- Type: Lilac
- Flowering Period: May, June, July, August, September, October
- Height: 20-250cm
- Color: white, yellow, orange, red, spotted, two-pointed
- Perennial
- Winters
- Sun loving
- Loving
Lily is an amazingly beautiful flower with a pleasant aroma that has been revered in many cultures. The Greeks attributed to her a divine origin, believing that the lily grew from the milk of Juno - the mother of the gods. And in the literal translation from Greek, “li-li” sounds like “white-white.” The Romans revered her as the main flower at the festivities glorifying the spring goddess Flora. Christians and Jews adorn their sacred altars with it, considering the lily a symbol of purity. This flower can be found on the arms of the noble families of different countries. Today, lilies adorn many parks and suburban areas, serving as a bright accent in any flower garden. One of the prerequisites for the lush flowering of these marvelous plants is the correct planting of lilies and care for them.
The main groups and popular varieties of lilies
According to the international classification, these beautiful flowering perennial bulbous plants are divided into 9 groups:
- Asian - include 5 thousand varieties. They are characterized by unpretentiousness and winter hardiness, the flowers do not smell.
- Curly - count 200 grades. The name was given due to inflorescences resembling a candlestick with drooping heads.
- Snow white - include 30 varieties. They have a wonderful aroma and may have a pale yellow color. Very moody.
- American - have 140 varieties. Flowers are very original in bright exotic colors, often decorated with two-tone black specks. Pretty picky.
- Long flowered - have an elongated bud shape with a direction to the side or down, extremely fragrant. In horticultural conditions, they often suffer from viral diseases, are grown more as greenhouse crops.
- Tubular - have the characteristic shape of a flower resembling an elongated gramophone, collected from dense wax petals. Moody, need shelter for the winter.
- Oriental (Eastern) - A large group has 1300 varieties. Moody, demanding heat, often affected by disease.
- Interspecific hybrids - combine the best qualities of individual groups. Extremely beautiful and exotic. Among the varieties obtained as a result of crossing, the most popular are LA hybrids, OT hybrids, and LO hybrids with large flowers up to 25 cm in diameter for distillation.
- Natural species - play a key role in creating new varieties.
Under natural conditions, these herbaceous plants are ubiquitous in the temperate latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere: in the Mediterranean, southeastern central America, Japan, and China. The greatest distribution in the middle latitudes were Asian lily hybrids.
Lilies are one of the most beautiful representatives of the genus bulbous. They belong to the family of daylilies and are relatives of onions, grouse, tulips
Asians come from natural species of Siberian lilies, such as Daurskaya and Tigrovaya, and therefore are most winter-hardy and adapted to not so favorable climatic conditions. The remaining groups of lilies, such as oriental, tubular or curly, require more careful care.
Among Asian hybrids, the most decorative are the varieties:
- "Marlene" - petals of a soft pink shade. It is famous for abundant flowering.
- "Landini" - a spectacular maroon beauty more than a meter high.
- "Aphrodite" - a terry flower with pink petals.
Of the old and time-tested varieties, it is also worth highlighting: "Inception" with flowers of a rich red-orange hue, "Destin" with delicate petals of lemon-yellow color, "Peprike" with bright red flowers.
Reliable representatives of the Orientali group can be considered: "Mona Liza" with elegant delicate pink flowers, "Tiber" with flowers of a lilac hue framed by a white border, the snow-white beauty "Siberia"
Selection of planting material
When choosing planting material, it is important to take into account the climatic features of the area, since not all lilies can tolerate temperature fluctuations painlessly.
When purchasing planting material, carefully inspect the bulb: are there spots or traces of rot on it. These signs indicate damage to the plant diseases. The bulb should be evenly colored, the flakes fit snugly against each other.
Labeling will help determine the varietal affiliation of the plant:
- The first Roman numeral denotes a group of lilies;
- The second digit indicates the position of the flower ("a" - up, "b" - to the side, "c" - down);
- The letter through the fraction denotes the shape of the flower ("a" is tubular, "b" is cupped, "c" is flat, and "d" is chalmoid).
Before planting, it is best to store the bulbs in a cool place, sprinkling with sand, sawdust or wet moss. Some fit the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for these purposes.
For spring planting, choose bulbs on which sprouts have already hatched and short white roots have grown
In the case when the bulb begins to germinate ahead of time, it is advisable to plant it in a flower pot, leaving it in a warm room. It is worth replanting in open ground after frosts.
