I am fairly new to gardening and still learning. Last year, a friend gave me a small clump of already blooming white lilies (they looked like miniature Easter lilies), and a Calla lily (if I'm remembering right this one was a little clump of 3 bulbs with one stem with one white Calla lily bloom on it). I broke apart the white lily bulbs & planted them in two places on the very edge of my natural area; the Calla lily went in my flower bed. Neither area gets full sun, but those are the sunniest places in my yard, so I planted & kept my fingers crossed.
All these plants (flowers AND stalks) died soon after planting last year. Thought the chipmunks had eaten the bulbs,and I couldn't find any bulbs left in the ground.
This year, all three patches came back up. BUT, two of the patches have just bloomed recently, and instead of white lilies and white Calla lilies, what came up were ORANGE lilies. The third patch (which is the healthiest and has lots of flower buds) appeared as though it was going to be the white
lilies I'd planted last year. Well, one bud opened this morning, and it is YELLOW!
I can understand how there might have been orange & yellow bulbs mixed in with the white flowering lilies I'd planted last year. But is there any reason neither the white lilies nor the white Calla lilies
came back this year?? Is it possible the orange & yellow ones were only bulbs last year that are blooming this year, and the white ones that flowered last year died too soon for those bulbs to store energy for this year? Do you think it's possible next year I might have some white lilies come back up? I am totally mystified...
Will be taking and posting a picture later today of the yellow & orange lilies. I'm very happy to have
them (and happy that they will grow in my marginal-sun yard!), but still can't figure out why I got yellow & orange flowers this year when last year those same patches were nothing but white ones.
Lily Experts, Can Someone Explain This To Me??
I'm curious as well and will wait to read the answer.
Did you get unusually cold this winter? All of our Calla lilies and some of the true lilies were killed by a severe cold spell we had here. And it is possible some of yours were killed since Easter lilies are not as cold hardy as some others. It is also very likely that the white lilies are too small to bloom this year and may bloom in the future, a pleasant surprise awaiting you! Also the Calla lily may be there and not blooming but will next year. Do you know which type of Calla it was, the Giant calla Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica) seems hardier than the smaller species since only about half the bed was killed-and that could have been due to the mole tunnels in that area. The Giant Calla lily usually has plain green, rounded leaves and will look different than the true lily foliage. The small white Calla lily (Zantedeschia alba maculata) has spotted leaves.
My zantesdeschias seldom winter for me. More than sun, true lilies have to have good drainage. Without proper drainage, the bulbs just rot.
Zantesdeschias also come up later than true lilies.
buggycrazy, yes, we had some record-breaking winter temperatures this year, and we also had snowfall several times. Guess that explains the white lilies not coming back if they are not cold hardy, also had some four o'clocks and other plants (that have always
come back every year) that didn't reappear this spring. Still hoping I might get a surprise next year & see a few of the white lilies :) I don't know what type of Calla lily it was that I had, just remember it being very, very small (smaller than the Calla lilies I've seen at places like Lowe's), but I do remember the leaves were a solid green, no spots. Pretty sure that one did die, as I haven't seen any emerging leaves that would indicate the Calla lily is still in the ground.
Cathy166, I am going to have to look up the term Zantesdeschias, that's a term I haven't heard before. The ground in my yard doesn't drain at all unless it's amended quite a bit,
but pretty sure drainage is OK where the lilies were planted, since so many came up this year (just not the ones I was expecting to come up!).
Thank you both for the replies!