Got lilies?

Mine began coming out the middle of this week. The rest of you have lilies?

Buds galore but too early for me yet.

My Luxor, similar or the same as the ones in your pretty photo, is blooming and another one the name I forget. In the hoophouse. If I plant them in the yard the deer eat them.

Lilies? Yes! And, Betty, I hope you will post photos of some of your Asian lilies, too.

Another shot.

Nice lily and nice photo, roybird.

Those were Asian Lilies that I posted. I have some other colors to post as well. The one you posted looks like a daylily -- very pretty but different from a lily.
I have not seen deer eating lilies around here -- or daylilies. And I have some lush looking daylilies right near the sidewalk around the vacant lot. The deer like to walk down the street or sidewalk there. ( Our deer don't seem to be big on trail blazing.)
I only have one daylily blooming right now and it is the plain old yellow-gold one. I have some nicer varieties in bud right now. And at last I am getting around to putting annuals in the outdoor flower pots in front of the house. I have been slow about everything this year.

I think my Luxor is an asiatic lily. Has a wonderful scent, aren't the asiatics the lovely smelling ones? I have no idea what the difference is between asiatic lilies and daylilies. But deer eat the tops off any and all of them here if they can get at them. A truncated stem is not attractive in the flower bed either.

We went from winter with snow and 35 degree weather most abruptly to summer with 80 degree days. I have no idea what happened to spring, my plants are most confused. The poor crabapple that is tough as nails and blooms hugely no matter what freezes came, hardly put out more than a handful of blossoms this year.

So I am just now managing to set up the hoophouse for summer, which I usually do a month earlier. We are all slow this year, a weird time indeed.

Mulch, I think we have all had a weird year weather-wise. I know there were far fewer entries at our iris show because our best grower had all of his irises frozen! Normally he walks off with all the prizes.
As I recall it is the Oriental lilies that smell so nice. I only have a few of those. They do well here the first year and then often don't come back or at least don't bloom again. The one in my picture is an Asiatic. I don't know its name -- never did -- I got a couple crates of them from a friend who grew them for the flowers then tossed the bulbs. Luckily he tossed a bunch of them my way. they are stalks 2 -6 ft. high with lots of leaves growing off the stalks and pointing out at about 90 degree angles.
Day lilies look like grass -- about 2 ft. high. They have nice grasslike leaves that touch the ground. The blooms come out of stalks in the middle that have no leaves on them -- just a clump of blooms. They bloom, then close at night never to open again. Hence daylilies. I am pretty sure that roybird's picture is of a daylily.
I have attached a picture of a clump of daylilies in my yard -- plain old yellow-gold ones. Not fancy, but I do enjoy them.
Here is a link to an Asiatic lily picture that shows the whole plant -- the one in the front with the red flowers:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/80016/
And here is a mass of the same lilies.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/83460/
You can see that the plants of the lilies and daylilies are quite different.

Here is a link to a picture of an Oriental Lily plant. I think that is the very fragrant one. You can see it is closer to the Asiatic Lily in plant type than to the daylily.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/5944/

For some reason Oriental Lilies don't do all that well in our area, but Asiatics and daylilies do great. I love all of them.

There are many more kinds of lilies, but only one more that I know anything about and it is one of my favorites -- the Tiger Lily. See:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/118571/

This is not my picture, but to me sums up the tiger lily's essence. Plus there is one more thing it doesn't show. They are often really tall. My orange tiger lily is my tallest lily, at least 5 ft tall. It is difficult to hold upright in my garden.
They grow well here. I have orange and yellow, but they come in white, red, and pink at least. I covet more of these beauties. I have a hard time getting a good picture of them because of their tendency to bend over and because the flower faces the ground. These are my last lilies to bloom each year, but I really look forward to them. The picture I have attached is from '07.

paj that looks like a martagon lily? I luv those. Day lilies and asiatics are tops in my books for hardiness. I'm trying LA hybrids now which are hardy here and look like the orientals. Check them out! Very prettiful. I'll post a pic when they bloom

Betty,
Wow, what a helpful description! It would then appear that I have some asiatic and some oriental lilies in the hoophouse. I had some daylilies in my gardens but the deer kept eating them until they died, along with some asiatics I had planted outside the hoophouse.

