{"id":265,"date":"2011-08-01T04:22:12","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T12:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=265"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:34","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:34","slug":"lily-envy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/lily-envy\/","title":{"rendered":"Lily Envy"},"content":{"rendered":"

LILY ENVY
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Envy”\u009d is such a nasty word.\u00a0 So is “covet.”\u009d\u00a0 Since I like to avoid nasty words when discussing plants, I will settle for “admire,”\u009d as in, “I admire other people’s lilies to distraction.”\u009d\u00a0 With or without the euphemisms, this emotion has gotten to be a seasonal habit.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This infuriates me and brings words like “envy”\u009d and “covet”\u009d to mind, along with thoughts of larceny.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The time to start is now, as the plant vendors begin flinging paper catalogs and online teasers at gardeners everywhere.\u00a0 There are lilies galore, from historic species types to the bright, buxom hybrids that ornament my neighbors’ beds and borders.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But before I commit to more lilies, I should do something about the ones already installed in my garden.\u00a0 The only lily that really works for me is ‘Black Beauty,’ with back-swept petals of dark maroon with white edges.\u00a0 It grows at least five feet tall every year and six or more in really good years.\u00a0 Clearly, when it comes to ‘Black Beauty,’ I should leave well enough alone.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have always loved the delicate martagon lilies, which are nicknamed “Turk’s caps”\u009d because their back-curved or reflexed petals make the blooms look like turbans.\u00a0 Golden-peach ‘Mrs. R.O.Backhouse,’ named for a pioneering breeder of daffodils and other bulb plants, has struggled in my front border.\u00a0 Though ‘Mrs. Backhouse’ is a favorite, it doesn’t do nearly as well as it might.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They join ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’ in the roster of lilies that have never achieved their potential.\u00a0 I suspect that I should lift both the regal and Backhouse lilies and move them to higher, better drained ground.\u00a0 My soil is heavy clay everywhere and my garden beds are liberally sprinkled with low spots.\u00a0 Clearly these plants need and deserve better sites and soil amended with sand or gravel.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Once I have finished that penitential digging, lifting, amending and replanting, I will consider what else to buy.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The world of lilies is full of confusing class distinctions.\u00a0 Species lilies are the wild plants from which modern hybrids were bred, and many of them are wonderful garden subjects in their own right.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I have great affection for the leopard-spotted Lillium pardalinum, which is orange and gold with pronounced dark freckles.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But my love of subtlety has deserted me completely this year.\u00a0 I am drawn the extra-large, waxy flowers of the Oriental lilies, like Lilium auratum ‘Gold Band.’\u00a0 Each of ‘Gold Band’s petals is striped with gold on the inside and the blooms are speckled with tiny dark red spots.\u00a0 It is glorious and grows up to four feet tall.\u00a0 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,”\u009d because it was produced by crossing Oriental and trumpet varieties.\u00a0 I yearn for ‘Lavon,’ with its huge pale yellow flowers ornamented with what one catalog merchandiser calls a “raspberry starburst”\u009d in the middle of each blossom.\u00a0 At six feet tall, ‘Lavon’ is stunning.\u00a0 I also love ‘Golden Splendor,’ a Chinese trumpet lily that can reach six feet tall, with golden-yellow trumpet-shaped blooms. \u00a0All are going on my list for fall planting.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lilies love high, sunny corners and look lovely growing against walls.\u00a0 The big showy varieties generally need staking, which is a pain, but well worth it for the July show.\u00a0 Now that I have edited my sunny upper back garden, I think I can find a corner for a large clump or two.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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’.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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; <\/font><\/font>www.johnscheepers.com<\/font><\/a>.\u00a0 The catalog is free.\u00a0 For heirloom varieties, contact Old House Gardens Heirloom Bulbs, 536 Third Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48103; (734) 995-1486; <\/font>www.oldhousegardens.com<\/font><\/a>.\u00a0 The catalog is $2.00.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LILY ENVY \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Envy”\u009d is such a nasty word.\u00a0 So is “covet.”\u009d\u00a0 Since I like to avoid nasty words when discussing plants, I will settle for “admire,”\u009d as in, “I admire other people’s lilies to distraction.”\u009d\u00a0 With or without the euphemisms, this emotion has gotten to be a seasonal habit.\u00a0 Just as I generally wake … 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":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","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=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1526,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/1526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}