Saturday 4 August 2012

A touch of oriental

The air in my garden is heavy with the scent of lilies wherever I turn, finally the rest of my lilies are in flower! It’s been a long wait; my Asiatic lilies flowered in beginning of July and most of my Lilium regales were finished flowering by mid July. But now the rest of the oriental lilies are finally catching up.

Here is a photo of a part of my garden I rarely photograph, the narrow corridor along the house from my backdoor. There is only sun here from late afternoon so the plants in this space need to tolerate shade – perfect for the begonias and the lilies I have here. The tub of Stargazer lilies has grown quite tall and I think I might have too many bulbs in this tub, but it makes a lovely display seeing them all together like this. Stargazer is perhaps one of my favourite oriental lilies, next after Lilium regale and the scent is absolutely gorgeous.

A bouquet of Stargazer lilies.

Stargazer lilies close-up.

I got a free-bee of 8 mixed oriental lilies last year when making a plant order, here are some of them. I don’t know if they have any particular name, they were only called ‘Oriental lilies, mixed’ on the label.

Oriental lilies, mixed.

More from the same mix.

And more from the same mix.

My daylilies have been flowering for a while, in the middle here is Hemerocallis 'Burning Daylight', new of this year, and a rising star in my garden, on each side and behind are Hemerocallis 'Frans Hals'. I have 6 'Frans Hals' in total, but they have not done so well this year, with sparse amount of flowers. I think I need to blame the lack of sunshine for the shortness of flowers as they have done very well in previous years. The 6 plants I now have actually started out as just one plant which I have kept dividing and dividing, 3 plants have ended up in my neighbour’s garden and 3 at a friend’s house, 6 are still here – all from that single small plant I bought years ago! I hope next summer will bring more sunshine so they all are back to their usual masses of flowers :-)

Hemerocallis 'Burning Daylight'

Hemerocallis 'Burning Daylight'

Hemerocallis 'Frans Hals'

Hemerocallis 'Frans Hals'

Last month I wrote a post about one of the ‘rooms’ in my garden, and I also posted a little movie from my garden which you can SEE HERE if you missed it. Some of the people commenting wondered where I stored pots and tools and things in my tiny garden so I thought I would show some photos today of the area I usually don’t photograph. You have already seen some of it on the first photo with the lilies and the begonias, but here is the whole corridor, leading from my backdoor. Here I have my ‘nursery shelves’ with young plants and seedlings, my compost bin which the council very kindly come and collect for free whenever I send them and email and let them know it’s time for a new collection, and all my pots and tools stored in the large wooden box and in the plastic container. The black bin on top of the box is for recycling tins, I don’t keep them in the house between collection days as they are a bit smelly, but having it outdoors, next to the backdoor is very handy.  And my spare compost is stored behind my garden bench around the corner, out of sight. It just has to be neat and tidy in a small garden :-)

I am still waiting for my 3 Lily Miss Feya to flower, they are Goliath Lillies, new of this year and supposed to grow up to 2.5m tall when fully mature. That will take a few years though, this year they are only about 1.5m tall. Can’t wait to see them in flower, they will be very dark pink with spots – maybe they will flower in time for Garden Blogger Blooms Day if we could just get some more days with sunshine. It has been a lovely day today, and although we will get some showers this week-end we are promised better weather next week. Fingers crossed! See you next time, until then, take care.

21 comments:

  1. Your lilies are stunning. My fizzled this year because the extraordinary heat, I am sure. What is you secret for growing such dazzling flowers? Do your fertilize and what do you use?

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    1. The secret is what happens the year before, after flowering, when the bulbs are storing energy for next year. They need enough water and some sun but not baking sun, and I don't fertilize my lilies, but I have bark mulch everywhere which gives off nutrients and keeps the soil ph down. Oriental lilies likes a slightly acid soil. What can I say, lilies are probably the easiest plants to care for, ones you have picked off the red lily beetles and killed them - every day!

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  2. Gorgeous lilies. I especially love the speckled white Oriental. Here in Brisbane we are entering late Winter. I have just been out in the garden checking on my hemerocallis/daylily plants, but you are making me keen to widen my horizons.

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    1. I can't get enough lilies! And no matter how full your flower beds are, you can always squeeze a few lilies in between other plants :-)

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  3. Fabulous Lilies. The Stargazer is just stunning. The mixed Orientals are beautiful too. I love the whites! Your 'Burning Delight' display certainly makes up for the lack of blooms from 'Frans Hals'. They are brilliant blooms.

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    1. Thank you Bernie, 'Burning Daylight' is new this year, but is already becoming a favourite of mine!

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  4. So exotic Helene - the Stargazers are beautiful x

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    1. Thank you, if I only could post some Stargazer scent for you :-)

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  5. Your lilies are just spectacular! x

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  6. What lovely oriental lilies, and freebies too. Good luck with your goliath lilies. I'm growing a few of them too. They don't take too long to reach for the skies. Mine took off in their second year.

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    1. Oh, that's good to hear, I am hoping for at least 2m next year, and more flowers! Actually, only 2 of the 3 bulbs have flowerbuds, the third one is just a stalk with leaves...hope it will produce flowers next year.

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  7. Gorgeous lilies. Your garden is really neat.

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    1. Thank you, I've got nowhere to hide things, everything is on display all the time in such a tiny garden - so it just has to be neat and tidy :-)

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  8. Oh yes, Stargazers are my favorites, too! I have a couple of them, but the rabbits have decimated them. I need to pull them and transplant to a fenced-in area because they're gorgeous! Yours are amazing and so healthy. Thanks for the view of the side "room." Your tools are so neatly stored!

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    1. The squirrels took some of the tops of the earliest lilies, and the slugs have been really bad this year, but they don't touch the lilies in the tubs :-) For me it is the red lily beetle that is the bad boy in the garden! I spend a lot of time patrolling my lilies, picking off the beetles and killing them - it has become a routine now.

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  9. Hi Helene
    Just when I fell in love with the first lily, I saw the photo of the next one…and the next one…and :)
    I can't decide!! They are all so very beautiful. And the fragrance must be just delicious!

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  10. Helene you do have a great range of Lilies and Stargazer seems to enjoy, and looks good planted so close to one another, I am forever over planting stuff. I saw these Goliath Lilies advertised last year and am wondering if they are the same as the Tree Lilies, named as Orienpets in the US where they were developed.

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  11. Everything is so tidy! Very impressive! I'm adding more oriental lilies to my garden this fall. I already have a few white trumpet lilies that perfume my early summer garden. Unfortunately, I don't think mine will be free. :o)

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  12. Helene, what a lovely display -- and I'm sure the scent must be intoxicating. Beautiful!

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  13. Very tidy, indeed, Helene! I like your wooden storage box as a way to tuck tools and pots out of sight. So far every place I use for storage gets overrun with black widow spiders, which makes retrieving tools a little uninspiring!

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  14. Lovely pictures, you just gotta love the oriential lily! Huge flowers and wonderful fragrance! great shots! check out my page;

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