Re: LILIES: Oriental (was:crocus, & now Oriental lilies)

><snip>
>I bought some Asiatic lilies from Home Depot last week and saw they also
had a lot of Orientals too.  I didn't get them, even though I loved the look
of some of them, because I read on one of these list serves that the
Orientals have more problems than the other lilies. <snip>

Hi Cindy,

By problems do you mean that they don't seem to come back year after year
and increase the
way Asiatics do?  If that is the case that would be because your growing
season in zone 4 is
probably not long enough for them to grow, bloom, and grow their bulb for
next years growth.
Orientals bloom later than the Asiatics and therefore often do not have
enough time to
grow their bulb strength for next year before the first frost hits.

I grow Orientals in pots for this reason here in my Zone 3 garden.  They are
so beautiful that
it is shame not to grow them.  I start them early (like now) and grow them
in the house under lights
until I can put the pots out onto the garden after the 24th of May or so.  I
then either bury the
pot in the garden or insulate it with bags of leaves in the shed over the
winter, or dig them
and store them in my bulb fridge until it is time to start again.  In this
way I can move them
into the house in the fall when frost threatens over night, and then put
them out during the day
to get the sun until they die back naturally.

This year I bought a large quantity of Oriental bulbs from COSTCO and intend
to plant them in
the ground and use them in the same way as I do annuals for late summer
colour.
At 1.00 per bulb they are as cheap as annuals and far more beautiful.  I
might get lucky and
have them come back for a couple of three years, or not.  But I figure our
growing season is so
short why should I deprive myself of them, just because they don't grow as
well in my Zone 3
garden as the Asiatics, LA's and Orientpets do.

Hope this helped.  I know it's long... but Lilies really are one of my true
loves.  If I didn't
answer your question, please ask again.

Thanks
Jennifer Bishop
Zone 3
Winnipeg MB CA (where we had snow this weekend)
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