LILY ENVY
“Envy” is such a nasty word. So is “covet.” Since I like to avoid nasty words when discussing plants, I will settle for “admire,” as in, “I admire other people’s lilies to distraction.” With or without the euphemisms, this emotion has gotten to be a seasonal habit. Just as I generally wake up one day in May and decide that I don’t have nearly enough tulips; I slink around my neighborhood in July wrapped in despair at my lack of lilies. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the few lilies in my garden just don’t look as magnificent as the gorgeous things my neighbors cultivate. This infuriates me and brings words like “envy” and “covet” to mind, along with thoughts of larceny.
Clearly I need to focus on this issue so that next July I can feel as good about my lilies as my neighbors undoubtedly do. The time to start is now, as the plant vendors begin flinging paper catalogs and online teasers at gardeners everywhere. There are lilies galore, from historic species types to the bright, buxom hybrids that ornament my neighbors’ beds and borders.
But before I commit to more lilies, I should do something about the ones already installed in my garden. The only lily that really works for me is ‘Black Beauty,’ with back-swept petals of dark maroon with white edges. It grows at least five feet tall every year and six or more in really good years. Clearly, when it comes to ‘Black Beauty,’ I should leave well enough alone.
I have always loved the delicate martagon lilies, which are nicknamed “Turk’s caps” because their back-curved or reflexed petals make the blooms look like turbans. Golden-peach ‘Mrs. R.O.Backhouse,’ named for a pioneering breeder of daffodils and other bulb plants, has struggled in my front border. Though ‘Mrs. Backhouse’ is a favorite, it doesn’t do nearly as well as it might. Several regal lilies or Lilium regale, a Chinese import with gold-throated trumpets that are white on the inside and burgundy on the reverse, grow half-heartedly nearby. They join ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’ in the roster of lilies that have never achieved their potential. I suspect that I should lift both the regal and Backhouse lilies and move them to higher, better drained ground. My soil is heavy clay everywhere and my garden beds are liberally sprinkled with low spots. Clearly these plants need and deserve better sites and soil amended with sand or gravel.
Once I have finished that penitential digging, lifting, amending and replanting, I will consider what else to buy.
The world of lilies is full of confusing class distinctions. Species lilies are the wild plants from which modern hybrids were bred, and many of them are wonderful garden subjects in their own right. I love Lilium formosanum, the Formosa lily, a native of Taiwan, which looks like a tall Easter lily, with maroon stripes on the outside of each bloom. I have great affection for the leopard-spotted Lillium pardalinum, which is orange and gold with pronounced dark freckles.
But my love of subtlety has deserted me completely this year. I am drawn the extra-large, waxy flowers of the Oriental lilies, like Lilium auratum ‘Gold Band.’ Each of ‘Gold Band’s petals is striped with gold on the inside and the blooms are speckled with tiny dark red spots. It is glorious and grows up to four feet tall. One of our neighbors has a disgustingly beautiful stand of a lily that I think is ‘Lavon,’ a hybrid that is classed as an “Orienpet,” because it was produced by crossing Oriental and trumpet varieties. I yearn for ‘Lavon,’ with its huge pale yellow flowers ornamented with what one catalog merchandiser calls a “raspberry starburst” in the middle of each blossom. At six feet tall, ‘Lavon’ is stunning. I also love ‘Golden Splendor,’ a Chinese trumpet lily that can reach six feet tall, with golden-yellow trumpet-shaped blooms. All are going on my list for fall planting.
Lilies love high, sunny corners and look lovely growing against walls. The big showy varieties generally need staking, which is a pain, but well worth it for the July show. Now that I have edited my sunny upper back garden, I think I can find a corner for a large clump or two. These garden aristocrats deserve expensive grow-through plant supports, but green bamboo canes will have to suffice, since I will have bankrupted myself buying the bulbs. In the end it won’t matter, because I will have lush healthy stands of lilies and will no longer have to waste psychic energy coveting my neighbors’ ‘Casa Blanca’s and ‘Star Gazers’.
If you share my affliction and don’t have enough lilies or simply want to increase or diversify your supply, try John Scheepers, 23 Tulip Drive, PO Box 638, Bantam, Connecticut 06750; (860) 567-0838; www.johnscheepers.com. The catalog is free. For heirloom varieties, contact Old House Gardens Heirloom Bulbs, 536 Third Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48103; (734) 995-1486; www.oldhousegardens.com. The catalog is $2.00.