Hey all!
I've been reading this forum for a long time, but it's my first time posting here. I usually post in other areas since even though I love lilies, I don't know enough about them to be helpful.

I was just wondering if anyone could help to ID a mystery lily. It came in a bag of assorted bulbs labeled only "Lilium asiatic mix". Sorry, the picture isn't great due to the difficulty of getting a decent pic where it is located. If a better pic is needed, I will see what I can do once more blooms open.

Any help would be very appreciated!

If it were paler I'd suggest Easy Life... but being so dark...

So, one search for pollenless lilies later, we have the atrocity-known-as-MustSee:

http://www.vws-flowerbulbs.nl/...

Must Be It! Surely there couldn't have been two such mangy lilies released into gardens? Easy Life was bad enough.... When will the Dutch stop subjecting us to these abominations!?

I really think the only way they can sneak them into our gardens is to hide them in mixed bulb lots!


edit: Sorry Static Ash, just had to get that out of my system >.<

A likely candidate. From Della's link, the way the flowers are arranged on the stem is distinctive and uncommon in asiatics. I can't tell from the one pic posted; if it matches that, this is one of the few times I would give a positive ID for a cultivar.

"Weirdness" like that, especially if the petals are thickened, are fairly typical of hybrid crosses where the parents' genetics don't match well, but match enough to produce a viable plant. Mitten petals are often an anomaly that goes away after the first year, but when they do occur, don't be surprised if the tendency is written in the genetics.

I don't think this is a case where one big import/export company, VWS, is intentionally salt and peppering retail bags with odd stock. The lily named 'Must See' is part of a much larger group of novelty lilies; the antherless, the pollenless, the doubles, etc. This new wave of novelty lilies was once anticipated to become very popular with gardeners, but that interest never really develeoped. So,these otherwise healthy bulbs or surplus bulbs at the grower level end up being bagged and marketed to the discount stores for home gardener use.

Thanks everyone for the information! And thanks for the acorn Lorn!
I'll try to take more pics if possible when it is larger. I just had a little bit of space behind a bunch of other things, and this leftover bulb got planted there. So it's hard to get good pics of it when it's so hidden.

Della, most all are welcome in my beds. I have many plants others hate, but here they'll always have a home.
I even have some I used to dislike but have grown to really appreciate over time.
Also, I am constantly fighting plant fungus in my area, so most lilies look "mangy" in their first year here. I'm used to it.

It's all good - lucky for lilies that we all have different tastes, and lucky for us that lilies are so diverse!

StaticAsh said:I have many plants others hate, but here they'll always have a home.

Many of us do that, to some extent. Here's a pic with the pretty little (and weedy) Erigeron species, the tall white daisies throughout. It will get pulled out soon before it goes to seed.

Indeed Della!
Rick, good to know I'm not the only one who does that!

Roosterlorn said:I don't think this is a case where one big import/export company, VWS, is intentionally salt and peppering retail bags with odd stock. The lily named 'Must See' is part of a much larger group of novelty lilies; the antherless, the pollenless, the doubles, etc. This new wave of novelty lilies was once anticipated to become very popular with gardeners, but that interest never really develeoped. So,these otherwise healthy bulbs or surplus bulbs at the grower level end up being bagged and marketed to the discount stores for home gardener use.

well it seems like intentional to me. These kind never became popular because most people don't want them. And when those people buy a mixed bag of lilies they expect it to look like it should look and have all it's body parts

I killed a few seedlings that looked like that, they are even uglier than S______, better not name it someone might like it.
And some say i have bizarre taste!