A Celebration of Lilies (for a Hot and Humid Climate)

Orientpet lilies that take whatever the summer throws at them

Today ’s photos come from Doug and Elaine Downing of Kennett Square , Pennsylvania .

During July , the lilies(Liliumspp . ) are the stars of our garden . Tall and commanding , they fill the yard with brilliant color . Some have single bloom , and some overflow with flush . Some of the blossoms are exquisitely delicate . All of them have a blissfully sweet redolence , which fills the one thousand in the early evening .

But it was n’t always so . Here in southeastern Pennsylvania ( Zone 7a ) , we have summer that are both humid and hot , and the only distance that was full for the lily garden was one with afternoon sun ( which was enhanced when our neighbors took down some tree ) . Here we ’ve implant about 100 species of lilies in the last twenty years , always looking to see what would fade and what would flourish . Asiatics flourished in the more shaded border garden , but in the lily garden the horn wither away from too much afternoon sun and the Orientals faded away from too much heat and humidity . But the Orienpets ( OTs)—hybrids hybridize from Orientals and trumpets — came back class after year with more bloom , more height , and more novel lilliputian lily farm around the originals . For a hot and humid climate like ours , the OT hybrids are the honorable . For others who have similar growing conditions , and for anyone who loves growing plant that ask little and give much , these photos show several of the hardiest , most beautiful , and most prolific lilies that have become the stars of our summer garden .

All of the lilies we show here are 3 to 5 foot in height , although some of them — in particular Caravan and Silk Road — seem to edge higher each class and are now well over 6 foot marvelous . All of them are brave and wonderfully fragrant . While the catalogs say they all bloom in late July to other August , we ’re find that the blooming time of year begins in late June and extend to the end of July . you could see some other photos of our gardens inan earlier GPOD post .

Amarossi is a superb red that catches the eye from all the path across the pace . It is hardy and extremely fecund . We ’ve give aside a distich box of them to the neighbors ( along with the also super prolific Yelloween ) .

Caravan is the tall of the lilies , with most of the plant life touch 6 feet or more . All of our lily are staked , since we plant that without the extra financial support , the tallest of these lily will blow over in a strong air current .

Corsini is one of the most beautiful of all the lilies , with bright pinkish - precious coral flower petal and a soft sensationalistic - greenish shopping centre . Corsini is particularly hardy and happily fecund . All of the lilies have benefited by our amending thesoil — we actually prod out the original and replace it with higher timbre soil — and the gardens are covered with a new level of compost each year .

Elusive , with its delicate snowy - yellowish petals , is a strikingly beautiful lily , and one of the most fragrant . especially in the cool of the evening , the fragrance will fill the whole yard , although it ’s a sweet , spicy scent that ’s not overpowering .

On Stage has been in our garden for at least twenty year . While this is often described as a stale red rose wine , ours have more yellow , with the red showing more to the center . We have note that the colour palette varies between unlike growers and is also involve by local sunlight , soil conditions , and the temperature .

Purple Lady was a late addition to our garden , but its light lavender flower petal are so beautiful that we ’ve added many more . These are meld into the edge row with the Asiatics , and in July the entire row is lavender .

Corcovado is soft butter yellow and stands out against the others . Here it counterpoint well with the red and white colors behind it . While this bloom has more white in the photos we see elsewhere , these bulbs — prevail from a “ Lilytopia ” show at Longwood Gardens — have always been more yellow as the blossoms open .

Morini is another bright white-livered lily that is always an eye - backstop . Our lilies have also do good from a abject chicken - conducting wire fencing that keeps out the voracious bunnies . Even though it ’s only 18 inches high , they ca n’t seem to figure how to get over it or under it . The last year before we put in the fencing , we lost about 75 % of our lilies to the bunny .

Sensi is a crimson lily that range from a dusty rose to a vivid scarlet , with fragile speckles toward the plaza . It is particularly hardy and prolific . The lily get only organic plant food , compost , mulch , and water ( and some insecticidal grievous bodily harm for the aphids ) , but they do n’t seem to necessitate more .

Silk Road is one of the most popular of the Orienpet lilies , and it has adapted extremely well to our garden . It ’s also one of the tall , and like Caravan , these two seem to uprise slightly taller each year .

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