Thursdays favourite plant

Lilies

What could be more beautiful than a lily?








I have no idea what the first two are called as I bought the bulbs last autumn and forgot to label them but the third one is an Asiatic lily called black pearl. I have a thing for dark plants (that I'll take about at a later date) and a thing for pirates so that one really appealed to me. Black pearl hasn't really got any fragrance worth talking about but the other two smell heavenly. I grow lilies in pots on my courtyard, my kitchen door opens out to them and the smell drifts into the house (I can smell them right now mmmmmm). I'm still waiting on a couple more plants to flower a huge white one and a delicate pink one.

Lilies are really easy to grow they just need good drainage and if you plant them in autumn some frost protection. They should come back year after year and you can propagate more by carefully digging up the bulbs and replanting all the little baby bulbs you'll find around the edge of the mother bulb. You might have to wait a few years for the babies to fatten up enough to flower but they will be worth the wait.
Also watch out for the evil lily beetle that will eat the leaves and prevent flowering.