One of my lovely neighbours has a wonderful display of Asiatic lilies in her garden. I had some beauties in a pot but, with the time I’ve had away this year, I am afraid they succumbed to lack of care and haven’t come up.
So I decided to find out a bit more about them. I have grown them at a few different locations over the years with success. Particularly in the cooler climate at Walcha where I had yellow, orange and white ones growing.
They have been around and enjoyed for many years. The first written record of cultivating lilies appears to be in a Chinese book dated about 453 AD.
Of course they are mentioned in the Bible in Matthew 6 and Luke12 where we are exhorted to “consider the lilies, how they grow….. even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these”, so obviously they were around well before Christ’s birth.
For a long time however, they were considered difficult and temperamental and it wasn’t until 1938 when Jan de Graff did some experimenting and showed how easy they are that they became popular. He is responsible for the beginnings of the hardy Asiatics hybrids we enjoy today.
There is often some confusion between Oriental and Asiatic lilies and they are really quite different even though they look very similar.
Asiatics are mildly fragrant and easy to grow, flower early and are a result of hybridisation of several lilies across Asia.
Orientals are highly fragrant, bloom much later and a hybridisation of a few Japanese lilies and are no where nearly as easy to grow.
Both have similar flowers and each bulb flowers only once a year.
I bought some in pots when I was away and now believe they are Oriental not Asiatics as the white one was very highly perfumed. I will plant them in the garden ready for next year.
They like rich, well drained, slightly acidic soil, in full sun to part shade.. at least 6 hours of sun per day.. and should be planted at 3 times the depth of the bulb. Each bulb will send up one stem with, hopefully, many beautiful flowers per stem. After they have finished flowering dead head them by cutting them just below where the flowers were, as this will let them put energy into the bulb instead of setting seed. However it is important not to remove the leaves but to let them die off naturally. When they have died off, cut them right back and mulch them over winter.
They do need regular watering but can’t handle wet feet. They multiply readily and given ideal conditions will double every year. They can be propagated by seed or leaf (don’t know that method), but the quickest way is by division of the bulbs after they have been in place a few years and multiplied. Dig them up when they are dormant and pull the bulbs apart making sure there is plenty of healthy roots still attached. Plant them straight away or store them in the fridge to chill them before planting them out.
Fertilising is a bit tricky.. too much and they will flourish with long stems and abundant leaves to the detriment of flowers.. too little is also a problem. In early spring feed them with fish emulsion, worm castings, compost tea, etc. high in nitrogen. Then once the buds appear, use a high phosphorous or bone meal fertiliser to help the flowers to last. Well fed they should last up to a month apparently.
They are a wonderful cut flower and last in arrangements really well. One of the few flowers that this miser will buy as they give such good value!!
In the language of flowers lilies have long been understood to represent fertility, purity and remembrance. Different colours are appropriate for different occasions.
One last fact is that it appears all parts of the lily is poisonous to animals and humans. So not only should it be, “please, please don’t eat the daisies” as Doris Day sang so beautifully, but don’t eat the lilies either!! But then again, if we were to exclude all things that maybe toxic to either humans or animals, we would have a very colourless and boring garden.
The rain last week was very welcome and that amount each week would be very acceptable.. my garden would survive and maybe even flourish! I was able to get all the weeding done in the front before the rain so within a few weeks I should have another carpet of self sown alyssum flowering beautifully.
