Your lily is trying to be a double! That could be a good feature in a trumpet lily. Save the pollen, please. Hybridizers look for this kind of thing and I'm one of them. Though the flower looks ugly to you, it looks beautiful to me, or anyone looking for that trait.

Lainey

Thanks Lainey!

Do doubles usually have a hard time doubling in the first year? In other words is there a chance that these will be full doubles next year or is this the extent of the double I should expect?

When I was a kid my neighbor had lilies that were tripled! She had a beautiful garden. When she sold the house she left her very nice garden and asked the new owner to at least leave the garden for a year to see what he had. Sure enough he didn't. I was upset to say the least. Even if I knew in advance, there was little I probably could have done since I was living with my parents at the time.

If you want some pollen let me know, actually let me know soon. There is only one or two unopened lilies at this point and rain is in the forcast.

Ken

Hi Ken,

What you have is a double-flowered cultivar called 'Sphinx'.

The doubles can be extremely variable, but with proper selection and evaluation, the most stable are propagated for the market. Many double Asiatic cultivars such as 'Aphrodite', The Kiss series, 'China', etc. were selected from varieties that have a tendancy to double. 'Sphinx' is actually a nice cultivar because it is vigorous and healthy all around once you begin to appreciate the deformation. hehe

A few singles pop up here and there, but if you'll notice, the filaments simply failed to "flatten out" into tepals and pollen will almost be absent.

I hope this helps!

Riz

I think they're beautiful. I'll have to look on line for some.
Leslie