Chiara gets a vote!

Gotta have a little white in the garden too. This is 'Polar', longiflorum/Oriental lily (LO).



And Kiss of Fire:

Kushi Maya from bulbs planted this spring from Faraway Flowers. One of them had five flowers!



I received 3 bulbs, and planted them in 3 different places. All are well mulched.
1 - clay based but well drained rich soil, full sun until late afternoon. pH neutral.
2 - raised bed, 1 part sand/2 parts compost. part sun. pH ~6.8
3 - clay based but well drained rich soil. part sun. pH ~6.5

#1 did the worst. I did not even allow it to flower.
So far, #2 and #3 seem to be about the same, health wise.

Aftrican Lady, also from Faraway flowers. Blooms are HUGE!

A few more of my inter-divisionals:

Carte Blanche:


Madame Butterfly from Ramona:


Pink Jazz:


Paraguay-- not a great photo but shows whole stalk:


Silver Scheherazade; I've grown to really like this one. It opens creamy yellow fading to white. Blooms are long lasting:


Miss Feya:

I almost forgot... my little army of baby S-2s from David Sims' seeds. Five one-budded stems that need to grow bigger. These are about a foot and a half tall.

Very nice.

Those are very nice! I am fond of the long length of time that 'Silver Scheherezade' blooms too, over a month here and still going. Your S-2 is always striking.

Connie, your S2s are so striking, love them! Do you know the parentage? I like the wide trumpet shape, and the stems and leaves have the look of Chinese trumpets, both traits have me curious.

I know a little bit about the parentage, Neal. I purchased the seed in 2004 from David Sims in Idaho. He had a website where he sold seeds from his own crosses but no longer sells seeds.

He described the pod parent (RCA) as having open bowl shaped flowers and the pod parent (RCC) as having trumpet shaped flowers. I surmised that the "RC" in the descriptions stand for "Red Chevron". At that time I had a color printer and I printed out his photos of the parents as well as the parents of all the other seeds I purchased from him.

As to where Sims obtained his own parent material I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was Robert Griesbach of Wisconsin. He has done a lot of work with tetraploid trumpets and every year offers his seeds on the North American Lily Society exchange.

Those S-2s are very uniform. I wonder if that would continue in the second generation.....

They really are nice, and especially since they are the first flowers.

Lefty, they are all the same clone, bulblets that were collected when I dug and replanted last fall. The only reason I let them bloom is so I could verify their identity (seeing as I dug almost everything else at the same time, laying all the bulbs out on the lawn with name tags). They were disbudded as soon as I got the photo as this one is fertile (both ways).

It's examples like this that make pollenating and seeding the most interesting and joyful aspect of growing lilies! Nice!

In 3 years now Anthony have sent me pollen from some Ryirube that he grows. And that pollen has surprised me. Now matter what lilies I pollinate of trumpets and inter-divisional hybrids I get seeds. The first year I used that pollen I got seeds where I had used Ryirube pollen on a 4n trumpet. Last year I pollinated both White Henryi (2n) and 4n OTs and got plenty of seeds. This year I have pollinated Mego hybrids, L. henryi and some other 4n OTs and the pods are swelling. I really look foreward to see how the seedlings will look like.

My recommended 'Buy' of the season:

Easter Morn (Longiflorum X Trumpet) triploid
http://www.farawayflowers.com/...

This cultivar is absolutely admirable in all respects. Robust and sturdy, a beautiful well proportioned plant with dark green foliage that requires no staking. High bud count of very well placed large flowers with heavy substance that last for days without fade or color shift. Lightly fragrant. About 5 ft. Very garden hardy. Blooms late June/early July. Blends well in a mixed garden setting.

I've been growing these for three years in a couple different gardens here in Wisconsin--zone 5A/5B; one of those gardens is in full sun from sun up to sun down without any shade whatsoever except a passing cloud. During last years heat spell of several consecutive 100'F plus days, the flowers and buds did not burn at all. Here's a closer look.

In full sun









This next one--in partial shade




Photos from last year:

Interesting article on Lankon. An interesting lily.
http://bdlilies.blogspot.com/2...

Article reposted from B&D newsletter and website blog.

Lorn, I've had my eye on Easter Morn for some time, but you've elevated it to my must have list! You should write descriptions for catalogs I have found the pics of Lankon lovely and intriguing, but seeing that pic of them in the field- gorgeous! I'm particularly fond of buds and blooms that turn perfectly downward like that- it's nice that it retained that habit.

The Lankon article with its wonderful pictures has piqued my admiration and curiosity for the cultivar.

Hi Della--I see this one just got listed as available again. Every time they list it, it sells out in a day or two so if you want one, now's the time. It's listed under Division VIII/ A X A

http://www.lilynook.mb.ca/imag... Photo reposted from The Lily Nook website http://www.lilynook.mb.ca/Divi...

You would still have time to give it about a 42 day chill cycle and have it ready for your spring planting. If you have any questions about chilling, Tree Mail me before you start.

Hi Thanks Lorn, but I'm not quite ready to try getting bulbs through quarantine.

I was inspired though to check the Van Diemen Quality Bulbs cataloque again to see if they still had any Lankon, and they do. So 'tis added to my spring order. I finally succumbed. Had I succumbed a month or two ago it would have been at their special reduced price too, but alas ! I think that en mass field shot did it.

One day I'm sure I'll also succumb to attempting to import bulbs... maybe will have to put together a massive northern hemisphere wish list with some other folk down here - Anthony, where are you? - and split the costs by making one big order.

Actually... I don't know if anyone knows, but if numbers of bulbs were ordered from different North American sources, would there be one nursery or facility that could do all the quarantine requirements so that the whole lot was sent as one shipment; one lot of paperwork?

This is all hypothetical for the distant future....

Neal--I always like to see full rows of lilies in full bloom. But most times you don't get to see it that way because they all get disbudded for bulking up to size for fall harvest. When I saw that row of Lankons, the first thing I thought of was: 'I wonder how many scales did it take?' After the season dies down a little, I'll think I'll ask just for the heck of it. I'm curious. I've done a little scaling myself over the years and found that there are some easy, high yield and some tough, low yield cultivar scales. In general, I've found the more distant the cross, the lower the bublet count per scale.