Choosing a landing place
When planning where to place an exotic beauty on the site, you should focus on her group affiliation. Tubular, Asian and eastern lines show the greatest decorativeness only in well-lit areas.
They feel comfortable in the penumbra of the lily, in which the subordinate roots are located on the underground part of the stem. These include varieties of curly lilies. It is desirable to place them so that the basal part is obscured, and the inflorescence is illuminated by sunlight.
Lily is a heat-loving plant that prefers well-lit areas, reliably covered with a "screen" of green foliage from gusts of wind
Lilies with large flowers look spectacular in solo performance. When planting small-flowered lilies to obtain an expressive aesthetic effect, it is better to form small groups, placing them at a distance of 10-15 cm from each other. Against the background of succulent foliage of other perennials, bright graceful flowers will stand out favorably, creating a magnificent picture.
For planting flowers, sites located on a small elevation are ideal. This helps prevent stagnation of rainwater, which often causes damage to plants by pathogens. Wet soils are fatal for picky beauties. It is possible to improve conditions on clay and heavy loamy soils by arranging drainage. To do this, lay ditches, placing them at a slight slope. The bottom of the ditches is lined with a layer of crushed brick or small gravel, sprinkled with river sand and covered with soil.
So that the soil near the basal area of the flower is in the shade and does not overheat under sunlight, in the immediate vicinity it is better to plant daylilies, bells and hosts. Their spreading foliage will cover the surface of the earth, creating optimal conditions for the development of picky beauties.
Proper soil preparation
Proper soil is 80% success in growing lilies. Regardless of the onion group, they all prefer to grow on rich soils.
On peat enriched and well-drained soils, varieties of the American group and eastern hybrids develop well
The best fertilizer for lilies is considered humus. But it should be taken with caution: with an excess of nutrition, plants begin to "fatten". This provokes their slowdown, a decrease in disease resistance and a decrease in frost resistance. The optimal ratio of introduced humus is 7-8 kg per 1 sq.m.
The introduction of slightly decomposed manure containing pathogenic microflora with pathogenic plants can be detrimental to plants.
The soil under these flowering herbaceous plants must contain a sufficient amount of nutrients, because in one place a plant can live from 3 to 5 years. When digging the soil, it is seasoned with mineral fertilizers, which include nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. They are made at the rate of 100 grams per meter of area.
Since the roots of the plants go quite deeply, they dig up the soil before planting, digging 30-40 cm deep. To drain heavy clay soil, sand is added to it
Most representatives of the daylily family do not tolerate acidic soils, preferring slightly alkaline and slightly acidic soil compositions. On acidic well-drained soil, only varieties of the eastern group feel comfortable. Asians and LA hybrids are more fond of neutral and humus soils, and tubular lilies are most decorative on poor, slightly alkaline soil with admixtures of ash and sand.
To help reduce soil acidity:
- Wood ash - it is made at the rate of 150-200 g per 1 sq.m;
- Chalk - make during digging per square meter of 300-500 gr.
Planting Material Processing
Bulbs are inspected before planting, discarding diseased specimens: they remove damaged tissue, cut off rotted scales and dead roots.
The examined material is washed under pressure for 20-30 minutes. Then, in order to prevent the development of fungal diseases, they are first kept in a potassium permanganate solution prepared in a proportion of 5 g per 10 liters of water, and then in the solution of the drug foundationazole. If necessary, they can be etched in an insecticidal solution based on chlorophos and one percent phosphamide.
The root system of these plants dries quickly enough. Therefore, after soaking, there is no need to dry them
Choose a planting time
The optimal planting time is after the plants bloom. This is the period from late summer to mid-autumn. In the case of the acquisition of bulbs in early spring, planting can be done as soon as the soil thaws and dries. Belated spring planting is risky because young shoots can be damaged.
Spring planting is more suitable for late-flowering varieties, the bulbs of which are slowly forming. They include LO hybrids and varieties of the eastern group: Rio Negro, White Haven, Rialto, Marco Polo.
When planting plants, it is worthwhile to be guided by the rule that large bulbs with a diameter of 8-12 cm are planted to a depth of 25 cm, and small ones to a depth three times the size of the bulb itself
The only exceptions are Chalcedony, Snow-white and Testaceum. They form a subsoil rosette of leaves, and therefore the soil layer above them should not exceed 2-3 cm.
