First Lilies of the Season

Believe me I'm getting an addiction too.Can you believe that I'm such a newby that I didn't know they had yellow, and I love them.Next year, can't wait.Mike

This is an orange Asiatic I planted a couple of year ago getting ready to bloom.

Well thanks, Wicker :-) I make sure we mow it before I take pictures LOL.

Mike, there are LOTS of Asiatics in yellow...you should collect away! I love yellow ones too and not much shows better from a distance than yellow.

I have yellow "Dazzle" and yellow "London" but as I never label I cannot tell which is which. I think the lighter yellow one is "London" - pard? Here is an example.

And I think this is "Dazzle"? Or do I have them reversed?

Steve, I don't think you realize how your and the other southern folks pictures sustain us in the wet, soggy and fairly cold and sometimes frozen north. Please keep them coming!!

Steve, those are breath taking beautiful. I don't mean to sound ignorant, but I didn't know Asiatic, from any other "Tigerlilly", until two of my daughters found a pot of Regales, dry, and cast out at a cemitary.One of my daughters thinks I can do any thing, and the other is a little more realistic.They ask if I could revive them, and maybe grow them from them.That was three years, and I have learned about Asiatic from that, and grew twenty two lilies from those, and we all got a start.My regales have not opened this year so far, but soon.Will send a pic.Mike

WELL Diann you should be warming up nicely by now!!! I am eagerly awaiting your peony pics.

It finally hit 60 a about two hours ago. It's been cold and rainy again this week. Yes, I do have some herbaceous peonies that are thinking about popping.... just not very many at the moment.. :)

Looking forward to seeing them, Mike. Please post when you have pictures! Thanks for the nice words BTW. The Regales are actually trumpets and they're very fragrant - they're white and slender with a yellow center. I grow most types of lilies except Orientals, which i find don't like the heat and I can do OK if I get the early blooming ones like Le Reve which returns nicely for me. Also don't have many species lilies. I think the tigers are just a subset of Asiatics.

Many others here know a lot more about the technical side of lilies than I do, like pard. I've gotten pretty good at growing them over the years and the Asiatics not only do well but multiply fantastically well. The Trumpets also do well here and the Orienpets, or OT hybrids, which are crosses between Trumpets and Orientals, are also good in hot climates and get very tall and are very fragrant, and return well also. I really like the LA's a lot - which are Longiflorum (Easter Lily)/Asiatic crosses - they have bigger, more substantial flowers than many of the standard Asiatics and nice heat tolerance, as well. There are so many cool new crosses available now....I want to try the new Asiapets (Asiatic/Trumpet) crosses, and at any rate the end result of all this hybridizing is a stronger, tougher, more resilient plant for a wider variety of gardening conditions. I just love lilies.

Experrimenting is half of the fun!

Aren't most of your peonies normally blooming by now, Diann? I know you said bloom cycles were a couple of weeks behind schedule.

Oh yeah, I should be up to my eyeballs in peonies by now, but it's just been so darn cold this year. Diana Park was showing a lot of color, but I'm not sure if she popped or not yet. I'll be out looking tomorrow to see who has come to play... :)

I will be looking forward to your pictures in the Peony forum!!!

^_^

We're running way behind here too. Most years, folks hope the peonies will last until Memorial Day (so they can put them on graves). My first bud started to open on Mem. day.

Steve, you have been holding out on us. Beautiful pictures everybody and thanks for sharing! Glad to see we have some new lily enthusiasts with us that we can corrupt, oops, I mean encourage.

Didn't know there was a Peony forum, but of course there is. Just checked it out and it's like Bizarro World over there, with peony-fanatic versions of lily-fanatic characters. Steve, Ticker, Magnolialover..... Very exciting to discover it. Must subscribe to it, but just to fantasize since I may be able to squeeze another lily in somewhere, but would have to remove the back end of the house to accommodate a peony obssession. I do love them, though.

Wow, Steve, those OTs are very tall and they look like they are going to have quite a few flowers on them too.

Went to pick up a couple annuals from pots last night and my youngest daughter, who just happens to have Lily as a middle name, picked out her second lily of the year. Pard, you'd be proud, her first pick was 'Pink Pixie' (a couple weeks ago now) and her second 'Peach Pixie'. No coaching from me, and she is a McRae fan at heart. I had neither of them, I always thought they were too short, but they don't look too short. Lol! Oh yeah, she came home and popped it right in, all by herself. Now the two of them are neighbors.

So you see, it doesn't take too much to rub off on someone with the lily addiction. Isn't it fun?

I'm enjoying the beautiful lilies. Keep the pics coming. It's been rainy off and on here and my irises and peonies were torn to pieces last night. My garden looks ravaged.

