Re: Better Lilies to try for medit climates
- Subject: Re: Better Lilies to try for medit climates
- From: L* P*
- Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 17:23:24 -0700
>--- Joe Seals <gardenguru@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Barbara, et al:
>>
>> I've tried for years to grow asiatic and
>> oriental
>> lilies in various California gardens (San Diego, SF
>> Bay Area, L.A.), never with success. As you've
>> experienced, theyve always "gone down hill" after
>> the
>> first year or so.
>>
>> My theory is that they just don't get the
>> appropriate climatic factors to encourage them to
>> stick around. Much as we experience with so many
>> eastern and northern "hardy perennials" we try here
>> --
>> after a decent show the first year or two, they,
>> too,
>> go downhill.
>
>This should be an interesting thread, if others can
>suggest which lilies have been good performers for
>them. After visiting Seattle earlier this July, I was
>blown away by how many people were growing lilies up
>north, and I know that they are equally popular back
>east. They always seem to be so much larger and more
>floriferous as well, never seeming to get 6~8feet tall
>here in California, even in the first year with
>largest size bulbs... I would suspect that it is due
>to the combination of reasons that others have stated.
> It sure would be nice to know what the best varieties
>are for our medit climates, as they are so beautiful
>in bloom. Anyone else out there with suggestions for
>best species and cutltivars to try?
>
As others have mentioned, I too have tried growing the Asiatic and
Oriental varieties of Lilies in Pasadena (Southern Calif. inland
coastal valley) and they all have eventually "dwindled" on me.
However, Lilium candidum and L. longiflorum (the "Easter Lily"),
which are native to warmer climates, both grow very well for me. I
have also recently been trying some other Lilium species native to
warm climates, from seed, and so far they are doing quite well (L.
phillipensis and L. formosana). Another "branch" of Lilium that has
done fairly well for me are the 'Trumpet/Aurelian' Lilies and the
forms of L. regale. A few of the "Tiger Lilies" also don't get the
dwindles. But what has been the most exciting development for me are
these newer L. longiflorum X Asiatic hybrids known as 'L.A. Lilies'
(from Longiflorum and Asiatic--*not* from Los Angeles) which are
starting to appear in a whole host of different colors and shapes.
The oldest I've tried are now about 5 years old and most have
consistently gotten larger, and actually become unhappy growing in
pots because they want more room. Plus, they retain some of the scent
from the longiflorum parent. Sunset Magazine even had a write-up
about them a couple of years ago. And now with a procedure called
embryo rescue, there are starting to appear more hybrids between the
"standard" lilies that grow in colder climates and ones that grow in
warmer climates, such as a candidum-Asiatic (or Oriental) cross I
just got last year, as well as a Tiger-Asiatic hybrid that I also got
last year. I'm also trying a few of these 'Orienpet' crosses
(although they are still mostly very expensive) between Oriental
Lilies and Trumpet/Aurelian hybrids.
Anyway, some local and mainstream mail order nurseries have begun to
offer a few of these. But they're mostly available only from the
specialty Lily nurseries still.
--
--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena area, California, USDA Zone 9-10
wlp@radar-sci.jpl.nasa.gov
