L.A.: Royal Sunset. This is a workhorse lily, will grow and spread like crazy. It's got a beautiful coloring (gold, bronze, organe) that fades to something just as pretty. Deep green leaves.

Asiatics: Olina is my new favorite upfacing asiatic. Dakr red with black center. It's striking. I love the downfacing lilies, they are so charming, and some favorites are Robinson's comet, My Joe-Ann, Red Velvet. Sunray is an old tried and true sturdy upfacing yellow.

OT's: there are many many favorite, but my enduring all timne favorite is Anastasia. It is downfacing and it has red centered white flowers. However, the thing never propogates in my garden. I love a couple of the more recent OTs like Flashpoint and Baywatch. Classics like Black Beauty and Scherezade are great, reliable lilies.

Kprp, thank you for posting your favorites! I also love the down-facing lilies and recently planted 'Red Velvet' as well as several Lilium lankongense hybrids made by Chris North and Judith Freeman. They seem so refined and graceful!

I planted 'Anastasia', 'Black Beauty' and 'Scheherazade', too, so I am happy to see that you recommend them.

It's hard to find one I don't like but Black Beauty, Scheherazade, Red Velvet, Anastasia are all great lilies. Pavia LA lily is a gorgeous unspotted lemon yellow, White Butterflies asiatic is a beauty as well and an established clump can bloom for over a month. Can't forget Arabesque a tall stately beauty both Flashpoint and Invasion are gorgeous OT's. I've included a link to a Picasa album that has several lilies in it. I will have to do better next year as I see I am missing a lot of them.

Here is a link that might be useful: summer 2011

Hostaholic2, thank you for the information! I did plant 'Invasion' this fall so I am glad you like it. I can't wait to see it bloom!

I have been eyeing both White Butterflies and Arabesque on The Lily Garden website. Next year....LOL!

Black Beauty is one of my best too. Honeymoon (OT) is about my absolute favorite, but it's the only OT I've had long enough to really see it get a high bud count (18 buds, that is, until a tree fell on that clump this year). For asiatics Navona (white with a few small spots) and Toronto (cream with coral/salmon center) are my favorites. I keep planting orientals, but they don't flourish in my soil, even in a raised bed. They live 3 years at the max.

The first year Invasion had only 3 or 4 blooms. I didn't count them this year but there were a lot. I've noticed the OT's usually take a year or so to settle in.
I've counted 45 On Scheherazade. I divided that one this year and the mother bulb weighed 2 1/4 pounds.

Here are some of my favorites so far--not that I have that many bulb lilies, but I sure do love these.

Honeymoon and others--Honeymoon is the tall lily in center of picture. Very impressive! Long-lasting blooms. It is an orienpet--the best type to grow, in my opinion. To the right, you can see Lilium Regale peeking in (trumpet lily). On the left is a lily with pink center whose name I don't remember. However, I have ordered some Silk Roads (orienpets with pink centers) for next spring--they are very popular and I hope they do great for me also.
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Tom Pouce--lovely but a bit tempramental Oriental lily. I loved the delicate shades shown the first year and in the photo, but second year, the colors weren't as attractive--more blotched--and one bulb evidently died.
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Casa Blanca--sparkling white Oriental lily. Gorgeous, but not as sturdy and reliable as the orienpets.

Speciosum Red????--not sure of the name, but I love the colors/combinations. Again, not as sturdy and reliable as the orienpets. It blooms a bit later than the other lilies.

I also have some nice bright yellow asiatics, but I bought them so many years ago that I have no idea what they were called.

As for this next spring, I also ordered a half dozen Scheherazades (orienpets)--quite dramatic looking. Hope they turn out as good as everyone says.

Kate

Nice pics. I think you'll be very happy with Scheherazade, though it might take a year or two for them to really strut their stuff. They like lots of compost in my garden.
Honeymoon is lovely but I don't see Regale in the pic.

Thanks for the advice, hosta. I just remembered that I ordered some yellow trumpets for next spring also--called Golden Sceptre. I can't wait to see all my lilies blooming next summer. This is exciting.

To see Regale, think white on white and look UP near the right-hand corner. The Regale appear about in line with the top of the white door. There are actually 6 Regale plants there. I didn't realize I had caught the tip of one in my Honeymoon picture.

