Summer is lily season and I love lilies! They take little effort to plant and grow, and the rewards are huge. They’re winter hardy, so once you plant them they stay forever, multiply quickly, and provide large, often fragrant flowers. Lilies are available as bulbs in economical packages from the garden center in early spring and later as potted plants among the perennials selection. The variety of sizes and colors is amazing. No wonder I love them so much!
All lily varieties grow from bulbs. All the wonderful varieties we have to choose from were bred from about 150 wild lily types found worldwide. In fact, we have five native lilies that grow wild here in the northeast - the Michigan Lily, Turk’s Cap Lily, Wood lily, Trout Lily and the Canada Lily. If you are lucky enough to see one of these beauties, look but leave it alone. All are protected in New York State.
The lily family contains some of the showiest flowers to be found anywhere, and many of the thousands of cultivars thrive in our northern climate including two of my favorites, Asiatic and Oriental Hybrids.
Asiatic hybrids are the first of the lilies to flower in early summer. They are also the most cold tolerant of all lilies. Asiatic lilies mature and reproduce rapidly, making them a rewarding choice for those just starting to dabble in lily growing. They are available in reds, whites, pinks, oranges, and yellows of every shade. Some feature solid colored petals while others are ornately speckled. Asiatic lilies come in a range of sizes from 2’ to 5’ tall!
To find fragrance, we must sniff out the Oriental lily hybrids. Many Oriental varieties are hardy to zones 4 and 5, hardy enough to thrive in our area. Oriental lilies will produce some of the largest, showiest flowers that you could expect this side of the tropics. A sub-group of the Oriental lilies are the Imperial hybrids. Imperial lilies produce large, sometimes huge flowers on sturdy stems. The Imperial Gold strain, for instance, produces 5” to 7” fragrant flowers on plants up to 7 feet tall.
After enjoying your lilies for 3 or 4 years, you’ll notice more plants and flowers but they aren’t as tall as they used to be. This is a signal that they’re crowded and need to be dug and divided. Fall after frost or early spring when they’ve just started to sprout from the soil are the best times for dividing lilies.
Another lily enjoyed by many is not a lily at all. Everyone knows them as daylilies, but they are not true lilies but hemerocallis. You have seen them growing wild in roadside ditches and just about anywhere. We can thank our ancestors who planted them generations ago. Hemerocallis is a Greek word meaning ‘beautiful for a day’. The name reflects the lifespan of each flower which opens in the morning and withers away at the end of a single day. Daylilies are about the easiest plants to grow. They love full sun but will thrive in partial shade and aren’t particular about the soil they’re planted in. Once established, daylilies last for a lifetime and longer. Only a few years ago, a clump of yellow daylilies was considered exotic. Now red, gold, peach and burgundy daylilies are turning up in perennial borders. Daylilies with bi-colored flowers, miniatures and repeat bloomers have also appeared. The daylily has come a long way from the common roadside flower that our ancestors planted. They have taken up a new role at the heart of the garden. Considering how easy they are to grow and how rapidly they multiply, you should give them a try.
Thanks for the read!
