Lilium

The vivid image that came from Kingdon Ward's description of pink martagons in 'A Plant Hunter in Tibet' is one that has stuck with me. Imagine my delight when entering the greenhouse one day to find this beautiful creature awaiting me. Imagine the further delight in learning its especially special status as a rare and potentially endangered variety from Northern Mongolia and Siberia. Petals emerge dark and open becoming delicately rosy and spotted as they reflex with maturity. Let it transport you to misty fields far away.

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. 

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.

Our collection from North Vietnam of this fantastic species lily. We've sold others' collections for years so it's nice to finally be able to offer our own, and you really can't have enough of the 2-3' stalks of pale yellow flowers splotched in red. Said red splotch is less wine spill and more blood-spatter in this collection, that is to say more diffuse. Good vigor and ease which isn't always the case for species lilies. 

The Klamath mountain endemic variant of the west coast leopard lily, here collected by Ron Ratko of Northwest Native Seed. The usual 2ft tall spotted turks caps but of a solid orange and with yellow anthers in this particular subspecies. A denizen of sunny wet meadows so give it a nice moist spot with some light.