Kate

Thanks for posting the beautiful photos kate :)

Here's 'Olina', an excellent lily with long lasting blooms in a color often difficult to photograph ... people frequently comment on this one.

'Shocking' (middle of photo) is a heavy blooming very fragrant lily that puts on a great show.

Terrance

I see it now, I was looking to low in the pic, though I'm wondering if it's regale album as regale has dk brownish purple on the outside. Regardless, the pic is lovely. Olina is beautiful and Shocking looks very similar to Invasion, both beautiful.

hosta, I may be wrong about those lilies being regale album. That is what I ordered several years ago, but these all white ones (faintest reddish blush on outside) are what I got. Perhaps the lily place substituted a similar shaped trumpet, but if so, I have no idea what it is--except it definitely is not an orienpet.

Love those dark red asiatics, olina, and Shocking is anything but shocking. It is beautiful!

Kate

"I'm wondering if it's regale album as regale has dk brownish purple on the outside."

"I may be wrong about those lilies being regale album. That is what I ordered several years ago, but these all white ones (faintest reddish blush on outside) are what I got."

Regale album is just that - white (or very nearly so; you often see a faint pink cast to the petals, a little stronger before the buds open).

I love Calla lilies mainly because of its trumpet-like structure, and waxy-creamy texture. I find them soothing for the eyes, as when I wake-up in the morning I look at them which give me a very fresh feeling in the very morning.

Lilium martagon hybrids because they can grow in shade and are long lasting. Lilium rosthornii: extremely easy to grow and multiply and unusual bloom time: August/September. Lilium speciosum Uchida-longlasting oriental, the same Journey's end. Lilium pyrenaicum(red and yellow)-easy to grow. Lilium davidii: indestructable.

I planted a new one last year called Wassail (I think it is an orienpet). It's sort of a gold-rose color and grew very well for it's first year, but what stood out was it's fabulous fragrance. I have Silk Road and a Stargazer which both smell great, but Wassail has different perfume to it, wonderful.

wieslaw, how could I forget those delicate looking martagons. They are lovely. judyok, I looked up Wassail, lovely indeed. I planted Bonbini this fall, it's also supposed to have a lovely fragrance. We'll see how it does next summer.

L.martagon album, L.cernuum, L.testaceum, L.macklinae, L.canadense
also, Night Flyer, Sweet Surrender are nice tiger hybrids

I love 'Black Beauty'

Silk Road and Leslie Woodruff. I also love Corsage, very hard to find.

I just bought 'Silk Road' and 'Scheherazade' looking forward to them...

buyorsell, I planted 30 Black Beauty last year as a test (I sell cut lilies at market) and of all the lilies that I planted last year, BB is straggly and lean and does not have a very good leaf structure at all. Did you experience any of this? I have not yet seen the quality of the flowers but I dont know that I can sell these stems. My favorite lilies are Landini, Golf, Batistero, Black Out, Gluhwein,Shocking, Menorca, oh, perhaps all of them, Asiatic, OT hybrids, Orientals, Tigers, anything. Love them. Kat

kitkat, Black Beauty as well as all OT need a year (or more) to establish. First year plants have usually only a few buds and only half the height. The good thing about them is that they can grow both in acid and alcaline soils, unlike Orientals, which will only grow in acid. I had some Orientals for more than a decade, so they are not all short-lived by definition. I do not now if the original bulbs are still growing, but their 'babies' will make the clumps last.

pls click compressed photos to expand

Don't miss our on 'Sumatra' if you have a cooler climate this red OrienPet does great. The taller one is about 7.5'. The flowers only show well against the dark Western Red Cedar tree background due to it's fine white edging.

'Nippon Lady' is stylish and awesome with a dark backdrop.

If you are in a mild zone e.g., 7 to 9, with cool moist summers, don't miss growing the Giant Himalayan Lily Cardiocrinum* giganteum, either v giganteum or v yunnanense. They are a stunning species bridging between Hosta and Lily.

C. giganteum v giganteum leaves

Cardiocrium giganteum looks sort of like a 3-4' diameter hosta until the mother bulb gets pineapple sized. Then it turns to the 'hosta on a stick' phase as the stem shoot bolts upwards 1-3" a day. The large leaves on the v yunnanense dramatically (but slowly) flap up and down in unison on a 12 to 24 hr cycle not tied to the day/night cycle. The photo below was taken about 20 hr apart and the leaf angle has tipped upwards by ~ 70°! The flap fanning action is in the part of the stem still expanding in diameter. It is like it is an Alien pumping food from the bulb.

