Last fall I purchased both Citronella and leichtlinii which are both blooming now. The trouble is I can't see any difference between them. Either I'm missing something here or I got only one type. If I got only one than which is it, Citronella or leichtlinii???? I've tried looking them up on the net and can't find much in distinguishing differences except for "fuzzy buds" on leichtlinii. That would lead me to think I only received Citronella as none of the lilies have fuzzy buds. Any ideas?
Purchased as Citronella.

Purchased as L.leichtlinii

L.leichtlinii producing bulbills. That's one way of seeing the difference.

No bulbils to be seen as of yet but I'll keep an eye out. Thanks.

I had the invitation to purchase'leichtilinii turks cap or leichtilins lily] lilium, for $16.50-warning signals straight away!!!!These people, make up names to sell bulbs,..,,check out AU ebay at the moment,..,Twice flowering mattisse lilies,.,..I asaked the question about the 'twice flowering',.,.Answer-will flower in September, then inMarch, then , flower twice ,every year after that,.,.,.. BS!!!!!- and this person is selling lilium bulbs daily--reported it to ebay, but nothing done

I bought them from reputable sources, both here in Canada, both with pictures. The one doesn't have it's fall listing up yet so I can't check their picture yet and the other has an identical picture to the plant I purchased (Citronella) from them.
A lot of the pictures on the web are very confusing as so so many people incorrectly label their plants on the photo sharing sites and most of the botanical sites either don't have a picture or you still can't see any difference.

L. leichtlinii does NOT normally produce bulbils along the stem. We had a thread years back, I think on DavesGarden.com about this. Someone might want to search for it, but I must dash off to work now...

The same thing happened to me.I purchased three leichtlinii from John Scheepers and three citronella from Old House Gardens.They are identical.Orange colored turk's caps. Does anyone know what's going on?

Of course, Citronella and L. leichtlinii are never orange.

However, L. leichtlinii var. maximowiczii is orange.

ar RAYMOND,

We're sorry! The 'Citronella' lilies we sent you last fall turned out to be an impostor.

We discovered this when the bulbs bloomed in our trial garden here a few weeks ago. After checking with our Dutch supplier and other experts, we're pretty sure it's actually L. leichtlinii, a Japanese wildflower that was introduced in 1867 but is only now becoming common in gardens. It's very similar to 'Citronella', and beautiful, but it's not what you ordered.

We've credited your account for the full amount you paid for 'Citronella' plus a pro-rated percentage of your shipping. This credit will be automatically applied to your next order. Even if you received 'Citronella' at a discounted price in our "Luscious Lilies" or "Intro to Heirlooms" sampler, we've given you a credit for its full price plus shipping.

$12.00 Credit

If you'd rather have a refund to your credit card, just let us know. No problem.

We've never had this problem with 'Citronella' before, and our supplier assures us it will never happen again. If you're still interested in growing the true 'Citronella', you can order it for this fall with confidence and-since we didn't raise its price-your credit should cover its cost.

We know you count on us for authenticity, and we're sorry we let you down this time. Please accept our apologies-and, as always, thanks for being our customer.


Yours truly,

Derick McBryde, Customer Care
Old House Gardens - Heirloom Bulbs

''and other experts""? ..'In what,?'Walrus tusk engraving'?.,,,Ive come to believe, there are no experts anymore,[when it comes to supply and demand], in large mail order businesses,,.

The dutch were always reliable when it came to bulbs.I don't think this is any longer the case.They have a problem finding people to harvest and rogue the bulbs.In the old days they used to use local people who would do this every year and had a lot of experience, now they use migrants from eastern Europe who don't know one bulb from another so the quality has dropped. Old House Gardens is usually pretty good since they deal mostly with smaller growers in the U.S. , Britain and Holland who have complete control over their crops. I must say though that the leichtlinii were beautiful.

Same problem here,..,.seasonal work, braindead[ and ''dont really give a damn''] employees,..,.will slowly lead to a demise of a decent business

I recently had called Vesey's as I had ordered a l. speciosum album last year and what I got was a white hybrid of some sort. She asked me what colour is it? I said white, her response was " so what's the problem". I had to then try and explain to her the difference, she didn't understand the difference. So I'm stuck with what I got and one less place to order plants from!

Brian--you have to appreciate her frankness; just be happy she didn't offer to send you another unknown 'white' to waste your work and space on. View this from another perspective: the average gardener will order a lily or two in the fall and next year when it flowers, they can't remember exactly what they ordered but the one they got SURE IS BEAUTIFUL so they're happy nontheless. So, what's the difference! That's the new ara attitude, nowadays!

You have to realize who you're dealing with, decide the risks and rewards and accept whatever the consequences. I don't waste time correcting a 'wrong bulb' situation because past experience has taught me the corrective action replacement will still be wrong!

Put yourself above it all--you win!!

Lorn, I've come to realize that this year. I did try to correct the wrong but after this last go round I won't do it again! I doubt the replacements will be correct as well. I'll just have to try again somewhere else and keep my expectations low. Now that I have more lilies to work with I'm going to start with my own crosses and see where that takes me.

Dont grill yourself Brian Just cross them off your list.,.,..,eventually, you will have crossed off, most of your suppliers...The ones that will be left are usually, the lil' ol' backyard seller, who only parts with about 100 bulbs a year, but knows every bulb in his yard, by name

Oh, come on now--WE DO HAVE some really dedicated breeders, growers and sources here in North America who are 'true plantsmen' in every respect! But when I see something I want from some of the lessor known sources, I might still buy it, but thats the chance I take in doing so. Sometimes I luck out, sometimes not.

I did buy a large order from The Lily Nook and they all were as ordered with one mistake but that can be easily overlooked given the size of order I placed. Vesey"s on the other hand, had more than three quarters of my much smaller order wrong so they are definitely history. I will certainly order from Lily Nook again without hesitation.

Good People!

They are good people, and I also love The Lily Garden. But I have noticed some of the growers have lilies that it appears they are purchasing from the Dutch. If that is true, and I assume it is, they have no control over what they've received. It maybe some of the growers are test growing some, but I can't believe they are growing all of them in their fields. I would rather buy the Dutch lilies from the Dutch sources, and get the hybridized in the US lilies only from the growers.

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