OMG, I may have messed up bad w/ my lilies!

Hi Nery, I always was told we could grow Orienpets (?) and I have some that have done well but then, like has been mentioned here, they decline.
Do you grow the Formosanums AKA Philippine Lilies? The are awesome, love heat and are great about growing up through shrubs. After a few years they get to be 7'. They can be a bit invasive but are not difficult to pull up.

A, can you believe I don't have a formosanum yet? it's on my list. Maybe I'll find one at a local swap.

Nery, I started some L.formosum from seed a couple of years ago and they bloomed the 2nd year. I kinda planted the tiny (at the time) seedlings too close, and will have to dig them this fall. Remind me and I'll be happy to send you a few. They're very pretty! Extra long, narrow trumpet shaped blooms, very graceful.

Just so we don't get things mixed up here: L. formosanum is the Formosa lily.

Philippine lily, that would be L. philippinense.

In the south the names are pretty much used interchangeably. Some references even list them as variations of each other. Around here it depends on what your grandmother called them.

Nery,

Are you sure your difficulty with Asiatics isn't just either overly wet soil or some bad bulbs? I grow tons of them and they multiply all over the place. Also I grow OT's and trumpets. The ones I struggle most with are the Orientals as the heavy heat scorches the blooms badly since they bloom so late. Like vossner however I have had no leaf scorch on any OT or Asiatic. LA or LO. Marty, I thought your climate was very mild in tems of average temps inthe summer; maybe you have a more direct, less filtered sun?

My garden is in transition between the spring bulbs with leaves starting to decay and the lilies. Fortunately the Irises are tiding things over! :-) Everything here is returning from last season and not newly planted, and I am getting lots of Asiatic multiplication

Mostly OT's and trumpets - this bed has been here three years.

I have been growing formosanum/longiflorum crosses from seed for a few years. If you start them from seed in January they bloom in the fall. I got the seed from the North American Lily Society. Members clean and collect seed and sell it to you for $1.00 a pack (forgive me if everyone knows this...), so I started picking seed that was described as immediate epigeal (which means it germinates PDQ and you have no problem spotting it). This is not a great picture, but here are the fall results from a January sowing. I then put the pots in the basement and water them sparingly. If I do it correctly I start with larger bulbs and get taller flowers, just like any other lily. In better climates you wouldn't even have to overwinter them.

Last year I wasn't quick enough so I have five or six different kinds that I held over for this years. I increased the water and the stems are shooting up. It's great for me because in my climate all lilies are finished blooming by the end of August, except for speciosum, which can be temperamental.

Donna

Steve, I like the mix of peonies and lilies but how will you divide the lilies without disturbing the peony roots?

Steve, your Dutch Iris are glorious! How well do they return for you? They're kinda hit or miss here the 2nd year.

Hi velnita, thanks! Well, when I planted them they weren't so close together :-) In the second picture they're not as close as they look due to the angle of the picture. I am not sure how I'll move them yet though if they encroach too much and in fact have some problems with peonies and daffodils being too close in another bed due to my goofy and careless planting and I actually do have peonies in a couple beds with lilies growing up through them. So what will I do?? I don't know!! LOL Maybe get the soil nice and wet this fall and tunnel down under the peony and hopefully disturb it as little as possible. I finally have some decent buds as we are three years at this house and I don't want to start over on the peonies! The lilies are easy to start once I find them. BTW thanks for the great suggestion on the peony forum on Reath's - wow, I have never seen anyone offer 6-10 eye plants! You're right though, website need work and pictures/descriptions are lacking for most plants. I will need more beds as I have no place to plant more right now!

Thanks Neal! I posted them on the Iris forum because there seems to be little attention paid to D. Irises and they're really underutilized bulbs. Mine have come back well every year and even at my old place I planted lots of them - they bloom in late March through early April reliaby for me. I've read they're good in zones 6-9 though even on the Iris thread several people in zone 6 like you indicated trouble with them and poor return. They seem to do fine for me here. Soil remains dry and well drained where they're planted, though due to the volume of stuff you grow I know you know what you're doing and doubt that must be the issue, so it must be temperatures.

