As we drive into town there is a house where I couldn't help noticing an incredible clump of lilies growing by the front fence last year. This year I stopped but no one answered my knock so I left a note saying I loved their lilies and could they give me a call and let me know what the variety was?
He called me and said that each year he gives his wife a pot of Easter lilies and then after the blooms fade they plant it in the garden and it lasts for a couple of years and then disappears. He doesn't remember how many years he has had this one, but it clearly isn't an Easter Lily growing there now. Is it Lilium auratum or an auratum cross? Last year it was 7 feet high but this year it is only 6 feet high and I counted at least 10 huge stems coming up from the ground in a circle so my guess is that they got an extra bulb in the pot with their Easter Lily and it has grown and multiplied into a large clump. I told him that it needs dividing this fall and offered to help and asked if he could give me a bulb from it, and he said he would be happy to let me have one.
Any ideas about the true identity? The flowers are about 6-7 inches across and some of the flowers look a little orangish in the photos but not in real life. It's getting past it's prime now but it looked great a couple of weeks ago.
