I've never had any success with Orientals. Asiatics and LA's in particular I find are great. My Orienpets have been hit and miss; Norther Carillon was beautiful this year but it's only in it's second year. Boogie Woogie and First Crown were both no show's this year. Trumpet Regale had one puny stem this year and another who's name I don't recall with golden flowers had only two stems with only one flowering. I have several martagons that did okay but they are still relatively young plants so hope they will multiply. I think alot of the lilies suffered this year with the cool wet weather; hopefully next year will be better!

I've had reasonable success with Orientals, Orienpets and Aurelians over the years and most have come back quite well. This past winter (and probably the cold wet spring and cool wet summer) has done a number on some of them, though. Northern Carillon has shown up but i don't think any of the Casablancas have. I always make sure to throw extra leaves on them in the fall but it didn't help this year.

Coincidentally, i was just thinking about them and deciding to plant a lot more next year - the scent is so beautiful drifting across the yard!

Orientals...yes flowered in the garden for years. Don't seem to multiply though. Stargazer, Muscadet, and Kissproof are just a few of the varieties in my garden.

LA Hybrids....huge in the garden for years, Then were just gone....I think the mice got them. A couple years later I had one or two pop up but they were small. I have planted more in different areas and they have been doing good, nice and big for at least 3 years now.

Martagons may not come up for a year or two after you plant the bulb....but once they get going they get more flowers every year. I also started some from seed and these seemed to adapt better after moving to another spot in the garden, than bought bulbs. White and purple/pink

Dalhansonii flowers nicely, hasn't multiplied.

Hansonii flowers nicely, hasn't multiplied.

Trumpet/Aurulian lilies....get smaller and smaller and don't flower every year. As a last ditch effort I planted one (L regale)right by the back of the house and covered it the first winter. It had 3 flowering stems the next summer. After that I was not able to find straw so it has gone down to one small stem and didn't flower for at least 2 year. This year this one small stem had one flower bud, that got broken off.

Henryii lilys have been in my garden for ohhhh 8 to 10 years....never multiplied in the original spot planted. Moved them 4 years ago to apparently a better spot. They have started to multiply. Not rapidly, but they are multiplying.

Lady Alice lily (species cross???) has been in my garden a couple years....there are 2 flowering stems this year...so it has doubled.

L pumilum comes back and flowers nicely...hasn't multiplied.

L. speciosum var rubrum did NOT make it though the winter.

Trying L.speciosum Uchida, Black beauty, Oriempets, and L. tigrinum flore pleno (double tiger) this year...we will see how they come through the winter.

I have 3 lilies in one of my front beds that look like they could be boogie woogie....that have come back...but I am not sure what they are exactly or when they were planted. lol

Sierra

Incidentally, I had large clumps of Asiatics that died over this winter. I lost almost all my Black Out and Tinos, and they had been huge clumps. All there are left are a few bulblets, which I'm sure will grow back. So any less hardy types that are still growing in my garden are survivors indeed.

Oh and I think I found Oriental 'Rio Nigro' alive yesterday but I will have to wait til it blooms to be sure.

I'm glad this thread was started. I will move all tender types up close to the foundation of the house, though not too close, as they will come up too early in the spring and freeze off. Those that had wintered in such a position, these had all done well and many of them divided up nicely.

Oh, the scent of some of these is simpy AMAZING!

Terry

Gil, If you had big clumps of some lilies and then they disappeared I have 2 thoughts on this.

1. Do you have mice that eat lily bulbs in the winter. This happened to me and what a mess I ended up with. I am still pulling out little lilies everywhere. They shred them and each piece makes a new little bulb....then spread them around....in the base of other perennials and so forth. Some lilies I did lose completely.....

2. After some lilies clump up a lot, they need to be divided or they will die out....just like some other perennials. An example of tulips which does this really fast....lilys in my experience will do this slower....but after several year still need to be divided and spread out. Asiatics with the bulbs on the underground stem are bad for this.

Terry, My L Regale has never frozen off...I don't know why not. lol. Snow cover is not great for this one either now that I think about it.

The other lilies I mentioned are not anywhere near the house and have lots of snow cover, very late in the spring.

Another thing, I plant the lily bulbs on their sides when planting, so water doesn't sit in the top of the bulb and rot it.

Sierra

Sierra, I wondered about the mice too. I did have mice in that bed this past winter, they barked some of my roses. But I didn't see any signs of digging in the soil around the tulips or lilies. Like you say, there are many bulblets growing now so maybe mice did eat them. The clumps were divided & replanted 3 years ago this fall.

I think I might go back to leaves for protection instead of flax straw this year. The straw and its seeds were too attractive to mice. That or get some kind of rodent "deterrent"... ahem.

"Rodent "deterrent"" = cat? :>

When is the best time to divide Asiatics? I have some that need it and i never get around to do it in the spring. There's a perennial exchange at the next hort. meeting and i was thinking of digging some up and bringing them in. The meeting is next week, and they're still blooming.

Oh no, my princess cats don't go outside. The neighbour's cat comes to poop in my gardens but doesn't deal with mice. I was talking about chemical warfare.

No cat here anymore, but the dogs are pretty good with mice. :)

Marcia,

You can dig asiatics in very early spring before they start to grow or in the fall once the foliage turns brown. Those are the best times.

You can dig when they are still in bloom or right after bloom, but you have to be extremely careful not to break the stems off the bulbs. The stems/leaves feed the bulbs for next year.

If you want to put some in your plant sale, dig them carefully and pot them up, but don't break the stems off till they turn brown.

Sierra

Thanks, Sierra, i'll dig some this week.

Well I only started my garden last spring...but everything survived that horrible winter wonderfully and multiplied a lot.

LA Hybrid - Royal Dream...looks like it almost needs to be divided already, I couldn't believe how huge a clump it turned into after just one year.
I also have a NOID beautiful pink hybrid that is very pubescent and has a yellow throat. It multiplied only slightly this year, though it is taller, healthier, and flowered much more vigorously.

Oriental- Mona Lisa...didn't multiply (though it does have more blooms this year) but that may have been because it was defoliated early last fall because I had a lot of trouble with leaf spot.

Martagon - Dalhansonii the ones I planted last year came up again this year, but they did not bloom, and the plants only got to be about a foot tall. Hopefully they'll spring into action next year. I bought 4 more varieties this year, including Black Prince that cost be $50, so I'm hoping they work out!

Weeper, that's about how high my martagons grew this summer and only one bloomed. I planted them two years ago and was ticked off last year because only one appeared, but was told here that they could take a couple of years to show. We'll see if they "leap" in their third year - they literally slept the first year!

Marcia,

My white martagon took 3 years to appear. lol. I had long written it off. Then it popped up and I was....hmmm what is that and where did it come from? I did have one white one that never did appear though. They do get more flowers each year after they start blooming though.

If you think something might of happened to the bulb, you could always dig and see what you find. Of course that might set it back again.....lol you can't win for trying. :)

I only speak from experience...what works for me, might NOT work for you guys.

Oh and I also missed this one,
L. speciosum var rubrum alba, didn't make it though the winter.

Sierra

You must have forgotten to do the martagon dance! LOL They all came up this year, but only one (Tsing-whatever it is) bloomed. One of them disappeared again. Probably didn't like the weather this summer and went back underground. :-/