Thursday, September 13, 2007

Lilies



A lady came into work today asking about a native lily and it turns out she is a lily afficianado. She grows them and sells the seeds and bulbs online. Here is her website. You should look at her online gallery of all the lilies native to the pacific northwest (the pics on this page are from the gallery). Amazing and very diverse. Besides buying over a dozen lilies from me, she told me a bit about how to grow them and gave me two free packets of native lily seed! It just happens to be the time to plant lily seeds and that these can go directly outdoors in pots (no greenhouse required) and will sprout this spring. Very kind. It's good too, because I've been trying to get into seed propagation. I've never sown seeds with confidence. But a few weeks ago I planted some Clintonia andrewsiana (Bead Lily, it would make a great houseplant) seed I collected from the forest, and now I have seed for...
Lilium rubescens (above) and Lilum washingtonianum spp. purpuratum (below)







I planted the seeds right when I got home. Two 1-gallon pots for each species (densly planted). They'll sprout in the spring (did I sound confident?), then a couple of years later they'll be large enough to flower.

3 comments:

lisa said...

Very cool....I wonder if any of those would survive in my zone 4? Thanks for the link!

Calypsogrower said...

I think you have a great attitude about natives! I have recently taken on Lilium rubescens to add another product to my Calypso orchid seed business. Please check out my website at http://calypsoorchid.com I also have a blog link from the website. We are definitely on the same wave length! Good luck with all you do! Calypsogrower

Gardener of La Mancha said...

Calypsogrower, I am amazed that anyone can get Calypso to grow from seed. I'm impressed. I was a bit nervous to see on your blog that L. rubescens is a a toughy. I am not an experienced seed grower. I'll just have to see what happens.