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Tuesday, July 16, 2019

July 16, 2019 lily dazed


Hi Gardeners
Asiatic and tiger lilies

It’s a steamy day here.  A lot of plants love the heat and humidity, but this gardener isn’t fond of these conditions.  I try to work in the late evenings in the garden now. I am actually hoping for some rain this afternoon, both to cool it down and to water all the plants.

The catalpa is dropping all it’s pretty white blooms now.  I don’t mind them on the lawn, the first mow takes care of that problem.  But I do not like them dropping their flowers on the hosta leaves.  The flowers catch in the “cup” of the leaves and turn into a soggy brown clump.  I have to go around with the hose and wash them out.

The lilies and daylilies are at their peak right now, the ones the deer left.  I had some beautiful white Asiatic lilies on the east side of the driveway and Sunday night the deer came up and ate half of them.  That was half of the half they left after the first raid.  I wrote more about lilies below.

Besides lilies, the cardinal flowers, beebalm, rocket ligularia, astilbe, and hosta are blooming.  My dahlias are beginning to bloom.  Both jasmines and my lemon tree are in bloom, as well as my pomegranate and peace lily.  All of my clematis except the sweet autumn are in bloom. The golden glow (Rudbeckia laciniata var. hortensia)- which is easily 8 feet tall this year, is beginning to bloom.  I staked it early this time, to see if I can keep it from falling over. These usually attract the Japanese beetles, but I have only seen a few of them this year. 

Golden glow is pretty in bloom when it doesn’t fall over.  But as tall as it is this year the flowers won’t really show well.  I’m going to have to decide if I want to keep it in the garden, I think.  It takes up a lot of space and is really out of proportion where it is.

I had the opportunity to go to the 16th annual garden tea at Suncrest, Lapeer County Master Gardeners Display garden, thanks to a friend.  It’s a fund raiser for the garden and it’s sold out months in advance every year. It’s a beautiful event and the weather this year was perfect for it.  For any of you readers who are part of the tea production and/or caring for the garden, you are doing great work, everything was beautiful.

The garden is behind the Lapeer County Medical Care Facility on Suncrest Drive in Lapeer.  It’s handicapped accessible for the residents there. It’s also open to the public every day in season during daylight hours, free. It’s an amazing garden with lots to look at and get inspiration from.
Garden at Suncrest

Tomato blossom end rot quick note

If you have black soft areas on the bottom of your tomatoes this year you are not alone.  The heavy rains this year have made the problem widespread.  Blossom end rot is not caused by a calcium deficiency according to the latest research.  Instead it’s caused by fluctuating soil moisture.  You may still see the cause of blossom end rot listed as a calcium deficiency on some professional sites that haven’t been updated but experts pretty much agree now that adding calcium to soil won’t help the problem.

Common cures suggested in many places tell you to use tums, eggshells and other items to increase the calcium level in soil.  First these items don’t increase calcium in soil by much, especially eggshells, which take years to release calcium.  And second, they don’t work to prevent blossom end rot.   The only cure for blossom end rot is an improvement in keeping soil moisture consistent.  It often corrects itself when the weather improves. You can buy varieties of tomatoes that are resistant to it.  You can eat tomatoes with blossom end rot, just cut out the bad area.

Epsom salt has absolutely no calcium in it and nothing else to help blossom end rot.  It may actually make the problem worse by harming plant roots.  Do not use Epsom salt on tomatoes.
Blossom end rot
CANR-MSU

A book review

Gardenlust: A Botanical Tour of the World's Best New Gardens  
by Christopher Woods.  Published September 2018.

If you like looking at other people’s gardens, you’ll like this book.  There are pictures of fifty gardens from around the world with brief descriptions of the gardens and the owners.  Some are private gardens and others public, but all are very beautiful.  These are all fairly new gardens, ones you may not have heard about or seen pictures of before.

I did lust after these gardens, at least some of them.  There were a couple that seemed to be mostly weird art with few plants I don’t particularly like the looks of.  But most were beautiful and made me want to move somewhere where I could expand my plant selection, although there were lots of temperate area gardens too. It’s amazing how gardeners in other parts of the world have a slightly different, yet somehow familiar take, on what makes a great garden.

