Species Lilium, Henry's Lily

i love Lilium henryi. It did take three years of patience until it did make good flowers in its beautiful and perfect own way... but now ...Read Moreit blooms every year again.

I visited a lily hybridizer in rural Minnesota, near Rochester, and convinced him to sell me some bulbs. I took them home to Tennessee an...Read Mored planted them in a beautifully prepared bed with good drainage and wire baskets. In not more than two years they were all dead and gone, rotted in the hardware cloth meant to protect them from moles and voles. It was the climate that killed them.

A few years later I planted a Lilium henryi bulb in my patio border. It bloomed quite nicely. The blossom was so attractive that I took the bulb up and planted it in a container so I could move it to a good location for photography when it bloomed again. Bloom it did, year after year, in that shallow container. I finally realized that L. henryi is quite hardy in my hot, southern climate. Drainage is certainly important, but the heat won't kill it. It is the only lily I know of that has that remarkable quality.

My advice to Alaskan growers would be raised, well drained amended beds, some protection and fall mulching.

Smallish blooms, wild papillae altogether quite nice. I think it will get better as it grows in stature.