I only had two lilies before this year so I'm a newbie also. I bought some from a coop this year, picked up a few at the IA roundup, and was gifted one from Moby. I even planted a few at my Mom's to get her started. ;-)

I know this isn't the best arangement, but it covers our first dog's grave.Mike

wickerparker you caught us, did you? Lol.

What a sweet idea for your beloved dog's grave site. There is no better marker than a beautiful plant, or lilies, as the case may be.

Arrangement Smrangement! You planted them with love and your whole heart to cover a beloved, good and faithful friend. He and they are gifts of beauty to you created by G-d. The rest beside that is but the "vanities of man" and pure commentary.

By the way, the happiest year of my life was when we were stationed in Ga. I'd go back in a minute!

Good Night

Howdy goldfinch :-)

^_^

Yes Tracey, I am excited about them blooming soon - hopefully in the next week or two. Lots of daylilies are opening up though!

Wicker, we look forward to seeing you in the peony forum. You are right, people who like lilies also tend to like irises and peonies. Goldfinch, Moby, daltri and yehudith have been hanging out over there too :-) Oh and Maxine. Interesting phenomenon I think - some of us were discussing that. You HAVE to make room for some peonies :-) - and you live in the perfect climate for them!

Daltri, you will love your new lily obsession. BTW you had some beautifiul peonies whose pictures you posted. I like the singles too...no wait the doubles - LOL I like all of them. I can gwo some doubles well like Festiva Maxima, but with the heat here the singles hold up better and don't tend to bloom as late.

Mike, I can't think of a better tribute to your puppy (I call all our dogs puppies). Your bed looks terrific and is a permanent, beautiful way to honor your family member.

Love your "Good Night", jmorth!

This message was edited May 30, 2008 10:18 PM

No lilies here yet, but getting closer. daltri_z5 sorry to hear your garden got so much wind damage. I had to prop a few Iris back up but they don't look too bad. The first wind strom dropped a 20' limb in my yard but it managed to miss all my lilies and only smashed a couple scapes off my one daylily. Most of it landed in a pathway. Good Night is lovely.

Susan

here are a few new ones.

tracie

Black Out

Manhattan

Jet Stream

Cavalese

Forget the name of this one, do have it marked though. checked the name, it is Rosanda.

This message was edited Jun 1, 2008 8:15 PM

Very nice aggie.

I agree, very nice, Aggie! :)

thanks guys! i hate that they only last such a short time for us. i would imagine in cooler climates the blooms last longer. it has been getting up in the 90s here and after just a few days they start to age badly.

tracie

aggie, we're having an unusually hot May too, which isn't helping. Normally, our highs here are about 86 at this time of year (late May). We have been in the 90's for two solid weeks now except for a couple of days with rain.

It was like someone flipped a switch. We were having a really nice and even kind of mild spring, then WHAM!

Very pretty, by the way. I really like your pictures of "Jet Steam"

^_^

Here's a nice Asiatic orange that opened up today....

I think this is "Brindisi"

And some mixed Orientals startingh to bloom

As a newby, how do i tell the difference between Orientals, and Asictic, and then there is trumpet.BTW, I just got three triumphant in the mail Sat., and couldn't resist buying them since I saw them on the fourm.I'm catching it!!Mike

DW was interupting me, its triumphtor, and I thaught they were beautiful.Mike

This message was edited Jun 1, 2008 6:12 PM

Yay Mike!!! Welcome to the addiction! You're going to love it! Telling the difference (at least for me) is based on several things. 1) the tag. :) 2) the way the leaf looks coming up the stem 3) is the flower is fragrant (Orientals are fragrant) and 4) size of the bloom.

You might consider joining the North American Lily Society, too. :) Or a local lily society.

Or you could just ask Magnolialover, Lilyfan, Moby, Pard, Wallaby, Leftwood, Ft. Worth Steve and tons of other really knowledgeable folks on here. I know what to look for, I just find it hard to explain at times.

Diann

Just grow them all and you will soon learn the differences. A bonus is having one type or the other in bloom all through the summer and into fall, starting with the Asiatics and ending with the oriental types.

Good lord, I forgot to add Mainiac!! Mainiac is our representative for Faraway Flowers. FF has some of the best lilies around. And Ramona knows her lilies..

But I agree with Pard, just grow them. :)

Mike, you have to try "Silk Road" if you like tall, fragrant Oriental/Trumpet crosses. Very strong, very tall (once it establishes), very fragrant & very heat tolerant.

For bloom times, since you and I are in the same zone, it is unusual for me to have any lily bloom later than the end of July here......I think I got blooms from "Black Beauty" once into the very beginning of august and that was by absolute latest ever. We're not blessed with that mild Pac NW climate like Pard is that ensure a super summer-long season.

My OT's are still budding out and should be in bloom in no more than a week.