I’ve been back through the book a few times to examine some of the gardens more closely.  There are lots of ideas you can use to change things up in your own garden.  And you can dream about having the money to do some of the bigger more elaborate garden ideas presented here.  There’s no advice on gardening in this book, just a presentation of the gardens and some of the back stories on them.  The writing is enjoyable and not technical.

The author Christopher Woods has worked in the Royal Botanical garden, Kew, Britain and he was director and chief designer of Chanticleer, a wonderful garden here in Pennsylvania, USA.  He travels the world looking for inspiration and garden innovation and, in the book, he shows some of his finds.  I wish I was younger, my knees better and I was rich, so I could tour gardens like this.

The book has beautiful color photos.  If you have a tablet which supports digital books you can get the book in digital format, which is about half the price of the hardcover edition.  I got a digital edition for my Kindle Fire.  You can read this on any device by downloading a free app., if you buy from Amazon. But a PC or larger tablet would be best to look at the photos. (By the way, digital books are a great way to get garden books at very reasonable prices.)  If you collect garden books this would make a great addition in hardcover.

Identifying the lilies

The true lilies make excellent garden plants.  Many people are quite confused about lily species and names, however.  Let me try to help you identify lily species and decide which lilies are right for your garden. First let’s distinguish true lilies from daylilies, which are an entirely different family of plants but are also common garden plants.

Daylilies are from the genus Hemerocallis.  This genus has 19 species and most of them are called daylilies as a common name.  A daylily is a perennial plant whose long leaves look much like broad grass blades and rise from the ground in a clump. The roots are rhizomes, stolons or fibrous not bulbs. It puts up stalks with flowers of various sizes, shapes and colors, each usually lasting just one day, hence the name.  Garden daylilies can be a species or hybrid of species.  All of the species are native to Asia.

Hemerocallis fulva is the common orange daylily which has naturalized in many places in the US.  It is sterile and doesn’t make seeds. It’s often called a ditch lily.  There is also some confusion with this species being called “tiger” lily, which it should not be called.  The name tiger lily should be used for true lilies of the species Lilium tigrinum to avoid confusion.


In contrast to daylilies there are about a 100 species of true lilies, and they are native to many countries, including the US.  A true lily, genus Lilium has a bulb with overlapping scales as its “root”.  A single stalk comes from each bulb, with narrow leaves arranged around the stalk spirally or in whorls. Flowers form on short stalks at the top of the plant.


Besides daylilies other plants that have the common name lily in them are not true lilies. This includes lily of the valley, Peruvian lily, trout lily, calla lily and ginger lily plus others.  Remember true lilies have bulbs, and a central stalk. 

Some Asiatic hybrids
This large genus of Lilium has many species in cultivation and there are many hybrids between species also. I am going to just describe some common garden species and hybrids so you can guess which type of lily you have or decide which you want to have.  I’ll list them in common cultivar groups, each of which may contain many similar species and hybrids of species.

Asiatic lilies are a group consisting of several similar species and their hybrids Lilium auratum, Lilium lancifolium (syn. Lilium tigrinum), Lilium lankongenseLilium amabileLilium bulbiferum, and other species. This lily group consists of the common named tiger lily and a number of widely planted lily hybrids simply known as Asiatic hybrids.  Gorgeous and colorful these lilies have either flowers facing downward with petals curved backward or in the newer hybrids the flowers face outward or upward and the petals do not curve backward.

Many of the original species have flowers whose petals curve backward and the flowers are generally heavily flecked with brown or black. These are the “tiger lily” or “Turks cap” types and you might call them a subset of Asiatic lilies.  There are many cultivated hybrid varieties now on the market in a variety of colors, from orange to white. Most of the tiger lily types have tall stems – up to 5 feet.   They don’t have a scent.
 
Tiger lily

These tiger lily types often have tiny bulbils in the axils of the leaves instead of seeds.  The black, round bulbils often alarm new gardeners who think they are insects, but if planted these bulbils grow into new plants.  Some newer hybrids may not have bulbils. 

The lilies known simply as Asiatic hybrids are the lilies who have been bred to have large showy flowers that face up or to the side. They come from the same group of species as tiger lilies but were selected to have different flower forms by using species that naturally have up facing flowers. These are some of the easiest lilies for gardeners to grow and they come in every color and combination of colors except true blue. Some have speckled throats, some are “clear” colors.  The flowers appear in large clusters at the top of the plant.  They open up the bottom up and each flower stalk can be in bloom for weeks.  These lily flowers are not scented.

