Oriental Lilies

Among the most spectacular of perennials, Fresh cut Oriental lilies (Lilium Orientalis) grow from 2 to 6 feet tall and offer prettily speckled flowers, heavy fragrance and an ability to bloom in late summer when most other bulbs have long since finished. Oriental lilies are hybrids, hence they don’t come true from seed, but those propagated from bulb scales should be clones of their mother.  The Oriental Lilies prefer acid soil and temperate, moist summers. These conditions can be provided by shade, mulching or container culture if necessary. Their enormous flowers, heavenly fragrance and late summer bloom time are worth the extra efforts!

Oriental Lily Care.

i. Choose a position where Oriental lilies will receive morning sun and afternoon shade. Plant the bulbs in the fall, 8 inches deep and 6 to 12 inches apart, in soil that is half organic matter, such as compost. Make part of that organic matter peat, if the soil is alkaline; as Oriental lilies prefer a pH lower than 6.5.

ii.  Add bulb fertilizer to the planting hole, using the amount specified on the bag and covering it with a little soil before placing the bulbs.

iii. Make sure the bulbs get at least 1 inch of water per week and add 5 or 6 inches of mulch to help keep the soil damp. Dig up and divide your lilies every three years or so in autumn after the stalks have died back.

Oriental hybrid flowers bloom for two to three weeks in July and August, producing 6- to 8-inch fragrant flowers that are white, pink, purple or red depending upon the variety, and growing from 2 to 6 feet tall.

Stargazer is the best-known lily in the world, with up facing crimson flowers with a white edge. For more than 25 years, it has remained a cut flower of choice, and makes a terrific garden plant, too! Its 3-foot stems are an excellent choice for containers.
Perennial Bulbs
Oriental hybrid lilies develop from herbaceous perennial bulbs, meaning the plant dies back in the winter and the bulb grows new stems in the spring. Spreading about 4 inches of mulch over the planted bulbs during the winter months protects them from varying colder temperatures.

Propagation by Scales

i. Dig some of your lily bulbs in fall after the foliage has withered, and peel off the largest scales from the outside of each bulb. Retain a bit of the flat base of the bulb on each scale. Replant what is left of the original bulbs.

ii. Fill a terra cotta bulb pot with a mix of half peat and half sand. Insert the scales into the mix so that their lower halves are covered and their pointed upper halves protrude. Place the pot in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse

iii. Make sure the soil stays damp over the fall and winter so that the scales can make bulblets (tiny bulbs) in the warmer months and send up leaves during the cooler months. Transplant the seedlings into individual 3-inch seedling pots in the spring. Set the pots of seedlings outdoors in a partially shaded location over the summer months, watering them as needed and fertilizing them every two weeks with a water-soluble plant food.

iv. Set the bulblets in the ground in autumn, at a depth three times their diameter. Expect them to bloom two years later.

Lily flowers can be stored for 4 to 6 weeks after harvesting and have a vase life of 7 to 14 days if harvested at the right stage and given the proper treatment.