Lilies can be a symbol of purity, refined beauty and nurturing.
Asiatic Lilies, Oriental Lilies, Pixie Lilies, LA Hybrid Lilies, Double Lilies…. All are wonderful additions to perennial gardens of all shapes and sizes. They perennialize and naturalize, meaning they return every year (in zones 3-9) and produce larger plants with more flowers each year. That should be reason enough alone to have some of these beauties in your gardens.
All of these varieties have very strong stems and grow at least 24-36″ tall, except for the Pixies’ which are shorter, growing only 12-16″ tall. They all make excellent cut flowers, especially the LA Hybrids. Most of these lilies have large 4-5″ diameter flowers, although the Oriental Lilies can get even larger blooms. The Oriental, Double and LA Hybrid Lilies have a sweet fragrance to enjoy as well as their many other stellar qualities. If the sometimes messy pollen bothers you, try growing the Double Lilies which tend to produce less or none at all. The Pixie Lilies would also work well for container gardening, due to their shorter stature!
Planting a mixture of various types of lilies would create an amazing garden, giving you a variety of heights, colors, and bloom times. Colors of lilies range from white, pink, yellow, orange, speckles and all in between! For early summer, you would enjoy these types of lilies: Asiatics, Pixies, and Doubles. For mid summer, you would enjoy these type of lilies: LA Hybrids and Orientals.
Just to give you some more creative ways to make more good use of the lilies you grow in your garden: They are the flower for May Birthdays and for 30th anniversaries. Perhaps you know of someone celebrating either of these this year that would love them as a gift!
All of these characteristic are what make the Lily a garden favorite.
