pot.

this is the fat martagon 'alba';

the second with the different foliage, the base of the leaves have a reddish mark where they're attached to the stem

and this is the third one with four flower stems and babies;

I can see why you were forced to buy them bonitin, lol, I would not have been able to pass them by either!

I think you have a large rabbit hole in your garden with another fantasy world underneath, lol, with much more space!

What a lovely image! :-))

One of my martagons I bought last year doesn't look happy..
Could that be the so dreaded 'virus disease'?

a close-up;

It looks like a type of blight, a google shows there is a lily blight, or two!

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=lily+blight&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Or perhaps the more common botrytis. I am not too familiar with the lily diseases. But I would snip off the affected leaves to help decrease the spread. Maybe take some rubbing alcohol with you to dip your pruners in between cuts. It will disinfect the pruners so there would be no possibility of spreading the disease yourself from cut to cut.
And be sure not to get the leaves wet if you water.

Thank you Wallaby and Leftwood!
I followed your advise and took off the affected leaves. The poor thing don't have many left. I feel a bit guilty and wonder if it was stressed by me building a stone construction behind it. In the winter I made it to create more planting space. I knew that there was a lily planted but didn't know exactly the place and thought I was far enough away from it to be save. Perhaps it had to stretch for it to emerge later on as it appeared just beside the wall.
I'm going to dig it up in autumn and replant it somewhere else if it survives.

I noticed that stone behind the martagon when you first posted it, and thought it very attractive.

Thank you Leftwood! I wonder if it couldn't be sunburn as the sun has been extremely strong ( it like in the tropics here with t° of 37°C in the sun) for many days in a row. It receives the harsh midday sun. Most of my other plants are not used to it and hang their leaves, even when the soil is humid. My Lium candidum, a close neighbour of the martagon show similar signs..

I'm also worried now about having planted one of the new martagons in the close proximety of the L.candidum. Perhaps I should move it to another place?

L.candidum;

detail;

I know what you mean. When we have a week or more of wet, gloomy weather, and then strong sun, my plants are stressed and droop too.

But if the sun were too strong, you would see a bleaching of the leaves, or crisping brown edges or tips on the leaves. Neither of which you have. your plants may still be stressed, but just not terribly bad.

Thanks! For safely I moved the newly planted martagon to another location.

Still waiting on my 3 new ones to bloom--I know they are supposed to bloom mid-Summer but some have buds. Since this is my first year with them, the suspense is killing me.

Lilium martagon 'alba', the last one I bought this year started to bloom. The two from last year are almost there. And the third (from last year) that was so unwise to try to bloom in the middle of the winter and failed only has a poor looking growth of about 15 cm.


I had to take the picture with the flash as it is a very dull day...

closer by..

Very nice..That's a whole lot of flowers on one stem. How nice.

That's amazing, I counted 19 flowers!

I have a leaf on one Martagon which I sowed seed of this spring, yours of course, and it's pale. I'm not sure if you sent me seeds from the pale leaved one, or if it even flowered. I moved all the latest sown pots of seed today into a shadier greenhouse, all part of the juggle!

Thank you Magnolialover.

Yes, Wallaby I think I must have send you seeds from the pale one too. All the ones that flowered made seeds, so that one too.

Here is a not very good picture of it in flower from last year.

more detailed;

I have planted beside it one of the new ones I bought, which is also very special and different in foliage which is rather dark and thicker and sturdier , more rounded than the other martagons.
On this picture you can see the great contrast in colour. They are planted in the same type of soil mixture.

Such a nicely spotted lily too!

The contrast between the pale and dark leaved ones is amazing. Wondering now what that one will look like!

Great pics and growing plants, Bonitin. I, too, am impressed by the truss of white martagons! And I like the roundleaf form especially.

I am so excited: I have a prospect on Lilium martagon var. caucasicum! They are supposed to have rounded leaves too, and very large plants. Hopefully, this man will be able to collect seed this fall from the wild in the Trans-Caucasus, and I will have enough to share. (And hopefully it is the real variety caucasicum.)

I'm also curious how the flowers of the dark round- leaved one will turn out wallaby! I has only 4 and I knew when I bought it that it has much less than all the others, but I got it for the special leaf-shape.

When it makes seeds I can save some for you and Leftwood if you like..

Thanks Leftwood but the praises should go to the grower! He seem to have excellent plants, now it's my task to keep them in that good state!

Now you made me curious about that Lilium martagon var. caucasicum. Do you know how its flowers look like. I didn't manage to find a picture on the web..

Look here for info:
http://www.the-genus-lilium.com/martagon.htm
Here for pic
http://www.rareplants.co.uk/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=156&P_ID=1386

The description in the former doesn't match the picture. In fact The Genus Lilium is the only website I've come across that describes the flowers as other than normal martagon type. Pretty much all say rose-lilac color. I think the shape of the leaves and large size of the plant are especially interesting. I am not betting that the flower will be much different than other martagons.

I copied this from the genus lilium site;

"var. caucasicum Mischenko 1928: Very large variety from the Black Sea area and Transcaucasia with a hight of up to 250 cm; buds very hairy; tepals not revolute but widely open in a broad trumpet shape, rose-lilac."

and indeed the picture in the rareplants site doesn't match the shape of the flowers described in the former site..

Copied from the rare plants site;

"This has leaves in big whorls of a very healthy looking dark, dull green. ".

It's a pity though that the picture only shows the flowers.. They don't speak of the shape of the leaves..For the rest it reminds me of the one I got because of its leaves that are so different..

I took a pict of the buds of one of the martagons var.alba which were also very hairy looking..

I can only say that although there isn't a picture of caucasicum in Eugene Fox's book, Martagon Lilies, he does have a picture of a martagon cultivar Morning Melody. He comments it has similar foliage. Those leaves are even more rounded than yours.

update;

One of the new ones I bought this year beginning of May, the one with the four stems and with flowers on three of them is really coming from the same bulb as the flowers on them are identical.

It was difficult to take a good picture as the corner I had planted in became very dark. I had forgotten how dark it becomes there when the huge fig tree towering above it is in leaf.
So here a bad picture with flash from a couple of weeks ago, they have finished flowering now..

The two martagon 'alba' from last year I bought as potted up bulbs have performed greatly. I'm very happy with them. They seem to be very healthy and vigorous;

...

and the one with the dark rounded leaves started to bloom yesterday. It has 4 flowerbuds and the flowers are quite large. It has a beautiful deep colour unlike the one with the 4 stems. I love it!

Those martagons just glow in the garden, don't they? Beautiful, bonitin.

Yes, they do Magnolia! I'm grateful they want to grow in my shady garden!

All beautiful! They must glow like diamonds in your garden!

I can see a bird's nest I think in your last pic, at the top right in the small tree with light shining through?

I have another L. martagon seedling just come up, I think that makes 3 now! They are not supposed to grow leaves until next year, but some can and they have!