I do have Stargazer but it only has buds and has not opened yet. In the hoophouse,
of course. One of these days I will paint Stargazer.

I see why you love the tiger lilies! What gorgeous plants! I can just see such a plant in the wind here, ha! Glad somebody can grow them...

Glad I could help, mulch. Yep, you would probably have to grow tiger lilies in the hoop house -- which must look like a wonderland inside.
As far as your deer eating your daylilies, the Chinese eat them, too. You can buy the flowers dried at the Chinese grocery. They are standard in Hot and Sour Soup and other dishes. Your deer have good taste!

Dalianut,
I plan to try some LA-Hybrids. I have a friend here who grows them and says they are the nicest of all the lilies. No, my lily, does look like a martagon in shape, but it is supposed to be a tiger lily. If you look carefully, it has little dots all over it. But, I just looked up martagon lilies and they look very similar to tiger lilies. Beats me. I bought them from Jung, as I recall and they were named tiger lilies.

Have you ever grown speciousum rubrum. I think it is gorgeous but I have never been able to get it to grow. I recently read that it likes acid soil. That is, no doubt, my problem. Have you tried it? With what results?

This message was edited Jun 30, 2008 9:01 AM

I'm sure the picture I sent was a day lily. I have some different colors of daylilies. I think the foliage is different for the orientals. I'll check out the links when I get time. I like them all, of course.

My lilies are about a week away from blooming. I put dilute fish emulsion in all the beds to get the roses into their second flush synchronous with the lilies. I will post pictures very soon...

Greenjay, you are amazing. My poor lilies don't get anything except water and don't have anything to sync with. I sure have a lot to do!

Greenjay is amazing. My lilies are lucky to get water...

Go greenjay grow. I think you're right on with that but LOL my roses are just starting their first flush which will almost be at the same time as the asiatics burst into bloom this year due to the heavy snow/cold snap in May this year. Funky zonal weirdness.

Cool paj. What kind of tigers are those? cuz mine don't do that flower cluster. I haven't grown sp. rubrum but now of course I will have to try it. I can do zone 4 ^_^

As far as I recall all my tigers are called "Yellow", meaning they are sort of generic, not a named hybrid. I bought them from Jung.

I looked up my tiger lilies and found that they are more-or-less species lilies, but I suspect the various colors may have come from hybridizing on purpose. Never the less here is the one color of tiger lily best known around the country:

L. TIGRINUM (Tiger Lily) (L. lancifolium)

see at :

http://tinyurl.com/68osfb

Martagon lilies look much like what I call tiger lilies. Don't know where the colors came from. My orange one, most like the one above, is far less good as a grower than the yellow one. The pink and red, don't seem to have come up -- certainly haven't bloomed. I like the downward facing, Turks caps lilies. From what I read the reason I can't grow speciousum rubrum is that it likes acid soil. My soil is neutral, though with a lot of pine needles and coffee grounds, maybe some day I can make it grow here.

We are fortunate to have a local grower who specilizes in many different lilies that are hardy to our zone. They haven't got their fall catalogue up yet. The bulbs they send are the size of artichokes :o http://www.plantlilies.com/

Wow! Plantfiles.com has a huge selection of really nice lilies. I will have to order from then when their catalog comes out. I truly love lilies and would love to add a few more to my yard. Luckily, their web site says they ship to the US. You know it seems like the best lily sellers are in Canada. I like the Lily Nook also and they are Canadian. Maybe that means they are happiest in Canada, but I can tell you the ones that don't require acid soil do well here, too. I bookmarked Plantfiles.com for future use!

I'm not sure I have found a lily I *can't* grow here yet. I use the same 60/40 mix of manure with them. Mine are 5-7' tall this year, and full of buds.

Wow, GJ! Your compost is probably what the bean in Jack and the Bean Stalk was growing in. Do send us lily pictures when they bloom! Mine are blooming now -- some of them. I have a few waiting for future bloom. I am pleased about staggered bloom.

