Lilium

Grown from a seed collection in China by the brilliant plantsman Bjornar Olsen, this is an easy and very pleasing lily. Turk's cap style flowers are predominately in shades of pink, varying in intensity. The recurved tepals are pale white on the margins and speckled with deep carmine spots. Spreads fairly fast, making a lovely patch.

Second generation plants from our collection from along our way up the mountain to Tianchi Lake in Yunnan. We found this Lily relative (which has been called N. forrestii) growing in a wooded copse with Sorbus reducta. Likes a good moist soil and can have 7-10 flowers per stem in our experience when it gets some age. Pretty much awesome. These are young bulbs which should flower next year (although we can't guarantee that) and a must-have for cool northern woodland gardens. If you garden in Kansas, Texas or most of the Southeast for example, it is probably better to just enjoy the photo. These survived the brutal 2013-14 winter in Wisconsin at a customer's garden as newly planted bulbs in the fall which is impressive considering the ground froze 5' deep. Hardy to zone 5 if not zone 4.

Nepal Lily. One of our favorite Lilies and one we've had the pleasure of seeing in the wild in Arunachal Pradesh near eastern Bhutan growing in low scrub on a sunny hillside. This is not from that trip but is a good form with very large pendant yellow-green flowers with a stunning chocolate maroon throat. Really pretty amazing. One thing that we especially enjoy is that it creeps about via underground rhizomes setting new bulbs along the way. It is not unusual for it to pop up 18" away from where you planted it. This fecund wanderlust does make for an impressive display in a few years. Good drainage in the winter and mulch. Our planting in our raised shade garden bed has had up to 80 flowers. Small bulbs that won't flower the first year with you but there are multiple bulbs so the wait is worth it.

This selection of this collector's species merits a very good spot in the garden. Any selection of the species certainly could lay claim to the best real estate but this strain out of the UK which is a shade or two pinker than typical takes an impossible task of improving upon perfection and makes it possible.

Awesome rare lily known only from NE India where Frank Kingdon-Ward first collected it in either Manipur or Nagaland and named it after his wife whose maiden name was Macklin. Pale pink flowers in late spring and early summer are a lovely thing indeed on this smaller collector's lily. Frank's wife must have been an exquisite creature.

We originally received this as seed from a serious collector and grower in Scotland. While we much prefer to grow plants from documented wild provenance, this is sometimes nearly impossible to do and this is such a case. Nomocharis, like so many other genera, is enjoying some taxonomic dynamics with new species being introduced from the wild as well as species being added from the genus Lilium. The genus steadfastly remains one of the most coveted in the Liliaceae in our opinion and the thrill of seeing these in flower each year is felt as keenly as if it was the first time. We've had good reports from customers with Nomocharis in zone 5.

Seed-grown plants of a rare form of a rare lily rarely available from one rare plant grower in the UK. We are eschewing subliminal suggestions and going right to the heavy hammer of repetitive rarity. This form came about in cultivation from seed-raised plants in the UK and when mature is twice as tall as the typical species. Nice soft pink flowers.

Our collection from the Siskiyou Mts in southern Oregon of this moisture-loving lily. We were out looking at interesting plant populations with expert guide Phyllis Gustafson and she showed us this fine stand in seed growing in full sun in the wet drainage coming from a massive Darlingtonia fen well up on the hillside. Reddish-orange Turk's cap flowers with the red more pronounced toward the ends of the tepals or petals. This is a good garden species with rhizomatous bulbs making for a good clump in time. This can also tolerate periodic inundation if that is something you are either cursed with or blessed by depending on what you are trying to grow.

Excellent lily species from Vietnam collected in 2011 and original seed sent to us by expedition member Aaron Floden. This has sizeable flowers on 2'-3' stems with strongly recurved tepals that vary from white to yellow overlaid on the face with ruby from light speckles to nearly solid. This has proved quite easy in cultivation.

Beautiful pink flowers on this elegant plant formerly placed in Nomocharis and where they continue to reside in our hearts and minds. Grown from a seed collection in China by the very knowledgeable Bjornar Olsen, this is a very special plant. Some variation from evenly pink to a pale margin on the tepals. Can't select, sorry!

