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lilies

• Message 1. 

  Posted by smilingrosie2 (U10973578) on Tuesday, 31st January 2012

  i would like to grow some giant lilies this year, has anyone else grown them . been looking, they can grow up to 6 foot, just what i need

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• Message 2

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  Posted by John Moodie (U14353581) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  Hello smilingrosie,
  Yes, they caught my eye a couple years ago. I planted six of them, so last summer was their first. I did nothing special and we do drop to the minus 30s celsius in winter, but they all came up and grew to about 2 and a half feet . So I expect them to get even taller this summer. I did plant them against a wall and also a fence, we get pretty windy here.

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• Message 3

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  Posted by Palaisglide (U3102587) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  i would like to grow some giant lilies this year, has anyone else grown them . been looking, they can grow up to 6 foot, just what i need   My first memory of a garden was a full row of Madonna Lily's towering over me (Lilium Candidum) my father grew them as extra income in a mainly vegetable plot on our small holding.
  Those wonderful white tall lily's are still embedded all these years later, there are so many tall lily's I could go on naming them forever.
  All he did with them was weed round and mulch, they never came out to my memory and were there each year beautiful.
  That walled garden still exists it had a large house built on it then the garden split into three, the lily's are long gone more is the pity. The memory still makes me smile as I finally grew as tall as them 6 feet.
  Frank.

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• Message 4

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  Posted by garyhobson (U11055016) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  i would like to grow some giant lilies this year, has anyone else grown them . been looking, they can grow up to 6 foot, just what i need   I have tried several of these. My experience with them is that they are absolutely fantastic.
  
  Originally I tried 3 varieties that were being offered as a collection by a well-known seed company.
  
  The soil in my garden is clay, in which lilies will struggle. So I grow them in pots. All flowered, and all made around 6', in their first year.
  
  In the second year, two were slightly larger. One was very poor. I see that this lily (Sartre) is no longer being offered. Perhaps there was a problem.
  
  In this year's catalogue, the seed company say that they grow to 8'. It's true; they do.
  
  Incidentally, although these lilies are advertised as 'tree lilies' by the seed company, you can get exactly the same lilies (and some more varieties) from specialist lily nurseries (on-line). Lily nurseries tell you the expected height of each of the varieties they sell.
  
  I suspect that all of these companies get their stock from exactly the same sources - some industrial-scale nursery in Holland.
  
  I bought this one (as part of the collection) as Nymph. But I'm not convinced the variety was correct. It looks more like Shocking. The name doesn't matter. It's good enough for me:
  
  
  You can see that I had to stake that one. I staked all of them.
  
  This is Scheherazade:
  

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• Message 5

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  Posted by garyhobson (U11055016) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  PS... One issue with growing tall lilies in pots is that they are susceptible to blowing over in windy weather. So it's best to have big pots, with soil-based compost (which is heavy). And in windy weather they may need to be moved to shelter.
  
  Lilies stems are remarkably robust. I have had several in pots which have blown over. But once righted, there was no damage.

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• Message 6

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  Posted by smilingrosie2 (U10973578) on Wednesday, 1st February 2012

  hi thank you for your reply, i will order some off the internet, they will be going next to a fence, with an arch going over, where i have roses, think it will be a lovely backdrop

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• Message 7

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  Posted by garyhobson (U11055016) on Thursday, 2nd February 2012

  ... i have roses, think it will be a lovely backdrop   I have roses and lilies.
  
  Roses will not flower at the same time as the lilies. Roses flower from mid-June for about a month. Then the lilies start. Different varieties of lilies will flower at slightly different times.
  
  So you actually get a succession of 'star performers' througout the season - commencing with the roses.

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• Message 8

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by bookertoo (U3655866) on Thursday, 2nd February 2012

  I've had these tall lilies in a very large pot for a few years now, they get not particular attention - none of my many lilies do really. I weed the pots when I can reach them, and give a dose of organic pelleted chicken manure in the Spring, when everything else gets fed with it.. They were very floriferous last year. However, I cannot say they are particularly taller than any other tall lily, but pretty good for all that. Have not had to stake them as the stems were very thick and strong, they stayed standing even in our windy garden.

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• Message 9

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  Posted by As-If (U15116884) on Monday, 6th February 2012

  In my previous house, I grew a clump of the white regal lily, (lilium regale) at the top of our drive. That particular lily looks striking and is beautifully perfumed too. Passersby used to stop in their tracks to admire it.
  It likes an open sunny spot with ordinary soil that does not get waterlogged in winter. It is fully hardy.
  Unfortunately those lilies are not there now; the new owners dug up all the garden and concreted it.

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• Message 10

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  Posted by bookertoo (U3655866) on Thursday, 9th February 2012

  Doesn't that just break your heart? You would think that they could say to you that are going to do that so give you the chance to dig up the lilies or other stuff you might have liked to keep - oh well, no good being cross abut it now, but you must feel sad when you see it. Hugggggg.
  
  I took years to get a low berberis hedge going around a very long corner plot where I lived many years ago, only to visit a friend near there, to find the new people had dug it up and planted leylandii! ' Tis folk, and we are all strange to one another I guess.

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• Message 11

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  Posted by As-If (U15116884) on Thursday, 9th February 2012

  Yes, disappointing bookertoo. I had some lovely plants - well, I thought all my plants were special
  I didn`t take them with me because I thought that was their home, they lived there happily. I even hung labels on the trees and shrubs so that the new owners would know what they were, and therefore how to care for them.
  But oh well, "the best laid plans of mice and men....etc"

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