To be out at dusk amidst fireflies and the fragrance of regal lilies is summer magic.
Lilies are some of the garden’s most aristocratic elements. The members of the genus Lilium really begin to dazzle in July, although there are some that are earlier. They share the garden stage with the genus Hemerocallis — daylilies — and generate confusion with their shared names and season. But while daylilies are planted in banks and swathes, “color by the yard,” luxurious bulb lilies are generally used more sparingly: solo acts, clumps, or focal points.
The bulbs of these monocots are available in two different waves: spring and fall, depending upon when they are harvested (primarily in the Netherlands). Check your mail for bulb catalogues, and order early, as crops are often spoken for quickly. It is desirable to plant them as quickly as possible after receiving them: deterioration and disease organisms set in fast.
The lily calendar goes roughly like this: The extensive group of lilies known as Asiatics, mostly upward-facing and scentless, starts into bloom in late June and carries through most of July. Smaller classes of hybrids, such as the Chinese trumpets, bloom in mid-July. Asiatics have also been crossed with Easter (L. longiflorum) lilies to produce a small class of early, fragrant lilies. The ‘Orienpets,’ created by crossing Oriental lilies with the Trumpet class (often called “tree lilies”), Orientals, and some species carry the lily display along through August and into September.
My preference is for downward- or outward-facing lilies, with fragrance, just a matter of taste really, but all lilies gift a garden with an air of distinction. Sunny sites are mostly required, and most lilies do best planted deeply. It is a dangerous myth that deer do not eat lilies. Some years nothing happens, but then comes the nasty surprise! Spray with repellent, for the plant cannot regenerate more flower buds in the current season.
The Oriental and ‘Orienpet’ groups are stem-rooting, which helps support the tremendous show and height they are capable of growing, but some unobtrusive staking may be helpful as well. I like cages of rusted wire, 24 to 30 inches high and anchored with earth staples, placed around lily groupings (other perennials and dahlias too); they are virtually invisible.
Lilies I grow include the pictured L. regale album; a species form called L. ‘White Henryi,’ and something similar, ‘Lady Alice’; assorted Oriental and ‘Orienpet’ lilies in pink and white, such as ‘Casa Blanca’ and ‘Olivia’; the almost-invasive tiger lilies Lynn Irons calls “captain’s lilies”; and Asiatics from long ago, such as ‘Enchantment’ and ‘Connecticut King.’ In a case of small-minded plant snobbism, I disdain Asiatic lilies; they seem more suited to the cut-flower trade than to the garden, in my opinion. “De gustibus non est disputandum.”
However, unusual in Asiatic lilies, the downward-facing ‘Tiger Babies’ is a great favorite: early (in bloom now), lightly fragrant, recurved petals on a candelabra-like structure, in a subtle peachy pink. I have planted it throughout one section of my garden. It is a product of the longtime breeding program of Judith Freeman, whose many wonderful lilies are available at her website, thelilygarden.com.
Many mass-market sources of lily bulbs sell rubbish or call all sorts of other genera “lilies,” such as agapanthus or camassia; be skeptical and read carefully to avoid disappointment. In addition to the Lily Garden, other good sources of lilies are Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, White Flower Farm, Old House Gardens — Heirloom Bulbs, and John Scheepers.
Hemerocallis
To return to hemerocallis — daylilies, the ones planted in swathes and banks — they are reliable sources of garden and landscape color, especially in July, and they too are monocots. Flower forms may mimic bulb lilies, although of course they last just one day, which is where the common name originates. Hemerocallis are incredible performers under good cultural conditions, and may be divided regularly. Compost and mulching are both means to keep down weeds and enhance vigor.
Modern daylilies have a different profile from the reliable roadside standby, H. fulva, the tawny daylily, plus other older cultivars such as ‘Hyperion.’ Newer cultivars, many of which are diploid or tetraploid with heavily budded scapes, have shorter, stouter stems held closer to the mounds of strap-like foliage, while the habit of older types is airier, flowers held well above foliage. Choose your own preference; neither is superior to the other.
Product feedback
I mentioned two products earlier in the year that I intended to try out in my garden and work: cinnamon leaf oil and miniclover. The cinnamon leaf oil was intended to keep squirrels off my strawberry plants, and the miniclover was intended to produce a cropped, low-growing lawn that tolerates drought, lack of mowing, and produces its own nitrogen fertilizer.
The cinnamon leaf oil was not successful, although I am not claiming I really used it assiduously and correctly. Directions for use and dilutions were ambiguous, and I was dilatory in my application of the product, partly because I could not see any results. It was also claimed to repel ants — large brown ants here chew rosebuds — but not that I could detect.
Miniclover seems like a good product, so far. I have always been at variance with the lawn culture that poisons clover in lawns with herbicide. I like the look of a turf sprinkled with cloverleaf, and what the clover does to make the lawn resilient and requiring fewer inputs. The miniclover is even more low-growing than conventional Dutch White. Seed comes pelleted and inoculated. The source is outsidepride.com, which is also a source for other plant products of interest.