Planting bulbs in heavy soil types, the bottom of the planting pits is covered with a 5 cm layer of sand. To protect them from voles, wire mesh is laid on the inner walls of the landing pit.
The onion is laid out at the bottom of the pit, setting on an improvised sand "pillow", and the roots are straightened. They can not be wringed and bent up. The landing site is marked with a peg and sprinkled with earth, slightly tamping. The hole is abundantly watered with settling water and covered with mulch from the bark.
Lilies are very sensitive to drying out roots. So that the bulbs do not wind up while the hole is being prepared, it is better to wrap them in a wet towel or hide in a box with wet peat. Tender young sprouts are afraid of temperature extremes
To protect young shoots, the planted bulbs are covered with plastic bottles with carved bottoms. For this purpose, it is better to use bottles with wide walls with a volume of 2-3 liters.
Subtleties in the care of an exotic beauty
How to care for lilies? To minimize the care of these flowering plants, a number of recommendations must be followed:
- During the season, feed plants with complex fertilizers and ash at the rate of 50 grams per square meter. Top dressing is carried out in three stages: in early spring, at the stage of bud formation and after flowering. Suitable for spring root dressing: ammonium nitrate (40 g per 10 l), nitroammophosphate (50 g per 10 l), a solution of fermented mullein in a proportion of 1:10.
- Provide timely watering. Although the lily does not like excessive moisture, especially dry days require frequent watering. Watering under the root, trying not to moisten the leaves. Drops of water accidentally caught can serve as original lenses, causing a sunburn.
- Mulching the soil. It is very harmful to bulb plants and soil overheating, which disrupts the flow of biological processes. This can be prevented by mulching the soil with natural materials of light shades (mowed grass, straw, sawdust).
- Pest control. Dangerous for the aerial parts of plants are the watermelon beetle and watermelon fly. You can get rid of pests by collecting larvae by hand and spraying the stems with preparations such as "Thunder", "Grizzly", "Fly-eater".
- Garter stems. High varieties with thin stems must be tied to supports, thereby preventing their breaking and lodging.
- So that wilted inflorescences after flowering do not spoil the picture, they should be removed in a timely manner. Peduncles removed at the end of the season.
- After the growing season, the stems of the plants need to be cut and burned so that in winter they do not serve as a conductor of cold to the bulb.
- For the winter, it is advisable to cover garden lilies with sheet soil, sawdust or coniferous spruce branches. Only Asian and LA hybrids do not need shelter.
Lilies are planted, separating daughter bulbs, every three years one and a half months after flowering. By this period, they have increased mass and gained the greatest strength.
Lilies are planted, separating daughter bulbs, every three years one and a half months after flowering. By this period, they have increased mass and gained the greatest strength
Slowly growing varieties of Caucasian origin are best planted only after 5-6 years. Asian varieties can be transplanted even in summer. The main thing is to dig plants with garden pitchforks along with a lump of earth, preserving the root system.
When transplanting bulbs, the children are carefully separated from the stem and planted in seedling beds for growing. Immediately after planting, they are sprinkled with compost or dung humus, forming a layer 3-4 cm thick. Of these, full-fledged bulbs will form in the second or third year.
Daylily - lily for the lazy
No wonder breeders called these unpretentious and disease-resistant perennials "lilies for the lazy." And the assertion that the more beautiful the flower, the more capricious it is, is not applicable to this plant. Daylily grows well in any garden soil, feeling comfortable both in bright sun and partial shade.
Their closest "relatives" - daylilies - are not inferior in beauty to garden lilies, but unlike fastidious beauties, they are very easy to care for.
Planting and caring for daylilies takes a minimum of time and effort. And the plant begins to delight with flowering in the first year of planting. These perennials prefer neutral or slightly acidic soil. They are able to grow on depleted soils, but they show the greatest decorative effect on loose loam rich in organic matter. They are tolerant of infrequent watering, but, like lilies, do not tolerate stagnation of water.
Going well with ornamental herbs and flowering annuals, they perfectly mask the slow care of spring-flowering bulbous
Daylilies can become a bright decoration of any flower garden.With the right selection of species having a different period of flowering, daylily blooms will not be difficult to stretch for the whole season.
