It's time to plant Christmas lilies.
Planting bulbs is a bit like planting buried treasure in the garden.
You plant them and some time later they emerge, grow, flower and later return to dormancy. Then the following year the season repeats, offering much delight and joy.
Christmas lilies are a delight for the garden, showing off their beautiful blooms during summer and, as the name suggests, at Christmas.
Christmas lilies are the common name of a few varieties of oriental-type lilies and part of a wider family, including Asiatic lilies.
So why am I talking about Christmas lilies in the middle of winter?
Now is the time to plant them. As they grow from a bulb/tuberous root system, they are dormant during the winter months. If you have some lilies in your garden, they benefit from being divided every three to five years and you get new plants from the process.
Planted now, your lilies will sprout during the late winter, then they will grow during spring and commence flowering around December.
Lilies are easy to grow and can be left in the ground for a number of years. Each year, the clumps of bulbs will increase, as will the subsequent number of blooms. This is the time of the year when these and other dormant bulbs, such as dahlias, can be lifted and divided to create new plants.
Most know the Christmas lily, though there are many other worthy colours, shapes and sizes in lilies that can be grown very easily.
Both Asiatic and Oriental lilies make a wonderful cut flower to bring indoors during the summer. They can last up to two or three weeks in a vase by changing the water regularly and occasionally snipping the base of the stem again to keep the wound fresh.
Asiatic lilies are generally earlier-flowering and there is a larger colour range to choose from. Most are not scented. They tend to multiply much faster than Oriental types. The growth habit, as a rule, is more compact, which can make them better for pots and small spaces.
Oriental lilies are a bit later in flowering. The flower size tends to be larger and they have the famously scented blooms that are reminiscent of “Grandma’s garden”. The stems are usually taller, with a stately presence.
Planting some each of the Asiatic and Oriental lilies is recommended as this will give you a longer flowering season of beautiful lilies.
How to grow successfully
They grow best in a sunny situation with rich, well-drained soil. The free-draining aspect is particularly important, as otherwise the tuberous root system can be prone to rotting and you can lose your plants during wet periods. If necessary, your desired spot can be raised into a mound to achieve the free-draining conditions.
For great results, lilies should be fed Ican Bulb Food, once at planting, once before flowering and a third time after flowering, when the plants are storing energy for flowering the following year. Care should be taken to ensure the fertiliser does not come into direct contact with the bulbs.
Planting them in groups of three to five bulbs in the garden usually gives the best visual effect. Taller-growing varieties will need staking so that wind doesn’t snap off the stems during the summer. Adding a stake at planting time is a good idea to avoid the chance of root damage that can occur if stakes are added at a later date. It is also a good marker for knowing where your lilies are when they are dormant.
And what about in pots? Yes, absolutely: using a good-quality potting mix is key to success, along with a pot that is not too small. I recommend Tui Bulb Mix or Ican Premium Potting Mix. Both have good structure. The addition of Tui Enrich for Pots & Containers every six months, and using liquid fertiliser Ican Fast Food as a top-up during the summer months, will bring success.
They can be used to great effect in large pots with a mixture of plants, such as a permanent shrub, plus seasonal annuals and, of course, the lilies to come through for the summer months.
Get inspired to plant something now for summer – call in to the store to see the range of lily bulbs available now.
For more gardening information, visit www.springvalegardencentre.co.nz.
Gareth Carter is the general manager of Springvale Garden Centre in Whanganui.