Staking the Lilies in My Summer House Garden
My gardens are filled with hundreds of lilies - some already showing off their striking blooms, while others are just days from opening.
Around my farm, I have many, many lilies. I always plant the most interesting flower varieties I can find - through trusted growers and from various nurseries I visit around the world. Lilies can grow very tall - many are more than six-feet. Most lilies have strong wiry stems, but those with heavy flower heads often need staking. In order to keep them looking their best, we use bamboo uprights and twine to give them added support.
Here are photos of the lilies in my Summer House garden - enjoy.
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- These lilies line both sides of the center stone footpath. Some are already blooming in lovely shades of yellow, cream and white.
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- These lilies have stronger stems than some of the other lilies in my gardens. They also aren’t as tall, so they don’t need individual staking, but we did add a bit of twine along the entire row to provide gentle support.
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- Chhiring placed a bamboo cane every two feet along each aisle and then one at each end.
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- And then carefully and gently secured the twine around the stems – just enough to support them but not crush them.
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- Here, the twine is carefully wrapped around the center bamboo upright.
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- The twine will keep these stems standing straight through the season. When I first planted this garden, I chose four lilies – the bulbs of Anastasia, Casa Blanca, Regale Album, and Conca Dor.
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- This is Orienpet lily ‘Conca Dor’. It is lemon-yellow with paler cream-yellow petal margins and a delicate, three-cornered green center.
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- This is a Chinese trumpet lily ‘Regale Album’. The inside of this flower is white with a pronounced yellow center while the outside is pure white.
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- Oriental lily ‘Casa Blanca’ is the most spectacular white. It has huge, white flowers that are richly fragrant and outward facing.
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- Orienpet lily ‘Anastasia’ has huge glistening white flowers with slightly recurved tips and deep rose-pink brush marks overlaid with a paler pink flush, dark rose speckles and a three-cornered white and lime-green center. These flowers top very tall stems.
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- Next, Chhiring tended to the thinner, more fragile lily stems. Some of the flowers are still waiting to bloom – they will all look so beautiful when fully open.
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- Chhiring uses the same bamboo uprights cut to about four feet and hammers them into the ground several inches deep.
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- Using natural jute twine, Chhiring gently secures the stem to the bamboo – always in figure-eights to protect the stems from being crushed. Chhiring does this for every lily in the bed.
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- The twine keeps the lilies straight and tall, and protects the stems from breaking.
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- Lily flowers have six tepals each. The tepals are free from each other, and bear a nectary at the base of each bloom.
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- Lilies prefer a porous, loamy soil, and good drainage.
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- Pollen is an important part of a lily’s anatomy, but it is notorious for staining flesh and fabric. Also, if the pollen gets on the flower petals, it can eat away at these delicate flower parts, leading to a shorter life for the blooms. If using them as cut flowers, gently pull the anthers off as soon as the flowers open.
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- Here is a view looking toward the Summer House terrace and door.
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- The agaves and Helichrysum petiolare look so healthy in these Lunaform containers. We’ve had a lot of rain these last couple of weeks, so they’ve also grown in quite a bit.
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- My hostas are also looking very lush in this garden. Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name giboshi. Hostas are widely cultivated as shade-tolerant foliage plants.
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- I have both English and American boxwood in this garden, This shapely English boxwood is the more sensitive of the two and gets carefully wrapped with burlap every winter.
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- The entire garden is surrounded by a hedge of American boxwood. These hardy, tall boxwood are covered in netting during winter to protect it from splaying.
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- And here are four of my gorgeous Friesians just outside the Summer House garden in the nearby paddock. The masks protect them from the flies. The skies are darkening – more rain is on the way. As time progresses, I will share more photos of the unique and stunning lilies around the farm.
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