Some lilies...

Thought I would join in with the lily photos, especially for the members who can't access the lily forum and see all the gorgeous pics there. These are all growing in my gardens.

This one is Arabesque, an oriental-trumpet hybrid (abbreviated OT).

Another OT named Sweetheart.

Sarabande is another OT type lily...

Oriental lily Summer's End...

Oriental Stargazer with Black Beauty (OT)...

This is an unamed Aurelian type lily...

I grew this humongous trumpet lily from purchased seed!

And finally my namesake, L. pardalinum, native to our Northwest and down into California... Enjoy!

Thank you, pardalinum! Those are all absolutely gorgeous!

I'm looking forward to having more variety next year. This is my first season and still have a lot to learn. I didn't know you could grow lilies from seed. I'll have to give that a try :-)

gorgeous!

well, your orientals look fabulous. I have grown them but not very successfully. Please tell us your secrets to good Oriental lily production.

I can do an Asiatic but the other types definitely seem more difficult.

Sorry Lenjo, I really don't do orientals well. But I am working on it. Can not get fertilization schedule right (if I get around to it at all!). Most burned to a crisp, lots of bud blast and foliage that looks malnourished. But Star Gazer does OK and if I recommend what I have found to be the best oriental to grow around here it would be the Summer's End strain shown above from the Lily Garden; I can't sing it's praises enough. Hardly any foliage damage from our early spring hailstorm, and each of two original bulbs have split into two additional husky stalks.

I have 2 or 3 threads on the Lily forum with pics of some really unusual lilies I have grown from seed. You might have to dig back a few pages for some of them. I would be happy to answer any questions about them.

PARDALINUM,
Have you tried to feed them a little bit every time you water?? I have a 55 gal rain barrel, and I put in fertilizer so they get a little food every day. Also, post a link to your lillies, would love to see them.

Nah... typically I give them a layer of compost and some granular fertilizer when they are up a few inches and again before bloom, then call it a day. I did do a well controlled experiment with epsom salts and found that that would green them up if applied early enough in the season. Later application didn't seem to make much difference. The heat of this summer hasn't been very nice to many of my lilies:-(

OK this will take a few trips back and forth for the links:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/607904/
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/613791/
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/616203/
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/623845/

PARDALINUM,
OMGosh, you are RIGHT, those are extraordinary!! GREAT job!

Well, Stargazer is the only Oriental I have had any success with and it did come through the heat. Not as many buds or as long lived as usual. But you are so right the heat just finished even the Asiatics off in a hurry. I have a couple of beautiful regal lilies. One is an old tall white that we used to call St. Joseph Lily and it does well and almost too fragrant for me. I even hilled up the ground around my Orientals hoping to provide better drainage but it really didn't have a long time effect. Eventually they all died out.

Lenjo, you might consider trying some of the orienpets that look more like orientals than trumpet lilies. They are not fussy like the orientals. Arabesque and Scheherazade come to mind. Downside is they are not as fragrant as oriental lilies. This is Schez, my abbreviation for the big word I always have to correct my spelling on before hitting send:-(

Black Beauty is another good alternative. They outperform and outlive most of my oriental lilies. No fragrance though. Here are some with Star Gazer...

How tall do the orienpets get, pardalinum?

Speaking of lilies, I have always wanted to try to find the Lily Garden in Vancouver, WA. Have you been? I thought I had read you visited there.

Some OTs can get pretty tall if they are happy where they are. My Shez is around 6 ft tall. Personally I don't want them real tall because the upper part of the stem may be weak and bend over. I think Godzilla gets 8 ft tall but has a weak stem.

Unfortunately the Lily Garden fields are not open to the public except during the annual Pacific Northwest Lily Society "Lily Day" or symposium. If you are interested next year in June I can get you instructions on how to get there. Visitors are quite welcome then. Judith Freeman (Lily Garden owner/hybridizer) gave away 4 CRATES!! of lily scale bulblets at this year's get-together.

I'm especially intrigued by your namesake lily. I've done tolerably well with trumpets and orienpets, but I haven't tried any species lilies. I had the impression that they were trickier, but wasn't sure if that pertained if grown in conditions like their native range. Is the Puget Sound area too far north to try them?

