Always Growing

“Lily Success”, a copyrighted post, was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana

“But who will watch my lilies, When their blossoms open white? By day the sun shall be sentry, And the moon and the stars by night!” Bayard Taylor

When I first started gardening, I unknowingly tried to grow many plants that did not like the hot, humid, Deep South. After many failures, I decided that I would only put my efforts on plants that I definitely knew would do well in my climate. Therefore, I read many books about gardening in the Gulf Coast. More than one author advised against growing any lilies except lilium longiforum, the Easter lily. Other lilies just didn’t do well here.

While that advice may be true, I have found several lilies that have done extremely well for me. Of course, I found out by accident that certain lilies will do well in South Louisiana. The first one I planted was the Madonna Lily (lilium candidum). I have had this one for years, but it was only after moving it to where there was more sun did I start to see flowers. While it is a small lily, it is certainly a lovely one.

I did plant Easter lilies, which should be blooming soon, and they have done extremely well for me. The next one I planted was the Triumphator lily that was part of a group of plants in a child’s watering can. I just wanted the watering can, so I planted the included bulbs anywhere. I was shocked when the next spring I was rewarded with lovely flowers. Since then I have purchased more Triumphator lilies for other areas of the garden.

This spring, I tried another lily, Pink Heaven. It, like Triumphator, is related to lilium longiforum which does well here. At first, when I saw the buds, I was afraid the bulbs were mismarked and they wouldn’t be pink. However, when they opened, they were pink, just lighter than I thought they would be.

I have also branched out into some Asiatic lilies. These were a mix and not very expensive, but they have returned for three years now so something must be agreeing with them. A red one opened its flower yesterday.

So, I feel that the lilies have done very well in a zone where the “experts” discouraged me from trying to grow these lovely flowers. I still would like to try some more lilies in the garden. It would be nice if more gardeners in this area would try to grow these great plants.

“Favorite Lilies”, a copyrighted post, was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

I haven’t been growing lilies very long; this is only the third summer that I have had them in my garden.  I started growing them by accident.  I only noticed lilies after I had to find an alternate route to work because of road construction, and I started going through an older neighborhood where there were many gardens that had blooming Easter lilies.  After seeing them do well in so many older gardens, I just had to have some.  These are about the only true lilies that are grown around here.  About the time that I put in the Easter lilies, I bought a child’s watering can to use in a wreath.  In the watering can was several bulbs – liatris, some glads, and some Triumphator lilies.  These lilies looked bad.  Long, leggy, yellowed stems.  I planted them and quickly forgot about them.  They did nothing. The next spring, I noticed lilies coming up, and it took me several minutes to figure out where they came from.  To say I was surprised these poor lilies had made it to sprout up is putting it mildly.  I couldn’t believe how lovely the flowers were, so this year I ordered some Triumphator lilies from Beck and Becky’s Bulbs, and again success.

This is how the flowers looked when they first open – big trumpets with dark pink centers and a green throat.  I planted these near the pink vitex and a Blushing knockout rosebush.  The colors work so well together especially as the lilies age since the pink fades slightly.

Even when the lily flowers fade, the soft pink is still lovely.

One more thing that makes thes lilies so fantastic is the fragrance.  While it does carry a distance in the garden, it is not overpowering or cloying.  It is a delightful, fresh scent.

As you can see, I have really fallen for these lilies.  Now, the only problem is do I order more of these next year or wait a while until they multiply and then spread them around the garden.  If they multiply like the Easter lilies did, I won’t have to wait long to have more.  I don’t think I can have enough of these lovely pink and white beauties.

“Madonna Lily”, a copyrighted post, was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana

One of my oldest plants is this Madonna Lily.  It is one of the first purchases I made when I was just starting out trying to do some landscaping around our home.  It was a mail ordered, with a few other fall bulbs, from Parks Seed.  Lured by the photographs and the description that it would do well in our area, I succumbed to this lily.  When planted, it grew well but never did flower.  I think it was the lack of sun.

When I made the circle garden about six or seven years ago, I transplanted this little lily to front and center.  Now, I knew it would get sun.  The next spring, sure enough, there was a stalk and one small flower.  It was much smaller than I thought it would be, but I have learned since then that it has a small flower.  Every year after that, the plant has slowly grown bigger, and this is the best year for its flowers.  There are three stalks this year, so there are many flowers opening now.

Other interesting facts about this Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum) is that the flowers are used for an essential oil in perfume.  It is from the eastern Mediterranean area and is called the Madonna lily because it was so often used in paintings of the Blessed Mother.

This lily grows during the winter, blooms in the spring, and then dies back in the summer.  They also do not root stem as other lilies do, and because of this should only be planted with about two inches of soil on top of the bulb.  It is an easy to care for lily because I didn’t know very much about gardening and nothing about lilies when I planted it, and it has done well.

Even though this is a small sized lily, it is certainly a star in my garden.  Madonna lilies have stood for purity for over 3,000 years and when it blooms you can see why.  The color of its white flower is like no other.  It is such a pure white, it is hard to describe the difference this white color is.  “Candidum” is Latin for “dazzling white” and a better name couldn’t be found.