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grammahony

Sorry for this repeat question on lily colors but..

grammahony
16 years ago

I planted a grouping of lilies called Strawberry's and Cream, about 5 years ago. This is what they look like now. I KNOW I didn't plant this color. I don't like orange that well. They are kinda florescent, and kinda pretty, but I want my pinks, and cream/white ones. What's going on?

Leslie

Comments (7)

  • lam702
    16 years ago

    I know what you mean. I bought "Peach pixie" assuming it was, well, peach. It turned out to be a nice, bright pink. Beautiful, but doesn't really fit in my yellow and orange border. Your lily may not be what you expected, but it is beautiful.

  • lilium_guy56
    16 years ago

    Well they sure look nice. They look like TOM PUCE variety to me. After buying and ordering for many years I've found that many sellers label there stuff wrong. Schelpers, Color Blends and Wayside Gardens NEVER gave me what I ordered. I usually buy Lilies that are already in bloom and only from local suppliers now for that reason. I do still order thru the mail but ONLY from "DUTCH GARDENS" inc. catalog

  • leslie197
    16 years ago

    White Flower Farm sells a package of asiatic lilies which I have bought several times called Strawberries and Cream. All of mine have been in shades of pale to dark pinks and pale creams & whites. Never got anything that was peachy and certainly not anything that was orangish.

    I always bought these for fall planting & enjoyed the variety, planting them around the sunny edges of my shade garden to provide a bit of soft pretty color near the mostly green gardens. As far as I know all the bulbs bloomed the following spring and were exactly like the pictures provided in the catalog. If this is your first bloom season for these & you bought from WFF, I'm sure they would provide replacements.

  • grammahony
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    leslie197, I think they probably did come from WFF, and it was their Strawberrys and Cream combo. But, like I say, they've been right here in this spot for 5 years. I'd really like to dig them up, and replant what I wanted.
    Leslie

  • hld6
    16 years ago

    The problem with buying grouped sets of lilies like WFF's "Strawberries and Cream" is that you don't actually know what you're getting. Some sellers at least tell you the name of the lilies in the grouping but they do not.

    Asiatics are such prolific reproducers (through seed, bulblets, and bulbils) that at 5 years out it is impossible to tell what you actually have now. Are they hybrids between the different lilies in the original set? Were some lilies tougher than others and now dominate the group? Do these hybrids have orange lilies in their parentage? It's anyones guess now.

    Also many lilies have a wide range of color variation (such as the trumpet "Pink Perfection"). If you know the name of the lily you're buying you can "google it" and somewhere it's color behavior will be noted. I think bi-color hybrids may be more susceptible.

    If you decide to dig them up, I'd buy a number of different named lilies in the colors you want and mark them with plant tags when you plant them. That way you'll be able to tell the offspring from the original bulbs.

    -Helen

  • grammahony
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thanks Helen. So what your saying is the offspring of what I had planted are these in the picture, and they DO change.
    Leslie

  • hld6
    16 years ago

    Hi Leslie,

    Actually I'm saying that we can't know for sure what has gone on. It could be "mixed up" offspring. If you knew what lilies were in the set you could check to see if any off them are capable of producing fertile seed. Many hybrids don't, but those that do don't reproduce true to type - even when they are pollinated by their own kind - much less if they are cross pollinated. Bulblets and Bulbils are clones, but if for some reason the more "peachy" lilies were tougher and survived better, their clones could dominate.

    The only color variability I've found with my lilies are with Bicolor lilies. For example I have a bulb of Triumphator that had hardly ANY pink in its throat this year, (looks like it's Easter Lily parent). The rest of them look like they should, as did that bulb last year. But I've never had a lily change its color to something totally different, that it didn't already have at least some of.

    All of my lilies are labled so its easy to keep track of them. (I have a tight garden and need to know where everything is so I don't dig them up accidentally while planting others).

    -Helen