Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Wednesday Flowers - Lilies

Today is the first day of summer here in upstate New York.  With that, I have to change the name of my Wednesday feature. Goodbye to "Spring Things" until next year.

Last year, I spent the summer posting wildflower pictures, as I sought to learn more about them.  It was fun, and I learned a lot.  But the world of flowers also includes domestic varieties.

This summer, I am going to expand my Wednesday feature to include flowers of all types.  A lot of the photos will probably be taken during exercise walks on the West Side of Binghamton.  Others will be from my small perennial garden in Westover, near Johnson City, New York.  I will also feature wildflowers and flowers from my travels.

Lilies have taken center stage on the West Side of Binghamton, both daylillies and Asiatic lilies (and Asiatic hybrids.).  I took what may be my last outdoor walk for a couple of days.  Temperatures in the next couple of days will probably be in the 90's. 

What I love the most about lilies is the great variety of colors they come in.  Here are red lilies in a planter.
These are orange day lilies, a variety looking a lot like what many people call "tiger lilies".

Yellow lilies are one of the more popular colors.

There are some beautiful hybrids out there.  This particular variety, "Tiny Sensation" is a small Asiatic lily we bought this year for our front yard (right now residing next to a container of cucumber plants).

One thing I really like about the Asiatics is that they are almost fragrance free.  Believe it or not, I find the scent of certain lilies, especially some that are sold as potted plants for gift giving (Oriental lillies?) quite objectionable.  Other people have allergic reactions.

I've joked at times about it being a pity that there is no such thing as smell-o-blog.  Perhaps, at least for those of us who have allergies, lack of smell-o-blog is a good thing after all.  But, I'm curious to know if any other of my readers think certain lilies have an objectionable scent, or if they are allergic to them.

Still, despite these drawbacks - I love lilies.  What flowers (if it is summer where you live) are blooming where you live?




4 comments:

  1. Our last daylily will bloom today in E. Texas - getting mighty hot for them.

    In Tampa, I was surprised to see red spider lilies blooming last week in neighbors' gardens - in E. Texas, they don't spring up, leafless, from the ground until early October! When my kids were small, they called them "Yamboree lilies" after an area festival that started just as the first blooms did.

    **Katy M
    Recommending YA books beyond the bestsellers at
    http://BooksYALove.blogspot.com
    Follow me on Twitter @BooksYALove

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those are my favorites, too :) I love them all. I had a neighbor in TN who cross bred them. He developed a solid white one. Beautiful. WRITE ON!

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  3. To answer your question about what is blooming now:

    My Oriental lilies are starting to bloom just now. I'm very happy that the deer have left them alone for the second year in a row!

    Also, we are in the heart of wild daisy season here. I wrote about them the other day.

    The astilbe are at their peak now too.

    I imagine it's about the same as where you are. I think you know I'm near Scranton, PA.

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