Carol Klein on the loveliness that lilies bring
Bring elegance, romance and a touch of exotic to your garden with these slender beauties
One of the most pleasant surprises I’ve had recently, when returning to the garden between shows, were lilies in full bloom in the copper bath outside the kitchen door. They were planted last year, a variety called ‘Lady Alice’, with elegant white and pale orange, reflexed flowers on arching stems.
A few weeks later I was greeted by another lily, Lilium regale, with its substantial white trumpets and delicious scent. This is the most popular lily in the world, discovered by the renowned plant hunter Ernest Wilson in Sichuan, China, and eventually introduced by him after a couple of unsuccessful attempts and a broken leg sustained in a rock fall when hunting it down, resulting in his ‘lily limp’.
Lilium regale is reliable and easy to grow. Though we often buy new bulbs for our pots, old bulbs are sometimes planted out directly in the border where they seem to contend well with our heavy clay. Whether they’re going into pots or into the open ground, they respond well to the inclusion of compost and grit in the planting hole or potting compost.
All lilies enjoy good drainage – if they sit in stagnant soil they rot. Most need 10cm (4in) of soil above their bulbs and when they’re doing well and bulbs start to clump up, they need to be dug up, separated and replanted, adding compost and grit.
Earlier still, martagon lilies in pots, especially a variety named ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’, made a glorious introduction to the lily season. Most lilies prefer a sunny place but the martagon lily is the exception to the rule, preferring a position in dappled shade. Eventually plants will begin to self-seed and build up into small colonies; to enable this to happen, seed heads must be left in place.
As they begin to ripen, seed heads will stand to attention, fattening all the while and eventually becoming brown and crisp, at which stage they’ll burst, revealing papery seeds stacked on top of each other like CDs or a pile of plates. A gust of warm wind can send them hither and thither and eventually some may find their way onto a suitable piece of ground, germinate and eventually become new bulbs.
Lilies are perfect in pots, which makes them easy to locate and enjoy their scent, especially in late
‘Lilies are perfect in pots, which makes them easy to locate and enjoy their scent’
afternoon and early evening. They’re worthy of getting pride of place, but not so close to your usual routes round the garden that you brush against their sticky, yellow pollen.
Lilies have been prized for thousands of years, from the pure white Lilium martagon depicted in so many Renaissance paintings of the Madonna, to the green and maroon trumpets of L. nepalense, taken to their hearts by modern gardeners. There are many groups of lilies, but perhaps the most popular of all are Orientals and Asiatics. Among their number are some of the most showy of lilies in an enormous range of colours. Asiatics are the earlier and probably the easiest; they have little or no perfume. Orientals are a little more tricky but still straightforward. Most have exotic perfume. You can plant either in pots or into the soil and, like all lilies, they’ll bring an air of romance and their own unique beauty to the late summer garden.