Lilium

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.

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. 

Dainty yet durable species collected by Sue on Mt Saramati which straddles the border of Myanmar and Nagaland. The only lily capsule found on the trip and it proved to be a distinct variant likely to merit subspecific status. Small white flowers. Sue is now a footnote in botanical history.

Young bulbs of this choice variable species from the Caucasus. Impressive displays of up to 24 scented creamy flowers whose reflexed tepals expose the soft yellow throat and fine maroon stippling in this form. This is a hardy early bloomer which is ideal for those cold northern gardens with short growing seasons.

A Ron Ratko collection from 6500' in the San Gabriel Mts of Los Angeles County where it grew along shaded drainages under white alders in a mixed conifer forest. This variety has broader leaves than var. parryi but has the same large lemon-yellow trumpets that are strongly fragrant and held at eye level on mature bulbs. Everyone will have pollen on their noses!

An extremely difficult day on one of the highest (9,793') mountains in Vietnam. A 9 mile hike with a 2 mile motorcycle ride to the trailhead and then all-day steepness climbing up red clay landslides then rocky scrub in rain arriving at dark to collapse in collapsing tent on wind-blasted ridge. These should be a thousand dollars each. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering

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 pink with dark spots with recurved petals in the classic "Turk's Cap" style. We love it.

Extremely rare lily native to just a few sites in the southeastern US and discovered by Mary Henry in 1940. She found this growing in the Florida panhandle and it is known as the Panhandle Lily or as Mary described it, Pot of Gold Lily. This is virtually unobtainable, and we were lucky to receive ours from a botanist friend who is doing work on the genus. This is found growing along streams and particularly in association with pitcher plant bogs, so its habitat is threatened by human mismanagement. It is not all that common to find a lily species adapted to warm winters and high humidity but perhaps the moist conditions cools the bulbs.

This striking Turk's cap lily will be 3'-6' at maturity and have from 1-4 flowers in late July through August. The bulbs are very rhizomatous and will make a nice little colony when happy. Speaking of happy, these have a reputation for being finicky but we wonder if this was not a fault of tissue culture as most experience with this species were with tissue-cultured bulbs, a process which has since been discontinued. These are not from TC and obviously our friend grew these quite well in containers, in a mix of 50-50 peat moss and sand, as he sent us nice blooming size divisions. Mary Henry grew and flowered this from seed in a pot on her porch in Philadelphia and then to further douse this notion of being a persnickety bulb, our friend reports these being grown in an Ann Arbor Michigan garden quite successfully for several years. These are allied to Lilium superbum and apparently no more difficult to grow. The bulbs are naturally very small but increase well. An absolute must for the lily collector.