The stem base size is huge, even of the slightly smaller v yunnanese variety. This was on a 9' plant. It xan get to 12'.

v yunnanense starts bolting here in mid February and so is always at risk from a cold snap.

However, it also has remarkable restorative powers to recover from a cold snap. I've seen the whole look brownish black green wilted and water soaked like freeze thawed spinach, then hours later revert to original deep green with a perky plant stance!

I'd grow the plant for the amazing glossy leaves alone! Makes a nice shade to part morning sun plant. Just can't have sun hitting the huge base leaves when it is hot outside.

Here it is at 9.5' blooming in early to mid June.

* translates to "heart lily" for the leaf shape

The flowers have powerful sweet spicy nocturnal fragrance. With a slight early summer breeze you can smell even one flower 30' away. And it sends you searching to track the source and bask there.

My goal is to get a nice stand of them going like these folks posted on the internet.

Notice the flower stalk stem diameter height differences? It's a massive nutrient feeder and pushing light just to the edge can help bump up the size too.

Internet photo showing full 14' potential of the C. giganteum v giganteum variety.

<click photo below to grow lily>

The above photo is also massively informative. This is a full sun location! By the shadow on the base leaves ir looks like they planted it on the north side of a scrub to give it morning sun but to shade the base leaves in rhe afternoon and early evening. The smaller upper leaves must be more sun tolerant and collect extra energy to support taller flower atem growth. Bet the would have gotten only 9-10' feet from it in a fully afternoon shaded northwall of a house. In a hotter summer this open sun to top location would likely burn the leaves.

In our former house we had a v yunnanese between two 5' hydrangea on the northside of large evergreen trees. When flowering a few of the upper leaves were in a brighter location. But there was not enough sun here to reach full size potential. It was 9' instead of 12'.

When we moved to a sunny yard last year in February we had tubbed the above v yunnanese in mid winter. And one of the offshoot bulbs from the spend mother bulbs bloomed on the northside of our shed that June! More sun here gave us fuller flowers with better shape, and more of them. We'll be working it into the landcape project in the next couple weeks.

There are again offshoot bulbs from the spent mother bulb. In the tubbed plant shoots are growing now again in February. And there are with two pineapple sized bulbs looking ready to bloom this year. If it does bloom, we will have gotten the initial bulb to make a clump blooming three years in a row! It takes 5-7 years to bloom from seed, However, it looks like nearly yearly blooming might be possible from a well managed clump if fed heavily enough.

When you have a pineapple sized mother bulb it sits at the surface exposed a bit. Then here in the first.week of February the top leaf scales of the bulb open out and a 12" new bud starts opening new leaves. You'll be running outside each morning to see what it does next. Note the little pellets on the ground. Heavier than average 10-10-10 pelleted slow release fertlizer (bluish color) and mammal/bird safe slug bait (cream color) are key at this growth stage!

I found a rare internet photo of v yunnanese being studied in the native China Yunnan provience Chinese habitat. Looks Tropical Sub Alpine in zone and the plant can obviously be smaller in stature (6'?). This one however has drop dead amazing flowers! From my experience it has little on no fragrance until dusk triggers it. Otherwise their eyes might have looked very surprized and jaws been dropped. It'd be worth collecting seed to select more cold tolerant superior flowered varieties for horticulture.

Not sure if the flowers work well as a cut flower. I love seeing them above my head and collecting the amazing seed capsule stem for dried flower arrangements.

Internet photos ... they have a dramatic 'little shop of horrors' movie devious plant look.

I'd grow the Giant Himalayan Lily just for the seed capsule decorative feature alone! The candelabra shaped array looks great when cut to about 3' tall.

There's absolutely nothing subtle about this dramatically engaging species!

Oriental Muscadet.

Really pleased with OT 'Conca D' Or. Amazing: flower size, substance, length of bloom, height (6-8' for us), stem strength, fragrance, and bright color with white margin that makes them glow against any background.

The white margin also makes them look like a fluttering white star in a Moongarden.