Yep. LMK if you want any Baptista seeds ( just kidding). It's really pretty when blooming, then the plants/shrubs get too heavy when it goes to seed and flops over all the other plants. I'm going to have to tame it again this year. Last year I started using really long twist tie to hold it against the fence and off of the other plants.
Let's See New Lilies Sprouting #4
One thing that does help (mine are upright and require no staking). No fertilizer! No water! Tough love!
'Matrix'
lily 'Stralette'
lily 'Freya'
I have my Baptisia in a cage.I got these sections at HD and cable tie them together. This was an early May pix. the cage is in the upper right corner,black steel garden edgingsections.
Love Matrix!
Cem,
They should not need staking, even with age. When I purchased them over ten years ago, the instructions specifically said not to feed them, because baptisia australis fixes its own nitrogen. If you fertilize them or put them in lush soil you are over feeding them.
These are over ten years old. This is in early June. Not just tough love - NO love. Never fertilized, never watered.
Mine don't flop, either, with no water or fertilizer. But I'm not showing a picture after seeing Donna's, LOL.
Great baptisia, Donna!
Starlette is beautiful!
Wow Donna, I don't think you could have a more perfect specimen.
I have two that I got two years ago. Have moved them once or twice so they are still pretty small. It is nice to see what they will look like (I hope.) I don't fertilize but they get watered along with the rest of the garden. is that okay? Right now I only have three for four 12" shoots and they do sort of lean a little. They die back to the ground each winter, yes? So you cut down the dead stuff in the fall?
Mine dont flop ,now I know why.
I plan on spreading compost this fall. I will definatly not put it near the baptisia.Great info.
Mstella,
You can cut the back in either fall or spring. I usually wait till spring because in fall there is so much protection to be applied to things like roses. They do look quite awful in the spring so if you have the energy to cut them in the fall that might be better.
Interesting - during the winter before last I could see that voles tunnel through the base of one of my baps. They were stalking some lilies (but since the lilies had daffodils around them the little devils backed off and didn't harm them). I wondered if the baps would be damaged in the spring. No! They came back as dense as ever. What a plant!
Maybe I need to plant tons of daffys in my garden now that I know I have a vole infestation. I have a few, but not all in strategic places. I really want to protect my roses, my one remaining azales, and bushes. I will give it a try this fall.
Mine have always needed staking although I pretty much leave them alone - no fertilizer - maybe some water when the rest of the bed needs it. This year I have lilies planted around them and they are supporting each other! I also have oriental poppies which pretty well disappear under all the foliage, and daffodils around the outside. I also have zillions of babies, which has never happened before. probably because I started weeding this bed when I added some new colors of baptisia!
I always trim my baptisia a couple of weeks after blooming because they get so full they crowd out the lilies for sun, and I don't need to have them to go to seed. Despite the abuse, they always come back full and tall.
My error, Montego Bay is an OT, not an asiatic, hence the lovely scent, and by surprise I think there are a few other OTs based on the size of bud and the bell shape of the forthcoming bloom.
Lilies have to be really tall to get their share of light. Silk Road is ideal, because it has a very tall, strong stem. The original idea was to hide the stem, since it is not the prettiest. This way I get the benefit of the beauty of the flower, which has an industrial strength stem.
Here is the positioning of the bulbs relative to the stems.
I will try daffs this fall,but just on the parts of the garden where the voles are the worst.
Of course they will probably hit somewhere else this winter. I tried Plantskyd but no lubk.I might have applied it too late.
I wonder if the PlanSkydd is only topical. That is , only for critters above ground. Maybe voles don't have a sense of smell.? No. Only kidding. It works great to keep moose off my stuff, as well as visiting neighbors, children, dogs, etc.
I used the granular.
Oh, didn't know there was such. I can see that it might work on voles. And no smell. I guess I thought it was the awful smell of blood that kept the unwanted critters away. I mix and spray all over the front garden where I have no fences. It is only bad for a day or so, then I think mostly only the animals with a heightened sense of smell can catch it. I have watched moose eating an apple tree 15 feet from my gardens then eye my plants for a while, then reluctantly walk away.
I use Repellsall and Liuquid Fence for deer and kritters. It works if I spray every 3 weeks and alternate product.
Amethyst Temple - possibly my favorite lily, and one that seems to have disappeared from commerce.
Very different from the side, as though it is hiding its beautiful center.
And, through its curved petal, Hiawatha in the background, tucked into a rose pot.
Lilium Regale album
Donna, you're killing me with all those beauties. lol
Thank you, Sweetie!
Now, talk about arising from the dead! I was given Jubileo by the Lily Garden as a freebie a good ten years ago. It blooms twice, but the rabbits would take it out every spring. Then I put in miniature daffs and it reappeared last year, at six inches tall, with one flower. This year it is almost two feet tall and has lots of buds - yummie!
Hooray!
Indian Brave
How pretty. I am still going through the peony thing, but the lilies are getting tall and robust. Can hardly wait for Conc d'Or and Ice Caves.
Just beautiful everyone.
My Mona Lisas are blooming.Better photo later.
Do the daffodils protect from rabbits too?
I dont really know but since daffs are going out by nthe time lilies are up enough to eat ,its a guess.
This album is mostly lilies.The first few are of the short MonaLisa.
https://picasaweb.google.com/jgentle4/MostlyLilies2?authkey=Gv1sRgCMmShKulp-DCJA
Your album makes me want to buy MORE lilies! Very beautiful! Now, who's having a fall lily co-op?! ;)
Keep your eye out about August -?
This lily bloomed today. Dont know what it might be? I thought that it was going to be Bonbini, but I guess I was wrong.
Beautiful album. It looks like you have miles of garden and acres and acres. How wonderful.
Lily above looks like Suncrest.