Lilies Galore from Longfield Gardens

-
It is time to buy and plant lily bulbs. There are hundreds, if not thousands of lily bulbs to choose from and every year new hybrid colors and sizes are introduced. 

Lilies love part shade so they are ideal for adding beauty along fences, around perennials, shrubs, etc. As cut flowers, their trumpet shaped blooms are hard to beat.

One source for garden quality lilies is family-owned 
Longfield Gardens, (www.longfield-gardens.com, 855-534-2733).Their website has beautiful displays of the lilies they offer, garden advice, articles, videos, etc.

Black Beauty is one we have grown in part-sun in our garden for many years. They are tough plants that return reliably and produce a huge abundance of flowers. The outside of the petal is raspberry and the center is apple green. Fragrant flowers in July.
Purple Prince is a trumpet-flowered Oriental lily that grows 4 or 5 feet tall. The stems are sturdy so they are great to cut. The flowers are purple to dark pink. Fragrant.
Lollypop is another personal favorite that we have divided a few times over the years. It is an Asiatic-type with a simple trumpet. The tips of the petals are rose colored and the centers are white with a lime green touch. Lollypop stays short so it is good for planting in containers with other perennials. 
Lollypop’s stems are strong enough to withstand strong wind without staking.

Muscadet is a playful combination of white flowers with dark pink freckles and pale pink brushstrokes. Ruffled, scented, Oriental lily. Good for bouquets.

Playtime has ruffled white petals with a stripe down the center of each. The brushed colors are two-toned canary yellow and rose-red. Long lasting, scented flowers for cutting. Blooms mid- summer.

Stargazer is widely planted by the cut flower trade. The colors – all pinks and reds - are beautiful plus the flowers have a long vase life. This one is loved by butterflies in our garden.

Dizzy is a large-trumpet Oriental lily with white petals that have a deep red stripe down the middle. Fragrant, mid-summer color. This one is reliable in our garden.

Most lily vendors offer collections or samplers. Longfield has one called Cutting Garden, which is a collection of 24 bulbs in assorted colors and Asiatic Sunset Mix – 9 bulbs in warm colors...

Like all bulbs, lilies can be destroyed if the soil doesn’t drain well. After you select a planting area, dig a hole twice as deep as the bulb is.  If this is a new planting area, cultivate the soil a foot deep, adding organic material as you back fill the hole.


Put a small gravel or sand in the bottom of that hole and set the bulb in place. Add a little more sand and then fill the hole with rich planting soil.

Top the area with compost or leaf mold so there is a little mound up to 4 inches above the soil line. As the soil settles it will become even ground again.

After lily bulbs have been in place five years it is a good idea to lift, divide and re-plant them. The ideal time is two to four weeks after the flowers finish. Lift the bulb by digging down, around the area. The mother bulb in the center should be re-planted immediately.

The bulbils, the tiny bulbs around the outside of the mother bulb. are detached and planted in a growing bed. In a few years they will bloom and then can be moved to their permanent location.


When cutting lilies, leave as much stem on the plant as possible. The stem will continue to feed the bulb for next year’s flowers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Moldy Tulip Bulbs

-
Image
Moldy tulip bulbs are a big disappointment when you are hoping to fill a bed or some pots. It is not that unusual for their skins to have a bit of penicillin mold but these are beyond that tad bit stage. Mold penetrating tulip bulb  Mold on emerging tulip bulb growth  So, what to do? The plant references say to throw them out and buy new ones but I already spent $22 for 50 of these white tulip beauties. First, they got a soak in 1% bleach solution in the kitchen sink in the hope that the bleach would stop the mold from continuing to grow without killing the life force in the bulb itself. After a good slosh around, I wiped them off to see how much damage was beneath the blue and black.  This tulip bulb is soft to the touch and there is little chance it will thrive in the soil. This basal root on these have been ruined by mold. The final step I took to try to salvage part of them  was to spray them thoroughly with fungicid...
Read more

Propagate Begonia Stem Cuttings in water - Cane-like Angel Wing Begonia

-
Image
Propagating by stem cuttings is just about the easiest way to make more begonias for next summer's garden. During the fall, I regularly trim off 3-node long cuttings and put them into the growing pots where they take root. Now that cold weather has arrived, I root the stem cuttings in a vase of water. It's a great way to produce more pots of Begonias for next summer's garden. Water the plant well the day before. Take a cutting about 4-inches long, with 3 nodes, from a healthy stem. Use a perfectly clean container. Rinse the container with a drop of bleach if you are uncertain about its spotlessness. Remove all but the top leaf or two. There should be no leaves in the water. The cutting should  have a healthy leaf node at the bottom. Don't leave a stub below the node. Place the cutting into the water, and place the container out of the sun. In a couple of weeks, you will see new roots beginning to form. Check the water periodicall...
Read more

Create Nesting Areas for Birds and Wildlife

-
Image
From the website, Choose Natives , this lovely and instructive article helped remind me to continue to increase the amount of habitat and nesting that we provide in our garden. Many, though not all, are native or considered to be native in Oklahoma. So, I did a little research on each recommended plant and provided a link to more information. You'll see the plant name in italics - those are my links for your edification. Here's the post Derek Stoner, Project Coordinator for the Delaware Nature Society, helped restore the 860-acre Middle Run Natural Area by “intensive habitat management”, including planting 12,000 trees and shrubs.  His lecture, ‘ Native Plants for Nesting Birds: Connecting Flora and Fauna’,  given to a group of enthusiasts at the Millersville Native Plant Conference   in Pennsylvania, focused on his observations. Here are Derek’s landscaping recommendations for attracting birds: Plant shrubs in clusters (“habitat circles”) that will c...
Read more