Purple Prince

Have any of you heard of this lily? They had it at the garden show last night & I am going back tomorrow and wondered if I should get it. Bought a few Conca d'Or to scale away, but pondered the Prince. Any thoughts? Please advise ;0)

I haven't heard of it and it does not show up in the lily register or in a web search. It may be a knock-off which is common or it may be totally new. If you go back, take your camera and get a picture. Is it an orienpet?

I hope you brought a few Conca d'Or for the garden too! Lovely blooms.

I love Conca d'Or, but I think I have a bunch, like 5 or 6 , because it was so beautiful. It has even begun multiplying on its own, which I have found to be true of orienpets in general.
Strange, this place obviously got from a Dutch Company and Miss Lucy was labelled as an asiatic double, not the oriental double it is. This Purple Prince is said to be an orienpet. Kind of makes you wonder what the heck it really is. Do you get it just for the surprise?

I take it they were just bulbs and not a blooming plant...duh...

It's up to you. If you do buy it, we can all take turns trying to identify it next summer.

For myself, I try to check up on bulbs I'm considering in the Lily Register. Sometimes I have to have it no matter what. But generally, I find it very irritating that a plant can't be properly named. I was a little POd when I found that my Oklahoma wasn't really Oklahoma at all, but just some plant that the Dutch decided to call Oklahoma regardless of the Lily Register. I know I have two or three others like that and I've taken to adding the word "Not" to their name on my lily listing. I was very glad when I heard about the Miss Lucy/Double Prize legal problem last year and that it was proved that Double Prize was a knockoff of Miss Lucy.

There is a lily named Purple KIng. It could very well be another Dutch hybrid that is not registered. They don't seem to bother with that process. And then there is a LO named Prince Promise. It could be that. Heck, if the price is right and the bulb of decent quality, we are all wondering with you. Buy it!

Purple Prince is showing up in a couple of my wholesale catalogues as "new". Unfortunately these catalogues don't give much info. They say it's an OT, and approx 34". There is a picture of it.

Well, as some of you might have guessed of me, I went back and bought it ;) It states it is an "oriental", for some reason it looked more like an OT to me. Here's the picture.
Another thing to note about the Dutch type places, is that there doesn't seem to be much attention to detail. I checked out "Miss Lucy" today and it was in this "Biltmore Collection" and it was labelled a double asiatic. I saw the same bulb with a different vendor today and someone figured it out a placed a P-Touch type white label over it stating "oriental" where the asiatic type was. If I made an equivalent mistake in my job, I'd be fired.
Also of note, once you've received a lily bulb from Buggy Crazy, you are no longer impressed with the "large bulbs" you get from the Dutch Companies.
Back to Purple Prince.... I'm going to scale it and then see what happens.
Mainiac, I love Purple King, I bought it from an auction you had last fall.

Looks a little like Ararbian Red. Does it say how tall?

34-38 inches tall. It's interesting that I was familiar with all of what they had and few looked like the pictures. Most of the pictures looked darker than what the blooms have been in my yard. I suppose it could be a climate difference, but then again it could be a nice photoshop deal to snaz up a picture.

Yeah, I gotta get me a Purple King again. Will be anxious to see how you Purple Prince does. Save me a scale!

Well, I would grow it out first and see what happens with it. If you like it, then you can always steal a few scales after it blooms. Otherwise, you'll be waiting a few years while the bulblets grow.

Well, this might solve the question. The wholesaler I was referring to was Netherland/Langeveld bulbs, which it appears is where your lily came from.

I looked again at the catalogue, and on the inside of the cover, it shows the lily as bieng Purple King, but in the inside of the catalogue it calls it Purple Prince. Typo maybe on their part.

Does it appear to be Purple King?

Purple King is an OT doesn't look anything like what the package depicts.

This one says it's an OT.

Looks a little more purple in my catalogue.

Do you have a picture of purple king?

Faraway Flowers has "Purple King" and I would say, even with photo differences, this "Purple Prince" looks to be a different lily.
Here's "Purple King". As I say, I have never grown this one, planted it last fall and am looking forward to the bloom.
I took a few scales and potted "Purple Prince" up last night, along with a few "Boogie Woogie" and "Conca d'Or". I like having a few flower a little earlier. It worked out well last year.

Ooooops! Here's "Purple King" link.
http://farawayflowers.vstore.ca/product_info.php/pName/purple-king

Yup, that's what it looks like on the Mondial Lelies site.

The Mondial Lelies site is a great reference, indeed.

Well, you're right, it sure looks nothing like the picture on the package, or the pic in my catalogue. So maybe there is a new lily Purple Prince. Let's hope it's a lovely one for you!

Thanks, Polly. I'll post pix this summer. Cross your fingers......

Well, here is the real thing, blooming today. Shocking that it doesn't look like the picture, huh? Lol! It has a nice soft fragrance and is my first lily to bloom, even though I cheated a bit, by potting it up.
'Purple Prince'

It's much like my Purple Sensation ~ intense pink, at best.

Is the pollen really that pink too? That is soooo cool!

Pollen looks just like the picture. I don't have 'Purple Sensation'? Do you? I'd love to compare pictures. I'm not familiar with that one.

This is Purple Sensation. Not very purple, is it?

There really are some gorgeous OTs out there, but one of the realizations I made after a few years of getting into Lilies is that there are an awful lot of similar plants being sold under different names. It's downright depressing to find a bulb you've been just waiting on pins and needles to bloom is no different than the plant planted five feet away.

Looking at the two pictures above, the only real difference is that Moby's looks like it had a bit too much sun and is faded. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. That might make for an interesting thread; posting all the look alikes.

They could just about be twins, except for PP having pink pollen and the pistil looks like 3 tiny cotton balls.

This pic is Park's ad for PS

You're right , they are very similar. I figured it must have been a Dutch knock off variety. The center of PS looks like it has more yellow, PP showed it had more yellow, but really doesn't. It really looks quite oriental to me.
I also purchased 'Robina', I wonder if that one will look like these too.....seems like it has the potential.

One of the problems with pictures, even in the home garden, is that the same lily planted in two different gardens may look entirely different because of where it is planted. A lily planted in full sun come mid summer will have its color fade. A lily planted in shade, will hold it true color longer. Of course, most the pictures we see in the catalogs have been enhanced.

I don't think I've ever seen pink pollen before.