Rick, I never measured the buds but a good estimate is about 7 to 8 inches. The flower body is more of a short body. I can check this year when it blooms. That photo I posted was from last year. But the buds are not exceptionally long; just that the flower opens wider and is quite flattened.

Pink Perfection
Photo taken from above as high as I could reach. My camera seems to block out a lot of red, allowing a lot of white to show through. Reality is, there is very, very little visable white showing through in real life. This one is as dark or darker than my darkest Midnight. I would like to call it a Purple Perfection (no hint of any yellow/orange center). Did you know that de Graaff selected the darkest Pink Perfection he could find, then cloned it and marketed them as: Purple Perfection. This one was dug from the back yard of an estate sale and brought to me by a friend about 10--12 years ago. It has been double nosing for the last couple 2--3 years. This year I believe it has finished dividing.

A fuller view. This one is scheduled to be scaled this Fall. Plant was disbudded immediately after this photo.

Lorn you are far better than I. Disbudding for me is pure torture, especially if it looks as good as those trumpets.

Anaconda (clone)
Purchased as Anaconda, Spring of 2012. Not what I expected. In person, this looks more like Golden Clarion to me; but, who am I to say.
Nice Flower, at any rate. This was disbudded immediately after photo and pollen. Tracey--You were right!

Tracey--disbudding and culling: two things I learned to 'get used to' from my Dad. He called it debudding. I disbud most all my new plants the first year 'down' here (maybe save one to verify ID)

Midnight (strain) Planted Spring 2012
buds

Photos taken a day or two apart. This strain must produce a wide variation. Below is the lightest one of the group.

Collected pollen and disbudded darkest one.

Your Midnight is much darker than what I have. 'Summer Palace' is darker than my 'Midnight'.

The darker one is a 'keeper' The other two can go. Over here, my Summer Palaces seemed light to me. But, again there was one that was a little different and real pretty so I keep that one and farm out the other two. I was lucky to get one 'good Midnight' so I'm pretty happy about it. After all, you know, I've been thru a couple dozen African Queens and still don't have a good one! I think with strains, it's the luck of the draw; cross your fingers and hope you get a fine specimen.

Taos (clone) NEW. Aurelian hybrid by Len Sherwin of Wyoming.



Kind of reminds me of Tropical Isle. Has faint pinkish overtone with pink edge. Pretty. Fragrant. One plant flowered for pollen and then disbudded.

Summer Palace (The tale of two Summer Palaces)

With the plant on the right, the linkage of pink/red to the mid rib remains pretty much unbroken and is tightly bound and concentated pretty much to the mid rib. With the plant on the left, that genetic color linkage to the mid rib was broken, allowing the pink/red color to flow out quite uniformly throughout the entire flower. Which is what I believe the original intent was. Selecting the flower on the left and working thru a couple crosses would possibly narrow the variability. This is what makes 'lily life' interesting. Think I'll try.

Go for it Lorn! I love Summer Palace. I wonder if your one good one would be compatible with your other solid color trumpets (MIdnight, Pink Perfection).

That's a thought. Worth a try--I've got lots of pollen! Summer Palace would be the pod parent.

Gorgeous flowers. Love Taos.

Roosterlorn said:Tracey--disbudding and culling: two things I learned to 'get used to' from my Dad. He called it debudding. I disbud most all my new plants the first year 'down' here (maybe save one to verify ID)

May I ask - what do you gain by disbudding? If it's just to preserve energy that might otherwise go into seed, how is it better than removing spent flowers?

Well, believe it or not, blooming is stressfull to any plant and consumes a great deal of energy. By disbudding, that energy goes directly into plant body building. For me with lily growing, that translates into a larger, more robust plant next year. In the case of Taos, I want to use it as a pod parent next year. Of the three Taos I have, two were disbudded as soon as buds formed and only one was allowed to produce two flowers for pollen this year and then disbudded. In the case of disbudding that unique Pink or Purple Perfection, I want to direct that energy into bulb building (called bulking up) for cloning this fall. It's always best to disbud as soon as the buds form, of course, but disbudding at anytime while blooming still means a few extra days of energy saved and directed to bulking up.

ah - yup. I thought it made sense if buds were taken out as soon as visible on a young stem - but I never imagined it possible that those few days of a mature bud opening could make a difference! (I never tested it to try... I really don't think I could! )

Every single day counts! Think of it as being like daily compounded interest (as with money).

I guess, taken with nice long pedicels and a bit of garden greenery, the 'disbudded' could make a pretty posie

I'm curious - what will you be crossing Taos with?

Amethyst Angel (cloned selection from strain) Out/up facing
I think I'll keep this one. Heat the last few days really deminished a lot of pink with many of my lilies here.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, everyone!

I love that picture of Pink Perfection taken from above. Please have that put in the database.

Since I've been on here Trumpets have become my favorites. Used to be OTs, but now definitely Trumpets. Where is the best place to buy Trumpets, other then the Lily Garden, and where do you get the seeds from? I have an order in with Hydes for some, also.

An 'Awesome' seedling from an open pollinated cross.