Sometimes, in a congested garden like mine, plants get overlooked.\u00a0 That is, until they announce their presence by blooming, spreading like weeds or exuding a bad odor.\u00a0 My little white Turk\u2019s cap lily\u2014Lilium martagon var. \u2018Album\u2019\u2014was one of those overlooked plants.\u00a0 I think I planted it last year in a burst of whimsy.\u00a0 It was also an act of faith, since martagons haven\u2019t always prospered in my little slice of horticultural heaven.<\/p>\n
In any event, the act of faith was short-lived and I forgot all about the poor little martagon, living its cloistered existence behind the blueberry bush.\u00a0 Then, a few days ago, I saw a patch of white and there it was\u2014standing about eighteen inches tall, with a large handful of pure white Turk\u2019s caps dangling from its stems.\u00a0 I remembered it, I rejoiced in it and I even took its picture.\u00a0 The only thing I didn\u2019t do was post the picture to Instagram.\u00a0 Maybe next week\u2026<\/p>\n
In any event, the sight of such perfection rekindled my love affair with martagon lilies.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t know martagons, you should.\u00a0 Unlike their flashier kin in the true lily or Liliaceae family, martagon blooms are small, perhaps one to one and a half inches wide when fully open.\u00a0 Instead of facing the world with boldly upturned trumpet faces, martagons dangle like bells from short pedicels or flower stems, facing demurely downwards.\u00a0 When the flowers are fully open, the petals are reflexed or curved backwards so that the whole flower resembles a turban or \u201cTurk\u2019s cap.\u201d\u00a0 The species name, \u201cmartagon,\u201d in fact, comes from the Latin for \u201cturban\u201d.<\/p>\n
Martagons make up for their lack of boldness with an abundance of flowers.\u00a0 A happy, mature plant will bear twenty or more flowers in early summer.\u00a0 \u201cHappy\u201d is the key word, here, as martagons, though not big-headed prima donnas, can be fussy.<\/p>\n
The good news is that they thrive in full sun to partial shade.\u00a0 They seem to do almost better with a little shade, because they prefer conditions on the cool side.\u00a0 The plants abhor the kind of heavy clay soil that pervades my garden.\u00a0 If you, like me, are blessed with this kind of gluey, water- retentive earth, amend it with sand, grit or fine gravel before planting your martagon bulbs.<\/p>\n
Martagons also like to be sheltered from cold winds, strong storms and other weather-related perils.\u00a0 Mine is protected by a rather rustic fence.\u00a0 More fortunate people, like twentieth century writer\/garden maven Vita Sackville West, with the benefit of mellow old brick walls, can shelter their martagons in style.\u00a0 You may want to shelter them from deer as well, if you have members of the extended Antlers family in your area.\u00a0 Mr. Antlers and his relatives have ignored my martagons, the better to decimate my showy \u2018Black Beauty\u2019 lilies.\u00a0 However, that is no guarantee that deer find martagons distasteful.\u00a0 It is better to err on the side of caution and either fence or spray your martagons.<\/p>\n
The species, Lilium martagon, originated in Europe and western Asia and arrived in England in about 1596.\u00a0 In the wild, it can grow up to six feet tall, producing what is characterized in Hortus Third<\/i> as \u201cdisagreeably scented\u201d flowers that are \u201cpurple and spotted with black.\u201d\u00a0 This does not sound like a winning combination.\u00a0 However, my martagon, the \u2018Album\u2019 variety, is a lovely, pristine white with no discernible scent.<\/p>\n
Hybridizers have crossed Lilium martagon with the related Japanese Turk\u2019s cap\u2014Lilium hansonii\u2014and come up with martagon hybrids that expand the color range to include shades of yellow, orange and red. Some are also fragrant.\u00a0 I love \u2018Mrs. Backhouse,\u2019 with its peach Turk\u2019s caps.\u00a0 It sulks in my garden, but perhaps it is just in need of relocation and a bit of added grit.\u00a0 Other available martagon hybrid varieties include \u2018Chameleon\u2019, with\u00a0 soft pink flowers;\u00a0 golden \u2018Gay Bird\u2019 and\u00a0 reddish-brown \u2018Manitoba Morning\u2019.<\/p>\n
Martagons are among the first lilies of summer, the harbingers of delights to follow from the bigger, brighter lilies.\u00a0 They sometimes work as well planted in containers as in-ground and can be moved more easily to protected locations.<\/p>\n
I sometimes feel as if any martagon that I plant is taking a chance on me and my garden soil.\u00a0 However, the results are worth the risk for both plant and gardener.\u00a0 Find your martagons at Old House Gardens, 536 Third Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48103, (734) 995-1486, www.oldhousegardens.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Print catalog $2.00.\u00a0 Another good supplier is B&D Lilies, PO Box 2007, Port Townsend, WA 98368, (360) 765-4341, www.bdlilies.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free print catalog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes, in a congested garden like mine, plants get overlooked.\u00a0 That is, until they announce their presence by blooming, spreading like weeds or exuding a bad odor.\u00a0 My little white Turk\u2019s cap lily\u2014Lilium martagon var. \u2018Album\u2019\u2014was one of those overlooked plants.\u00a0 I think I planted it last year in a burst of whimsy.\u00a0 It was … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,3],"tags":[1200,1199,1197,1201,126,1198],"class_list":["post-1359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-lilium-hansonii","tag-lilium-martagon","tag-martagon-lilies","tag-perennial-plants","tag-shade-plants","tag-turks-cap-lilies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1360,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions\/1360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}