My lilies are not having a super year, so far. It has been awful dry. However, I'm enjoying the blooms I do have.

Here's another lily photo.

Very pretty, roybird. Some of mine are a little less nice than last year. Barbara Mitchell doesn't seem to want to open fully and Crimson Pixie looks warn out even when it first opens. Still, they are lovely. A brilliant yellow daylily -- still in a flower pot from last year-- is blooming, too. These poor things need to get planted!
We had a nice rain yesterday -- not a whole lot, but hopefully as sign that the monsoons are coming.

roybird the lemonadey/limey colour is so pretty! My yellows are just bright yellow. Methinks I need some of that lemonadey/limey colour now.

I have no idea what kind it is. Sorry. If I knew maybe I'd get another one. Most I've seen in the nurseries this year are bright yellow.

The nurseries in our area don't carry very many kinds of day lilies. I have the usual bright yellow/gold ones - that came with the house, but I also have a few others I have bought -- some locally and some in a Coop here on DG. Here is Barbara Mitchell. I have two clumps of these, one that I bought at Newman's Nursery in bloom and the other that I bought mail order, probably because I had forgotten I already had it.
Locally, I only buy daylilies and iris in bloom because the labels are always getting mixed up -- except at Agua Fria Nursery.

Barbara Mitchell

And here is Blackbeard's Treasure -- which I got in a DG Coop with Maryott Nursery. This is the first time it has bloomed for me and I am embarrassed to say it is still in a flower pot. Hopefully not for long!

Here is a red Asiatic Lily. Alas, I don't know the name. But it is mixed in with the salmon colored ones. They look nice together.

Here is a small lily from the front yard called Crimson Pixie. I bought it at the grocery store for $12.95 in a pot and in bloom. I usually think that is too expensive, but I was feeling in need of a flower that day. This is its second year to bloom outside. It is only about 14 inches high which is nice for its location in the bottom tiered bed.

Here is a closeup of Crimson Pixie. It's little clump has grown quite a lot since I purchased it.

The 'Crimson Pixie' is such a cutie. Usually I only see orange pixies at the store. I put in a few mixedof pixies under the mountain ash with the wild flowers last fall. I'm hoping I got a good colour mix. I planted a ton of new lilies last fall and already noticed that I put some shorter ones behind taller ones so it will be an interesting display in some spots LOL

Well, you can look at your garden from a seat in the tree! Actually, make notes and move clumps as you discover heights. I moved Crimson Pixie last year because it just didn't show up where I had it. It didn't seem to mind a bit.

Paj if only I was that organized. I still have an orange pixie surrounded by monster tiger lilies calling out 'Look down!!! I'm in here!!!" every year for 5 years. I have moved all the original day lilies and alot of the orientals that I inherited with the house and they didn't seem to care. And lets not talk about jumping up and down on a pitchfork to divide day lilies. They are tough!!!!

I know what you mean about being organized. I am still planting things I bought 2 years ago and have more coming any day now! Cutting up daylilies! My gosh I had no idea how hard that was. Requires sharp knife which will soon be dull, strong shovel -- not hand trowel, or small nuke.
I have done it, but I am always amazed at how tough those delicate looking flowers are!

I have one unknown day lily I call the 'corn plant' because the leaves are as wide as corn. It spreads like a bandit and I literally hack at its tubers to keep it from taking over but it keeps going and going like the everready bunny.

Dalianut, you are a bad influence! You mentioned martagon lilies and I looked them up in Plant Files and discovered that they like alkaline soil and the next thing I knew 7 of them had jumped into my shopping basket and you are right, they are expensive. But if I enjoy them as much as I have my other lilies, it will be worth the price. I don't get them until October but that's probably a good thing considering everything I still have to plant.
I am so excited! Please, God, stop me before I buy any more plants. I cannot control my addiction to them!

GJ,
The speciosum rubrum that will not grow for me requires very acid soil, I now know. I have sworn off lilies and most plants that require very acid soil. They never even poke their noses out of the soil, no matter how many coffee grounds I put on them. Sigh. Speciosum rubrum is beautiful and is supposed to be the most fragrant of all lilies.