High summer has just passed. In the roadside ditches and hedgerows near my Central New York State summer cottage, the green milkweed pods are fattening up. In another month they will be brown and ready to split, dispersing their silk-clad seeds. Sulfur butterflies dance over Queen Anne\u2019s lace, chicory, butter-and-eggs and early goldenrod. The air smells of ripeness.
\nAmid all this blowsy summer abundance, the orange turk\u2019s cap lily\u2014Lilium superbum\u2014bursts onto the scene. This is not the tawny orange daylily\u2014Hemerocallis fulva\u2014that blooms just about everywhere around the Fourth of July. Despite similarities in coloration, the orange turk\u2019s cap is a completely different animal and the species name \u201csuperbum\u201d is particularly apt.
\nNative to eastern North America, the orange turk\u2019s cap grows from a starchy, edible bulb. Unlike sun loving daylilies, turk\u2019s caps lurk in slightly shadier places–along the edges of woodlands, wetland areas or country hedgerows. They sprout up tall, rising on sturdy stalks encircled by whorls of narrow, six inch-long leaves. By contrast, the tawny orange daylily blooms on naked stems that sprout from a base of long, strap-like foliage.
\nAfter reaching a height of six feet or more, turk\u2019s caps produce nodding flowers at the tops of the stalks. Those flowers, of course, are what make the turk\u2019s cap \u201csuperb\u201d. Large, at three to four inches wide, they feature curled-back or reflexed petals that gave rise to the common name, \u201cturk\u2019s cap\u201d. Each petal is liberally freckled with dark maroon spots and the throats are tinted green. If you cut off the pollen-bearing anthers, which stain hands and clothing, turk\u2019s caps make wonderful, showy cut flowers.
\nWe have a clump of turk\u2019s caps on our summer property, standing proudly on a wooded embankment that overlooks a small gully. The clump gets no attention at all and has been there for years, slowly increasing. I know of another clump on the edge of a dense, wooded hedgerow about a mile away. Both stands of lilies are in locations that remain somewhat damp except in very dry years. Dampness is nirvana for turk\u2019s caps, which are also sometimes called \u201cswamp lilies\u201d. Established clumps will also soldier on bravely during dry times.
\nThe turk\u2019s cap is quite perfect, unless, of course, you don\u2019t care for orange flowers. The plants are best massed in odd-numbered groups in cottage or naturalistic planting schemes, where they will attract butterflies, pollinating insects and hummingbirds. If orange is not exactly your cup of tea, you can soften the effect by planting a grouping of turk\u2019s caps near something blue, like large-leafed Hosta sieboldii, with its giant, blue-green leaves, or the steely blue-flowered globe thistle or echinops, which blooms at the same time. Use flowers and leaves of these same complementary plants for dramatic indoor arrangements.
\nThe only problem for wild turk\u2019s caps is habitat loss. Development, mowing of country roadsides and elimination of hedgerows tend to diminish the kinds of damp, undisturbed sites where the plants have traditionally flourished. If you see turk\u2019s caps in the wild, don\u2019t pick them. Take a picture instead.
\nIf you are a purist or want to be economical, you can propagate turk\u2019s cap lilies from bulb scales, which you can obtain by digging up bulbs in the early fall. Remove one or more of the large scales from the outside of the mature bulb and then replant the \u201cmother\u201d turk\u2019s cap. Put the scales in a plastic bag of moist\u2014not wet\u2014peat moss and place in a dark location where you will not forget about them. Check frequently to make sure the peat remains damp. Eventually, the scales will form small bulbs, which can be potted up and grown to planting size, either outside in clement weather or in a cool greenhouse.
\nFor those who want turk\u2019s caps without that kind of effort, you can obtain large, blooming-size bulbs from Sunshine Farm and Gardens, HC 67, Box 539B, Renick, WV, 24966, (304)497.2208, www.sunfarm.com. No print catalog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
High summer has just passed. In the roadside ditches and hedgerows near my Central New York State summer cottage, the green milkweed pods are fattening up. In another month they will be brown and ready to split, dispersing their silk-clad seeds. Sulfur butterflies dance over Queen Anne\u2019s lace, chicory, butter-and-eggs and early goldenrod. The air … 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":[6,3],"tags":[1236,1240,1242,1239,126,1238,1241,1237],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-summer","tag-lilium-superbum","tag-lily-propagation","tag-moisture-loving-plants","tag-orange-lilies","tag-shade-plants","tag-species-lilies","tag-summer-perennials","tag-turks-cap-lily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406","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=1406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1407,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions\/1407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}