Here's a clump of my LA's among a peony that recently bloomed. Both the peony and lilies were planted in 2006. It seems to be OK here as this peony blooms before the lilies get any height, but again too close and tight. It wasn't when I planted, though! LOL

I hope you share with us when you divide the lilies. I'd like to put lilies closer to my peonies but I'm a scardy-cat. I'm hoping to learn how you do it so I can do it too.

Are there any lilies that I could simply put in the ground and never have to dig and divide?

I love your iris too but if Gemini has trouble with them, I know they wouldn't return for me (I'm further north and a much less experienced gardener).

velnita, I've seen old stands of Tiger Lilies that must have gone many years without attention. Its certainly worth a try, just don't worry with dividing unless they start dwindling. Orientals don't tend to increase very quickly, so they may be a good option to try. I planted some Lilies (Orientals and LA hybrids) last year between clumps of peonies, thinking the bushy peony foliage may offer them good support. Hmmm...we'll see how that pans out, LOL.

Steve, have you grown or considered spuria Irises? They've captured my attention this spring and I'd like to try a few. I understand they don't mind alkaline soils, and once established don't mind summer dryness. They sort of have the same "look" as Dutch Iris and reportedly also make good cut flowers. They bloom later than Dutch Iris too, perhaps a good way to extend the Iris season.

Steve, quite possible that the orientals could have been poor quality bulbs. My first attempt was Centerfold from WM. I haven't given up on them, but I will be very cautious. This is yr 3 for me with lilium and I couldn't be more pleased. The people in the lily forum and bulbs have been quite instrumental in the addiction, a very helpful gang. You know who you are, lovely people!

Velnita, when I started planting lilies to grow underneath roses, I just sort of closed my eyes and planted them willy nilly, with great rewards. It will be the same w/ you and peonies.

My darling stepson is visiting for Easter and I have an arrangement of amaryllis and lilies in the b/fast table. He looked at it last night and asked about it. he was impressed that it came from our garden. so was I!

Next possible obsession: irises. Pirl has sorta got me thinking about them. I have started w/ LA irises and am taking serious look at dutch and the little short ones.

LA Iris Our Caroline. I have a trop. hibiscus planted nearby w/ very similar coloring.

This message was edited Apr 11, 2009 7:50 AM

Velnita, there really is not "secret" to it - it is called "planting stuff too close together when everything's still small" LOL. I am the WORST about that! The look is nice when the lilies come up as long as the timing is right; when the peony is blooming you can't really see the lilies so much, and the peony doesn't seem to have suffered for it. As far as slow multipliers go - I think Neal's advice is perfect and in my experience any hybrid of an Asiatic tends to be a fast multiplier - like the LA's or standard Asiatics. The OT's and Orientals seem to be slowest.

Neal, I will have to check into those Iris - have never tried them but I am always into trying new plants. Thanks for the suggestion on those ^_^

Your welcome Steve, always happy to enable, LOL. Here's some I've been drooling over:

http://www.snowpeakiris.com/newweb/SPU%20A-F.html

Oh, dear Neal. Those are really lovely. I see trouble ahead!


Donna

Steve, you are right about my climate in San Diego. Most of the time it is quite mild where I live, but when we get dry air coming in from the desert, that is when my tips and leaves get scorched. I have learned not to plant too late, so that my lilies can be far enough along that they don't get a sunburn. Also I have started planting my LO's with a bit of shade, so that they don't get hurt by the "Spring Surprises". A couple of years ago I started planting reblooming iris, to give me blooms, before and after my lilies have grown. This spring they have done fabulously for me and all of them bloomed in the fall/winter for me.
Marty

Happy Birthday Nery!!!