Gardener's Guide to Growing Lilies

The first and the last requirement for lilies is good drainage. The bulbs enjoy an open soil structure; they revel in humus but also relish a gritty component in their diet. Plants grow very fast through the spring into summer; during this period they can make good use of copious droughts of water. Given this good start, they can then hold out against modest droughts although, as in nature, they are happiest with underground moisture in the absence of rainfall. In their wild homelands they may be without rain for months, but would be drinking the water derived from melting snows. In winter the bulbs will be unhappy to be standing long in stagnant water. Then, perhaps even more than at other times, happiness is sharp drainage. Like clematises, lilies also like their heads in the sun and their toes in the shade. Beyond this, their specific needs or preferences are not onerous. Species such as L. speciousum and L. auratum regard lime as the arsenic of their world, a quick way to oblivion. Conversely, L. candidum likes rather than hates some lime but, in sole opposition to lily forms of behaviour, needs its bulbs planted just under the soil's surface, quite un-lily like. L. martagon, L. monadelphum and some others, once settled in their domain, may be happy to stay put for the next hundred years or so, and may extend their territory by seedling-led accession if given the opportunity. On the other hand, pretty little L. pumilium or L. concolor are often short-lived as individual bulbs. They can seed themselves to extinction, but this seed germinates freely and new plants are soon blooming. In the well-tended, healthy soils of garden beds robust species such as L. bulbiferum and L. dauricum can be as generous of increase and bloom as the popular Asiatic hybrids such as L. 'Enchantment' that they helped to breed. They need lifting and dividing every two or three seasons, before overcrowding brings into play the law of diminishing returns. Incidentally, I recently lifted a bulb of 'Enchantment' planted in the previous year. The original bulb was now replaced by a cluster of eight sizable ones. Above these were other smaller bulbs, the result of the forming of small bulbs on the stems between the bulb and the soil surface. There were thirty-two of these. On the current stems there were over a hundred bulbils in the leaf axils. Altogether, a population explosion.Jefferson-Brown, Michael is the author of 'Gardener's Guide to Growing Lilies' with ISBN 9780881925371 and ISBN 0881925373.