Asiatic lily hybrid

As well as being great in the garden, the Asiatic types are wonderful cut flowers and widely used in the floral trade.  These hybrids come in dwarf sizes, with large flowers on 1-foot plants and in various heights from there to 5 feet high.  Most modern hybrids are around 3 feet tall and have sturdy stalks that don’t need staking.  By choosing a variety of cultivars you can have Asiatic lilies in bloom from June through August.

One draw back to the Asiatic lilies, including tiger lily types, is that after bloom- and sometimes even during bloom, the lower leaves start yellowing and the plant looks ratty, a stalk with yellow limp leaves.  If you want nice big flowers the next year you need to leave the stalks until the leaves have fully yellowed and the stalk is turning brown before you cut them down.  That’s why it’s better to plant the lilies toward the back of beds or among plants like ferns, daylilies or other taller perennials to hide the dying foliage.

Asiatic lilies

Longiflorum lilies- Lilium Longiflorum – Easter lily- is really the only species in this group. These have white trumpet shaped blooms, there is one light pink cultivar on the market.  In zone 6 and above these can be planted in the ground.  Some hybrids with other lily species are being developed.

These lilies are a little harder to maintain as perennials in the garden.  In planting zones 5 and lower they can be planted in large pots and the pots stored inside in a cool, above freezing place over winter.  The plants will die back but the bulbs will regrow in spring.

 Lilium Longiflorum

Martagon type lilies are species and hybrids of Lilium dalhansoniiLilium hansoniiLilium martagonLilium medeoloides, and Lilium tsingtauense.  These lilies aren’t used as much as the other lily species in gardens although they are excellent border plants.  They have a lighter, airy look about them, and look good in “natural” settings.  They also do well in partial shade. 

These lilies have the dangling downward type flowers with swept back petals like the tiger lily types. The flowers are smaller and daintier and are generally in pastel shades. They appear at the end of long stems, growing to about 4-5 feet tall.  There are some very early bloomers in this group, I have some that bloom in May here in zone 5.  They are not fragrant.
Martagon type- 'Mrs R O Backhouse'

Oriental liliesLilium speciosum  Lilium japonicum and others. Lilium auratum, is used in hybrids of these species as well as in Asiatic hybrids.  These lilies have large trumpet shaped flowers and are usually heavily scented.  The flowers start in mid-summer and are born on long thick stalks that can be 7 feet tall in some cases.  Some of the flowers have speckled throats or bands of color inside.  The flowers start opening from the bottom and the show lasts a long time in the garden.
Oriental type - 'Casa Blanca"

There are now hundreds of hybrid cultivars of Oriental lilies in all kinds of colors.  Some now have more outward facing flowers. Orienpet lilies are newer garden favorites that are hybrids of Oriental and Trumpet lilies.  
 
Orienpet 'Silk Road"
Trumpet lilies - Lilium regale, Lilium henryiLilium × aurelianenseLilium brownii,  and other species make up this group. They have large trumpet shaped flowers that face down and are scented.  Most are pastel colors and are quite tall plants. The true species are often still sold and are good, hardy garden plants.  Some new hybrids are being sold as “lily trees”.  These have huge stalks of flowers after a few years in the garden and are very impressive.

Like other lily species the stalks can be unattractive after bloom and placing them among other tall plants like ostrich fern or large hosta (they will grow in partial shade) is a good idea. 
 
Trumpet lily
Native species – If you are a native plant gardener there are lily species for you.  Some are endangered so make sure to buy these natives from licensed nurseries.  Some are quite delicate, and their needs should be researched before you purchase them. You’ll need to find out which are native to your area or that will grow in your planting zone. 

These lilies generally have turks cap type flowers. Most have orange or red flowers, although there are some pinks.  Most are not scented.  While some are quite vigorous some of these species lilies need a bit of babying to establish.

Lilium michiganense,

North American species include Lilium bolanderi Lilium canadense, Lilium grayi, Lilium humboldtiiLilium kelleyanumLilium kelloggiiLilium maritimumLilium michauxiiLilium michiganenseLilium occidentale Lilium pardalinumLilium parryiLilium parvumLilium philadelphicumLilium pitkinenseLilium superbumLilium ollmeriLilium washingtonianum, and Lilium wigginsii.