Beautiful species from one of our collections in the mountains of Asia. Stately and refined on strong upright 4'-6' stems topped in creamy flowers whose recurved tepals are suffused in freshly churned butter yellow. These vary by clone and can be liberally speckled in fine maroon spots or these can be nearly absent. Kelly is a Libra and can't decide which he likes more while Sue is a Taurus and said we are going to sell a few while that Libra brain makes up its mind.

Lovely, lovely species with classic Turk's cap shaped flowers of gentle pink with a lavender nuance further enhanced by a sprinkle of darker beauty spots on the downturned face which exhales a light fragrance that takes but the slightest stirring of the air to swirl about in fleeting notes taking this to yet a higher plane of pleasure. Seed-grown from seed gathered from plant legend Peter Cox's home garden in Glendoick Scotland from his own collections in Yunnan.

Very garden worthy little Lily descended from a Crug Farm collection in Taiwan. This is a fairly compact species with grassy foliage and carnival hat flowers - big white trumpets with maroon stripes on the outside. Increases well from offsets and blooms when young. It's all good.

Our cross between the "typical" Lilium mackliniae and the Saramati form which will be recognized as a distinct variety of the species. The former has larger flowers and is more campanulate while the latter is a high elevation variant with smaller flowers and blooms earlier. This hybrid is very uniform from seed, short, stout, earlier than typical while having flowers nicely intermediate. Pretty cool.

A rare species from northern Myanmar and adjacent Yunnan, this is even a rarer opportunity to purchase bulbs from seed collected in the wild by Bjornar Olsen. Nomocharis in cultivation live in the Summer of Love and welcome without reservation any pollen from any other Nomocharis nearby resulting in hybridity. These are direct wildlings and flowers vary a bit which is not uncommon in a population.

One of those captivating Chinese species. This has a neat stoloniferous habit sending out runners and making new bulbs so you soon have a grove of Lilies. Flowers white with dark spots with recurved petals in the classic "Turk's Cap" style. We love it.

California native Lily from a Ron Ratko seed collection. This has the small but glorious orange Turk's Cap flower with orange recurved petals darkly spotted. Haven't met a West Coast Lily yet that hasn't completely bewitched me. This one increases nicely from offsets.

These are seed-grown bulbs from our original plants which we grew from seed we collected in the Cangshan in 1997. We were midway up the flank of the mountain and the weather cleared just enough to allow a glimpse far down to the plain below where the famed 3 Pagodas of Dali stood as faint pencil strokes fronting the wide expanse of Lake Erhai. A sight we will never forget. This a truly fabulous Lily relative with wide-open flowers dotted in maroon which open pink but age to white. When I go to the great compost pile in the hereafter, it is understood that Nomocharis pardanthina are to be strewn liberally on my casket. Rare and very choice. These are naturally small bulbs but they may well flower this spring. This will appreciate a cool site in light shade to morning sun. We know the related Nomocharis aperta can take a tough zone 5 winter and hopefully these can as well but we tend to be conservative so are sticking to zone 6 until we know different.

Lilium rosthornii is an uncommonly interesting lily from China whose flowers reflect a design concept taken to its ultimate expression by an inveterate tinkerer. Three foot stems carry large, vivid orange flowers whose narrow petals are recurved into an impossible backbend with a twist thrown in for good measure. The exposed faces of the petals fairly bristle with polyp-like papillose projections while the revealed open throat displays a dark green star from which unashamedly project the very long stamens and pistils. Having traveled in India, the outlandish floral corollary that popped into our minds was of a sadhu performing in Cirque du Soleil. Google images for sadhu and all will be clear. Lilium rosthornii is similar to L. henryi but flowers a bit later with peak bloom in September for us and has narrow vertical seed capsules as opposed to more globose and pendant in L. henryi.

Gorgeously reflexed Lily set atop hefty stems that can reach upwards of 5ft with wine-red centers drifting out into the pale yellow ochre of the petal tips which lend it its artistic variety name. Second generation seed from a Floden Wynn-Jones expedition to Vietnam.