Blooming Tiger Lilies

August 2, 2024

My long and winding pergola is full of striking orange-colored tiger lily blooms.

This pergola, located on one side of a carriage road near my Tenant House, goes through several transformations during the year. In winter, the garden sleeps - tan colored burlap is what one sees along its border. In late spring, a palette of bold purple and white alliums covers the beds, followed by the shades of lavender and blue from the flowering clematis vines that wrap around each of the granite posts. Now, hundreds of brightly spotted tiger lilies line the garden bed for all to see - and they are thriving.

Enjoy these photos.

: Tiger lilies, Lilium lancifolium, bloom in mid to late summer, are easy to grow and come back year after year.

: Native to China and Japan, these robust flowers add striking beauty to any border. I love how they look with their bright and showy orange colored blooms.

: This is my pergola in late winter – the boxwood border is covered in protective burlap and the beds are covered in a new layer of mulch. Spring blooming bulbs are just beginning to poke through the soil.

: By late May, this pergola garden is filled with lots of blue and purple flowers. This palette of colors is a big favorite at the farm – it grows more colorful and vibrant every spring.

: The beds are filled with Camassia, alliums, Hyacinthoides or Spanish bluebells, and others.

: In late June, the blues and purples give way to bold green lily stems.

: And now the entire south side of the pergola is covered in bright orange.

: Tiger lilies are covered with black or deep crimson spots, giving the appearance of the skin of a tiger. They have large, down-facing flowers, each with six recurved petals. Many flowers can be up to five inches in diameter.

: The tiger lily’s petals bend back far during the flowering cycle, curling up against its own stem and exposing the stamens and pistol for visiting pollinators.

: Lilies are well-known for having heavily pollinated stamens, which stain. Here, it is easy to see those pollen-filled anthers. When cutting, always remove the anthers to prevent a clothing disaster – just pinch them off with gloved fingers.

: The blackish, round “seeds” that develop in the axils of the leaves along the main stem are called bulbils.

: There are also a few white lilies in this bed – adding more interest to the floral display.

: This lily is white and orange with bright orange stamens, which also stain.

: And there are still more lilies that have yet to open.

: Lilies can grow very tall – many are more than six-feet. Most lilies have strong wiry stems, but those with heavy flower heads often need support. Here’s Phurba wrapping the pergola section with jute twine.

: Bamboo stakes are hammered into the soil every few feet and then jute twine is looped around the top to give support to the tall lily stems.

: The twine is about three feet high supporting the middle of the lilies and just above the boxwood shrub border.

: The boxwood shrubs I grew from cuttings. They’ve developed and grown into nicely sized specimens. Buxus is a genus of at least 70-species in the family Buxaceae. There are more than 300 boxwood shrubs planted on both sides of the pergola.

: On the granite posts, there are a few lasting clematis flowers. I have grown many varieties of this wonderful plant. Most species are called clematis, but it has also been called traveller’s joy, virgin’s bower, leather flower, or vase vine.

: In this garden, I also have pops of daylilies. The daylily is a low-maintenance perennial—easy to grow, virtually disease- and pest-free, and able to survive drought, uneven sunlight, and poor soil. Despite the name, daylilies are not “true lilies.” Leaves grow from a crown and the flowers form on leafless stems called “scapes,” which rise above the foliage.

: On the back side of the pergola garden I planted lots of Russian Sage with its tall, airy, spike-like clusters of lavender-blue flowers above finely textured, aromatic foliage.