The City Gardener: Considering the lilies of the field

Article content

“Consider the lilies of the field; they toil not, neither do they spin…”

I hope it’s not blasphemous to say this, but I don’t agree with the Bible verse that says lilies contribute nothing of value to the world.

Recommended Videos

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

The City Gardener: Considering the lilies of the field Back to video

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

On the contrary, they are one of the most beautiful and trouble-free flowers you can grow: many varieties smell heavenly, and they come in a rainbow of colours, shapes, heights and bloom times. In terms of the sheer pleasure they offer to us gardeners, I think they earn their keep many times over.

True garden lilies, which grow from bulbs just like tulips or daffodils, loosely fall into three categories: Asiatics, which appear in late May or early June; trumpet lilies in June; and then Orientals, which reach their peak in early August.

There are also a number of oddballs – lilies have been a favourite with hybridizers literally for centuries, and new ones arrive every year. (Designer lilies like “Orienpets” are the horticultural equivalent of labradoodles.)

There are even a few lilies that are native to Canada: Canada or prairie lily, Turk’s cap lily, and wood lily. If you are lucky enough to come across one of these exquisite wildflowers on your next hike, enjoy it, take a picture and leave it be.

Wild lilies are almost impossible to transplant successfully, and like trilliums, they won’t grow back if you disturb them.

Theoretically, you can plant lily bulbs any time after the last frost in the spring.

Container-grown lilies can be planted all summer long, including Easter lilies – though be forewarned that they don’t always come back next year, depending on how they were forced into bloom by the grower originally. (Give your Easter lilies some bulb food, mulch them well, and cross your fingers.)

But most lily bulbs arrive in stores and from mail-order catalogues in early to mid-fall. Plant them as soon as possible after you get them; this will give them a chance to set down some roots and settle in before winter.

I like to dot them all over the garden, or in clumps of three to five. When in bloom they are real eye-catchers, bobbing their heads above the rest of the garden, and when flowering is finished, the bare stems (which you should leave to die down naturally; that’s how the bulb restores its energy for next year’s blooms) look less obvious in singles or small groups.

Lilies love full (or partial-to-full) sun; in shade, they will bloom the first year, but deteriorate quickly after that.

Dig a hole about four to six inches deep; if squirrels are a problem, you can go a little deeper. Toss a handful of bulb food or bone meal in the planting hole, position the bulb pointy side up, and cover lightly with soil.

Top with a generous helping of mulch; this will delay the first frost by a few days and give them a little extra time to grow roots for next year.

Some important advice: watch out for red lily beetles, a voracious invasive insect that only arrived in Canada within the last couple of decades. I can tell you from personal experience these little bright-red devils will reduce your precious lilies to sticks if you don’t fight back.

In spring, look for tidy lines of little red eggs on the undersides of lily leaves. If you spot any, carefully remove the infested leaves, place in a Ziploc bag, seal it up and throw it away.

During the growing season, inspect your lilies every day or two, and if you spot a lily beetle, zap it with soap spray. Finally, every so often through the fall, rough up the soil around the base of the lilies where they hibernate, exposing them to killing frost.

Please feel free to write in with questions (if I can’t answer you, I’ll find someone who can), to comment or to share your own city gardening adventures. Write to me at marthasgarden07@gmail.com.