I am not going to go very deeply into lily care here because of length.  Lilies are bought as bulbs, either dormant or as potted plants.  Dormant bulbs are available from a number of catalogs and are best bought and planted in the fall.  Plant them as soon as you get them for best results.  It can take several years for a lily to reach the large impressive sizes shown in catalogs, especially Oriental and Trumpet types but it’s worth the wait.

Orienpet hybrid

Potted lilies from a garden shop may be blooming out of season.  Plant them in the ground as soon as possible.  If you get florist lilies as a gift you can usually plant them in the garden and they will return next year. If it’s cold outside keep them in a sunny window until the soil has warmed up.  Easter lilies are only hardy to about zone 6.   These gift lilies won’t bloom again the same year and they will look like they are dying, this is normal.

Most lilies prefer full sun conditions and they need moderate moisture.  Make sure to research the requirements of different species/hybrids though.  All lilies are poisonous to pets, especially cats, but despite this deer are very fond of them, so take that into consideration when planting them.

There is a lily for every garden.  Lilies are some of the most beautiful and easy to grow flowers a gardener can choose so make sure your garden contains a few.

Pokeweed

Every year about this time gardeners begin asking about a large plant growing in their garden.  Hundreds of pictures of pokeweed will get posted to garden ID sites. Although you never planted it, pokeweed may appear in your garden because birds love the berries and distribute them widely.
 
Pokeweed
en.wikipedia
Pokeweed (Phytolacca Americana), is an interesting plant because it is both eaten and poisonous. It is a native American plant with both ornamental and useful qualities. It can be found both in gardens and along roadsides and in fields. Some other common names for the plant include Ink Plant, Pokeberry and American Cancer, (for reasons unknown).

When I was a child, we used to pick the berries and use them to color our faces and hands, pretending we were Indians.  This was not appreciated by my mother, especially if we got the berry juice on our clothes, which left a large stain.  If you want to dye something reddish purple pokeweed may be your plant.

Pokeweed becomes a large plant, up to 6 feet high, with thick, sturdy reddish stems. It is a perennial plant that dies to the ground each year and forms progressively larger clumps when it returns. The leaves are thick, long and oval in shape, larger at the base of the plant, and arranged alternately on the stems. New spring leaves have red veins and may be tinged with red. The plant has a big, thick taproot. The impressive size and color of the stems convince many gardeners to plant it for visual interest.

Poke begins blooming in July. The small greenish-white flowers are on long spikes at the top and sometimes on smaller side shoots of the plant. Each flower turns into a green berry that ripens to purple black. The juice of the pokeberries is a deep red. It will stain hands and clothing and was used by early settlers in place of ink. Birds love the berries and spread the seeds far and wide. The plants prefer rich soil and grow in full sun or partial shade.

All parts of the plant are considered poisonous. It is the thick succulent shoots of new leaves that are sometimes eaten and known as Poke Salad. These greens must be boiled in at least 2 changes of water to be safe. Berries are attractive and care should be taken that children don’t eat them.  A few deaths have been recorded from adults eating plant parts and at least one child has died from eating berries.  If a child eats even a few berries poison control should be called.  The berries are not safe when cooked, despite some claims.

Pigs have been known to die from eating poke plants and berries so keep the plants away from pets and livestock too.  However, deer must not eat them or can tolerate them, which is too bad. 
 
Pokeweed
USFS

Since the plant is a perennial cutting it down won’t help, it must be pulled or dug to dispose of it. You can safely pull pokeweed and dispose of it.  The poisons it contains can enter through the skin, but you would have to pull a lot of it to even get sick. I don’t recall getting sick, only spanked, when we smeared our bodies with it.  Use gloves and you’ll be fine. Some people might have an allergic skin reaction to it but it’s not like poison ivy.

Some people choose to leave the plant for the birds or for garden interest and that’s fine.  It is a native plant.  But if you have children, I would be very wary of keeping this plant in the garden.  We were warned not to eat it as children and we never did, but some kids aren’t deterred by warnings.


Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized. – Allan Armitage

Kim Willis

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