The Lilies Reign Supreme in Our August Garden

Summer is the peak blooming period in our little home garden. The flowers of various colors and kinds vie for the centerstage.

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In August, the prime players in our garden are the lilies, with the rest of the blooming plants serving as mere supporting cast.

We purposely want the lilies to outshine the rest of the flowers. Well, the lilies themselves need little help to outshine the rest of the blooms.

We plant lilies in little groups in the front garden to maximize their impact.

Lilies, by themselves, l are already show-offs.

They stand regally tall, from a foot to a staggering 5 feet, above the other blooms.

Their large flowers outshine the smaller flowers of other summer plants. Lily flowers are showy six-petalled blooms. Size does matter.

Their prominent stamens nicely complement colors of the large shiny petals. We have pink, orange, red, burgundy, even dark purple lilies, but the white "Casa Blanca" lilies are the most common ones in our front yard.

Lilies grow in shapes ranging from deep trumpets to open bowls and curved turban styles.

By dusk, the fragrance of the lilies makes their presence unmistakable.

The lilies, like most flowering plants, love the sun shining brightly but not so intensely as when some fluffy clouds filter the sunlight now and then. The lilies send their intoxicating perfume after a long sunny day, and such scent makes the early evening breeze more soothing and enjoyable, just a great ambience for an early evening walk in our neighborhood.

We grow a few stands of oriental, trumpet, tiger, and heirloom lilies. Different varieties bloom on different weeks from June to early August. A few varieties even survive till September. We grow different varieties since blooms peak for a short five- to ten-day streak only.

Lilies, unfortunately, are slow in getting themselves to bloom, sporting buds for weeks, yet very quick in fading away, especially after any rainfall that induces rust or flower decay.

More exposure to the sun hastens the blooming of most plants. In our garden, most of the lilies bloom during the last week of July through the first two weeks of August, depending on their variety or hybrid.

A few of the lilies are early-summer bloomers. The Asiatic varieties are first to bloom in June to July.

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For example, Asiatic lily ‘Lollypop’ blooms in early summer, and all that’s left of it are small green leaves, some already turning yellow, climbing up along the fat stalks.

The blackish purple Asiatic lily "Landini" and the deep red Asiatic lily "The Sphinx" have also shown their peak blooms in June.

Although Asiatic lilies are sturdier and easier to grow than other types of lilies, Asiatic lilies don’t exude a fragrance. They're more for your eyes only.

Of course, the Easter lilies, those iconic floral symbols of Easter Sunday, have long flowered during the Easter season in early April.

Easter lilies have large white blossoms and a very distinctive strong scent. Allergies and discerning personal scent aversions keep our Easter lilies outdoors. But on Easter Day itself, I‘d sneak in one flower indoors, contained in a vase high up on our mantle top, as a natural air freshener and to celebrate Easter Sunday. But I have to remove the stamen to reduce its very strong smell and avoid staining any fabric.

The Asiatic lily "Strawberry and Cream" is another stunning hybrid that blooms mid-to-late summer."

As a hybrid, "Strawberry and Cream" has large, fragrant star-shaped blooms with white petals accented by bold deep pink or crimson center stripes and speckles.

In July, the later-blooming varieties (the Orientals, the trumpets, the heritage varieties, the Tigers, and their hybrids) take over the center stage from the Asiatic lilies.

The white Oriental "Casa Blanca" exudes sweet scent, especially by late afternoon. It sends its pure white blooms and intoxicating scent in July.

The Orienpet hybrid (crosses between Oriental and Trumpet lilies) "Anastasia" sends its massive, fragrant flowers in July, too. It features rosy-pink centers that shade out to white-edged, recurved petals with dark speckles.

Other notable orienpet hybrids in our garden include:Scheherazade: A massive Orienpet hybrid producing vivid raspberry-red blooms edged in lemon on tall stem. 

An Orienpet carrying white and rose-throated funnel-shaped blossoms tinted with burgundy.

The Lilium speciosum (such as variegated "Rubrum") bloom in late summer and early fall. These wild species lilies also sport striking recurved pink and white blooms.

Then the stately giant trumpet "Pink Perfection" lilies show off their streaked deep rose funnel petals in mid August.

Many of the lilies in our garden are the "Stargazers." I grabbed a few bags (containing 18 bulbs each bag) from a wholesale store when the lilies were on sale.