Kyra, you shouldn't have any trouble growing pardalinums. I purchased my bulbs from McClure and Zimmerman mail order. Brent and Becky's also carry them, I think. They are among the easiest of species to grow as they tolerate a range of conditions. I also have some coming along from seed that may bloom for the first time next year. That's a cheap way to go if you are patient!

Off the subject of lilies, I was out at Ferguson's Fragrant Nursery near St. Paul and they had the hardy amaryllis johnsonii. I was excited and snagged one. Have you tried this? Its bloom is lily like but a bright red color is the bloom.

No, I haven't tried that one. So supposedly it can be left in the grund around here? I'm curious...

Brent and Becky's Bulbs is supposed to eventually offer this one but when I saw it I just had to have it. A little spendy. $10 for a gallon.

That is probably a good price for it. I was just checking some of my bookmarked bulb sites and don't see it offered anywhere. Can you post a pic of it?

I personally don't have a picture but here is a link to some photos.

http://images.google.com/images?q=hippeastrum+johnsonii&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

Yes, that is the one I was thinking of. I think you were very lucky to find it. I haven't been to Ferguson's yet but I think I will have to check it out!

Beautiful photos and lilies! You say that pardalinum is easy to grow, so maybe you can tell me what I'm doing wrong. I put 6 bulbs in last year in the late winter. They grew but did not bloom. This year I was thinking I would get blooms. I got only 1 bloom on one of the plants. The rest of them had only foliage. The one that had one bloom is among those planted in light shade and never gets direct sun. The others get some direct sun in the afternoon. Any ideas why i'm not getting bloom? I got the bulbs at the 2005 flower and garden show.

Pixy, it sounds like yours are right on track. As long as they are putting on good healthy foliage they should bloom eventually. As I recall I planted mine about the same time of year-- no bloom that summer, one bloom the next, then reasonable bloom the year after that. During this time they were putting out underground stolons and new stalks so I suspect that saps their energy for blooms. So it takes a couple of years for them to settle in. Mine gets sun until about 2 in the afternoon then shade the rest of the day. In nature they grow in wetter areas along streams but mine get little water in the summer, especially when it is really hot like a few weeks ago (several days over 100 here).

Pardalinum, since I have gotten off the subject a bit once, can I do it again? I have tried lycoris(spider lilies) twice in my garden and never have had any luck. What gives? Does the WV not do spiderlilies, are we too wet?
Another thing I have tried are foxtail lilies, eremurus? They are gorgeous. Someone recently told me that they need absolutely no water during the summer. If that is the case that definitely would have been my problem.

Go to this link for some general information about growing eremurus. If you haven't discovered buggycrazy yet it is time you did (no I am not affiliated). They are very specific in describing growing conditions on their website and the best part is they are local, their farm being in the Cascade foothills in the Lacomb area. They specialize in natives but in the past have sold lily hybrids.

http://buggycrazy.vstore.ca/product_info.php/products_id/319

As for L. radiata, yeah, I tried that once. It came back for a couple of years, never bloomed, and disappeared. You have to keep in mind it is an amaryllis relative, not lily like grows so well here in WV. I hear they grow like weeds in the South though. Unless you enjoy fussing with plants I would pass on it in the future...

Here is a picture of a pink camass (it was very pale pink) I purchased from buggycrazy last year. I have collected seed from it.

Thanks for the link, so much good information to learn here from all the various gardeners. I have grown camassia, but didn't even realize there was a pink variety. I have a gardener friend who loves the fawn lily or I believe it is called the dog tooth lily too. I have seen them growing down under the big oak trees in Champoeg Park. They are a lovely little native.

Thanks for the info about the pardalinums! That one little bloom just made me want more. So, does that mean that I should not move them at this time? I'm going to be re-designing one of the beds, but I can leave them in the ground while I do it if that would be best.

Oh, I would leave them where they are and work around them. Lilies seem to get set back in height and bloom when they are transplanted and you don't want to be back at square one with them. They do need to have a bit more space around them (compared to regular lilies) because they send out these underground stolons that make new bulbs a few inches away. So keep that in mind in your planning..

Excellent! thank you so much for the information. I love these flowers so much I would devote plenty of space to them!