Lily Flower Bulbs
Growing Basics
Planting lilies. is the first thing you have to understand.
Lily Pests
Red lily beetle is a major pest but other than that, lilies are remarkably free of serious pest problems in the home garden.
Lilies That Aren't Lilies
How do you get a lily that isn't a lily? Why when you call it a lily, grow it like a lily but it really isn't a member of the lily family. Here are a few to grow and enjoy.
Leopard Lily or Pardancanda is an orange-spotted or now blotched (picture shown is variety 'Sangria') short lived plant but one that is easily grown if you pay attention to a few details.
Lily Classes
You’ll see several different kinds of lilies available in garden stores and catalogs. These classes or Divisions of lilies are how we commonly differentiate this huge family of garden-worthy plants.
Division One
Asiatic hybrid lilies are characterized by open, usually upward facing flowers and the colour range tends to be on the bolder red, orange and yellow side.
These are usually early blooming lilies and quite hardy.
One of the cheaper of the lilies because they produce quickly in the fields, they can be mass planted for a great show. Planted as single bulbs, they lose their impact, resembling instead a lonely barber pole on a street of cat houses.
They do make an excellent cut flower and with their upward facing bloom they are quite showy in the summer vase. On a technical note, there is more colour and variety choice in Asiatic lilies than any other type of lily.
Division Two
Tiger Lily are Turk's cap lilies; hybrids of Lilium martagon and L. hansonii. Turk's cap are woodland plants. They like the shade.
Division Three
Hybrids of Lilium candidum, the madonna lily. These are one of my favourite lily flower bulbs because of their sweet fragrance.
Division Four
Hybrids of native North American lilies, mostly offspring of the tall Lilium parryi and Lilium pardalinum. The flowers are reflexed, which means that the petals curve back.
Division Five
Lilium longiflorum or the white Easter lily commonly forced for spring bloom. In nature it blooms in mid-summer.
Division Six
Trumpet lilies, derived from Asiatic species. The Aurelia and Olympic hybrids are part of this group. Some have pendant flowers which means they hang down.
Division 7
Oriental hybrid lily flower bulbs and their flowers tend to be much larger and more flamboyant than the Asiatics.
As a bonus, they are fragrant while the Asiatic class is not. T
heir huge flowers have either a sweet or spicy aroma to perfume summer nights. With these huge blooms, they make a truly spectacular cut flower and even a single stem with its multiple flowers can make a bouquet come alive.
Division 8
LA Hybrids. This is a cross between longiflorum lilies (L) and asiatic lilies (A) which gives us the LA designation. Not, as many of you were assuming, from the California city of the same name.
They have a trumpet shaped flower but come in bold colours. Excellent garden performers and only available since 1992, they are not common in local gardens. The only thing missing from this lily is fragrance as the gene was not passed along.
Division 9
are the species lily flower bulbs that are not included in any division above. Unfortunately, wild species - the kind that still occur growing in the wild and which have not yet been affected by hybridization - are not too commonly available for garden use. This is a shame, since these are the very species that are so appropriate for the garden. It is not difficult to see that gardens are being completely flooded with hybrids, with the Orientals and Asiatics in particular being the undisputed leaders. Cheap, huge flowering, fragrant floozies in our gardens leave the smaller, yet refined maiden lily flower bulbs on the walls.
Need to Ask a Question About Growing Lilies
If you have a question about growing lilies that's not covered in the website, this is the place to ask it.
Please be as specific as you can.
Understand that I'm one writer trying to help folks out (not some big company) and I simply can't answer every question I get. Please check out the regional forums where there are a lot of other gardeners willing to help you out. (see navigation bar)
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What Other Visitors Have Asked About Growing Lilies
Click below to see what other gardeners have asked about lilies.
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Can I split my large clump of daylilies any time, or must I wait for a specific window of time to divide/replant them?
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I was wanting to move my lilies to a different part of the yard, but I am not sure when to do that. Do I wait till after they are done blooming? Or should ...
If you want to ask about lily flower bulbs, click here.