All summer filigree of lacy, fern-like foliage then in late summer -fall white domes, 8” across, each dome made of multiple balls atop purple-red stems.
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“Queen of umbellifers,” EA Bowles. All summer filigree of lacy, fern-like foliage then in late summer -fall white domes, 8” across, each dome made of multiple balls atop purple-red stems.
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In colder areas grow as annual
Spectacular basal foliage – arching, silvery, deeply incised leaves. Late summer-fall spiny buds open to rich purple feathery flowers.
Size: 3-4’ x 3-4’
Care: sun in moist well-drained to well-drained soil. Cut off flowers immediately after flowering to bring on new foliage, gorgeous into late fall.
Native: Southern Europe
The leaf stems, blanched, are also edible. Bridgemen, The Young Gardeners Assistant (1847)
Described by Linneaus 1753.
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In early spring, about the time Robins appear, spike-like panicles of white turn purple atop mounds of gray-blue blades
Size: 24”x16”
Care: sun to part shade in most any soil
Native: central and southern Italy
Collected before 1861.
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Purple-blue spikes bloom from early to late summer
Size: 4-6” x 8-12”
Care: sun, moist well-drained to well-drained soil
Native: Alps
Described in 1779 in Prosp. Hist. Pl. Dauphiné
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Large, nodding flower heads with recurved petals white, glowing pinkish in August, fragrant.
Size: 3-4’ x 12”
Care: Sun to part shade in moist, acidic soil
Lilium was named for the Greek word for smooth, polished referring to its leaves. This species introduced to Europe by Carl Peter von Thunberg around 1777. Von Thunberg (1743-1828), student of Linnaeus at Uppsala University in Sweden. He made three trips to the Cape of Good Hope 1772-1775 where he collected about 1000 new species, Java and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1777 and 15 months in Japan (1775-1777) where he befriended local doctors who gave him hundreds of plants new to Western horticulture. He succeeded Linnaeus as professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. Knighted by Swedish King Gustav. Grown at America’s 1st botanic garden, Elgin Botanic Garden 1811. L.H. Bailey (1935) highly recommended this lily as “(o)ne of the most beautiful and satisfactory of all lilies, robust, permanent (and) easily grown…”
