My Lily discovery!

Earlier this afternoon I was watering some plants in our back garden, which is very shady.....and what did I see? A baby lily! I never put it there, so it's a mystery!
I was thinking...long time ago my neighbor gave me a red/orange asiatic that grew baby bulbs on the stem and I tried to grow them but they eventually just died out. So I thought maybe one got mixed in the compost and now it's finally started to grow? I potted him up and he's in the photo on the far right.
This is such fun!

Steve :)

nothin' better than a free lily! :D

There was a corner in my yard that was neglected for years. Every summer I would see this one lone orange lily (dwarf size) peeking through the brush that the previous owner had planted. A few years ago, I cleaned all that out and dug a new garden there. I found about 9 mature lily bulbs and scads of bublets. I took them and planted them in another bed. The following spring I had 9 really beautiful dwarf lilies, name unknown. The foliage is striking in that each leaf seems to have a dark picotee that starts at the tip and goes about half way down. Anyway, the point I'm making is that for years only one lily bloomed until I put it in a better location. All that time, it kept making more bulbs.

If anyone has an idea of the name of this lily, I'd really like to know. It's a beautiful orange and has the striking leaves that I've never seen on another lily. It;s about 20 inches tall. I'm guessing it was a popular nursery lily 15 or 20 years ago.

Our local squirrel army likes to play robin-hood with bulbs... We received a yellow tulip this year :*)

intercessor

P.S. they like to make holes also :*(

I had a lavender tulip in one of my gardens a few years ago that I didn't have a clue where it came from. Never thought about the squirrels. Now that mystery is resolved!

We have a big clump of late blooming red and yellow tulips that keep getting bigger every year. There must be at least 10 blooms this year. I never planted one bulb.

But as for my mystery lily..........I think I made an idiot of myself over it.
I was gardening in another area of the yard and I realized it's probably a squill. Duh. I'll keep it potted up though just incase.

Thanks for your replies to my thread everyone!
Steve

You're sure it isn't quack grass? :)

Yes, I'm sure ;) It had a bulb on it.

If the mystery plant does have a bulblet, I vote lily - my guess is not squillish. Squills, at least the ones I have seen always have a permanent linear fold in the leaf, even the very small leaves. Your photo doesn't show this at all.

I had to run outside and check and it doesn't have a fold down the middle. So maybe it is a lily! YES!
Thanks Leftwood!

Steve