GARDENING
W hile lots of us pack up and head to the beach for the festive season, serious lilium growers stay home. January is peak flowering time for many species and varieties and the time when lilium fanciers show their wares at various shows throughout the state.
Liliums are large, tall-stemmed bulbs that erupt into bloom in summer. Best known are the florist’s lilium such as the pink ‘Stargazer’, but for lilium growers, these are just the tip of the iceberg.
“They are great for flower growers to pack in boxes to export, but not so good for gardens,” says lilium expert Neil Jordan, who runs Cam Lilies at Camdale near Burnie.
Jordan will be spending his Christmas and New Year tending his vast collection of 3000 plus liliums and readying blooms for entry in both the Burnie and Latrobe Lilium Shows.
In the Hobart area, get a lilium fix at the Claremont Lily and Summer Flower Show at Claremont, which has lots of lilium blooms.
Jordan doesn’t just grow liliums for show, he is also president and show manager for the North-West Tasmanian Lilium Society Inc and for the past 30 years has bred new varieties.
“Most of my breeding efforts were centred around pendant Asiatics but more recently I moved to Orientals,” Jordan says.
“I generally avoid the up-facing styles of liliums as these are the subject of massive efforts by the cut-flower trade, mostly based in The Netherlands.
“I concentrate on durable garden lilies. I am selecting for a plant that produces a pyramid of inflorescences classically with a ring of open flowers around the base and building up the stem to just one bud at the top.”
He nominates ‘Penghana’ as a variety he is proud to have bred with some 15 to 20 rose plum pendant flowers on a single tall stem.
As he gardens on a steep slope, he also finds that it is much easier to admire lilium flowers that hang down.
“They don’t fill up with water and turn into a pollen soup at the first drop of rain,” he says.
Asiatic liliums are also fast to form a clump so they are rewarding to plant in the garden.
FLOWERING
There are more than 100 species of liliums and countless named varieties and hybrids. As their names suggest, many originated in Asia, but some, such as the Madonna lily ( lilium
candidum), are native to the Mediterranean region. Liliums have been selected and bred for centuries.
The flowering season starts in midDecember to early January with martagon or turk’s cap lilies ( L. martagon), followed by Asiatic and trumpet liliums, then later in January with the Oriental hybrids.
The flowers come in tones of white, pink, red, yellow and orange and the petals are often spotted, freckled or striped with other colours. The flowers may be trumpet-shaped or have reflexed or flared petals and as Jordan points out, face up to the sky or hang down like a bell.
Another alluring feature is that many are fragrant – very fragrant. As you walk into a lilium show, the perfume of so many lilies in one place is almost overwhelming.
They also waft their scent through the garden especially on a warm summer’s day or evening, which is a very good reason to add a lilium or two to your garden this summer.