The Stargazer Lily (Lilium oriental "Stargazer") is one of the world's most recognizable Oriental hybrid lilies. It's created by hybridizer Leslie Woodriff in the late 1970s, purposely to have its large, striking blooms face upward toward the sky — "gazing at the stars" — rather than drooping downward like older cultivars.

The "Stargazer" lilies are celebrated for their vibrant pink-and-red petals with white edges, dark freckles, and an intensely sweet, spicy fragrance.

I purposely plant the sweet-smelling lilies along our entrance pathway so that when we come towards our front door after a hard day at work, we get greeted by the relaxing and alluring fragrance from the lilies in bloom.

The fragrance is most pronounced after the day’s sunlight heats up the oils in the lily’s waxy petals and hairy stamens, then the drop in temperature at dusk condenses the essential oils, releasing the volatile fragrance.

I guess the intoxicating fragrance is how lilies entice pollinators.

To the lilies, this is a matter of survival and longevity of their species rather than a lovely reward for the gardener. But I’ll take this as my reward for growing these lilies.

My prized Martagon lily ‘Purple Turk’s Caps’ and Martagon lily ‘Red Turk’s Caps’, on the other hand, bloom in early June, a full two months ahead of most non-Asiatic lilies. They’re “prized” because I bought them at about five times the price of most other lilies.

Normally, I’m an extremely thrifty (translation: “cheap”) gardener, buying my stocks only when they go on sale, or obtaining them from private and garden club plant sales, and even much more preferred, getting them for free from generous neighbors.

In our front garden these Martagon (or Turk’s Caps) lilies have been irritatingly slow to establish and a bit fuzzy to grow in spite of the claims on the info sheet that came with the two bulbs I bought from the mail-to-order bulbs company based in the opposite side of the country. Curiosity and jealousy finally forced me to order those two sad-looking bulbs.

The flowers of the Martagon lilies are wonderfully numerous. It has over a dozen flowers on each stalk. But the flowers are sadly small. Most don’t manage to burst past a two-inch bubble, with disproportionately large, stubby stamens.

I can’t say Martagon lilies are aesthetically great. The petals are reflexed (turned backward) so tightly that they look like they touch each other behind the flower, looking like a Turkish turban. I guess that’s how they got their name.

We love our very tall lilies. We plant them at the back of the garden since these 6-feet or taller varieties can still be seen even with shorter plants in front of them.

The very tall varieties in our garden include the trumpet lily "African Queen" and "Golden Splendor." Just as tall are the oriental lilies "Pink Perfection."

Towering above the bed of heather and deep-red rose bushes at the corner of our front garden are the statuesque Tiger lily "Improved Orange" and the paler Tiger lily "Orange." I acquired these tiger lilies from a neighbor's plant sale.

These tall Tiger lilies have maroon dots speckled on their nodding pink-orange petals. They do make the flowers resemble those spots on the tigers.

Unlike Oriental and Trumpet lilies, Tiger lilies are not particularly known for their scent.

Former golf great Tiger Woods has a lily named after him. The Oriental lily "Tiger Woods" is a hybrid featuring large, highly fragrant star-shaped blooms. It grows 3 to 4 feet tall, displaying white petals accented by bold deep pink or crimson center stripes and dark speckles, blooming in mid-to-late summer.

Lilies have some downsides.

Lilies don’t last very long in vases once the blooms have fully opened. They usually don’t last as long as when they’re in the garden.

So our lilies remain in the garden.

And yes, the smell of lilies can be overpowering indoors. And to some people, including my wife, the smell of lilies is -– unfortunately –- associated with wakes and funeral homes. But I’d like to think of lily blooms in baby showers or bridal bouquets rather than in someone’s memorial arrangement.

Lilies, too, are actually poisonous and hyper-allergenic to certain people and pets. My wife tells me her friend’s cat needs a Visa card-draining vet’s visit after some lily pollen goes into the cat’s nostrils. She claims that another person reports her cat died after ingesting some of the lily’s shiny leaves.

Lily pollen can stain so badly that even bleach cannot completely lift the colors off, but simply fades the fabric. Florists normally snip off the stamen before adding lily blooms to an arrangement.

Yet, in spite of all the hazards that lilies pose, we will continue to grow lilies – outdoors, of course.

I consider the lily flowers ephemeral, delicately beautiful, and stately. Their fragrance is quite sensuously sweet. Lilies always lift my spirits. They bring smiles to my face.

I purposely overlook the downsides of lilies. I focus on the beauty that lilies truly are. They are Nature's beauty and perfume in their every bloom.