I went to HD last Sunday to buy some potting soil. It is really an excuse to see what kinds of bulbs/tubers/rhizomes/bareroot plants HD is carrying this year. I am specially looking for lilies.To my dismay, most Asiatics have sprouted. Some are 2 inches and some are longer. I did not check how long the sprouts are on Orientals and LOs. Just interested with Cmdr. In Chief but I decided not to buy it so I ended up buying a bag of Liatris Spicata instead.

I purchased those LO lilies last year. Good choice on that one. They are great looking flowers. The fragrance of Pink Heaven is out of this world. They did great to me and I am in Z5 too. Considering the size of the bulbs, 12-14 cm, I got 1-2 blooms/bulb and are planted very close to the foundation of the house with little sunlight and clay soil ammended with chopped up leaves.

Sorry for the gigantic pics.
lila

Wow, Lila, are we shopping in the same store?? I went through all the bags of Commander in Chief (and the bin was FULL), and picked the least sprouted. But as you said, most were sprouted 2 inches. I might have to pot them. Hate to do that, but if I have to, I will. That was the only asiatic I was interested in.

I found the manager and complained about the bulbs being kept in a warm place. Showed him the sprouting bulbs. In a store I used to go to they were kept in the vestibule where it was colder. He said new store policy, for all stores, now required the vestibule be kept empty of stock for emergencies. He said he hated it too, because of the waste, plus he knew by the time most people thought of buying them they would be too far gone. He told me to feel free to open any bag (even the stapled shut paper ones) to pick the ones least sprouted.

So with that encouragement I did open 3 paper bags of the Triumphator and Pink Heaven combo before choosing one. Not being asiatics, these were not as sprouted. I picked one that was only an inch. So I would think the orientals are probably ok. I didnt look at those, as I had everything they were offering. It's a bad sign when you are happy to find you have everything available.

Thanks so much for posting the Triumphator and Pink Heaven pics. They are much more subtle and lovely than the picture. My bag has the same picture, although it does not have as many bulbs. It looks like the center color zone on Triumphator does not have such a sharp edge as shown on the bag. I like yours better. Do you think it is because you planted them in a shady area, though? Perhaps full sun makes color develop to be more intense. I bought Silk Road a year ago and almost didnt get these new ones because I thought Triumphator looked too similar. But judging by your pictures they are really not.

Yes, I think we are shopping in the same store! Thank you for mentioning about HD's new store policy. That saved me a trip to one of the stores that I went to last year when I was bulb hunting. They stored the bulbs in a vestibule.

It was written in the packaging material that C in C is a product of USA compared to the other bulbs which all originated from Holland. Maybe they were from American Lilies.

I purchased C in C last year. Only one bloomed as it was purchased when HD had their half price off sale. The bloom does not resemble C in C. To me, the flower is LA type, I think it looks like Batistero. So, it is still on my wish list.

When Triumphator and Pink Heaven bloomed last year, I google searched for pics to compare them with. Some Triumphators' pics are like the one pictured in the bag and some are similar to mine. My theory is that the pic in the bag is color enhanced. On DG, some pics are more subtle like mine. I read it somewhere that when lilies are grown in shade, they produce deeper colored flowers. So I don't know, maybe it is because they are in their first year and in subsequent years as the bulbs mature, maybe Triumphator will have deeper heart. I hope some people who grew Triumphator for years will chime in. I will post some pics when they bloom this year.

I also have the lilies available at HD. So that is why I never checked the Oriental lilies. I have a few NOID Orientals already.

lila

Thanks for the additional info. Even if it is LA type, that still looks pretty to me. Mine are more likely to look like yours since they are both from HD. Tell me, since pictures on monitors are not always accurate, how would you describe the color? Is it a true red? Or more of a deep raspberry, like a blue-red? I have one garden where blue reds look best, but I actually bought this for another bed I call my "shocking" one: its where I plant hot color combos that dont play well with the more pastel combinations in my largest beds. Like orange and red and bright purple. I wanted a bright red for the hot bed, I also got a red dahlia.

The flower is really pretty. Its color is deep raspberry red, just like you said. Maybe this year it is true to name.

Your garden must really look nice. I can visualize it from your description. Mine is mismatched. I don't have a theme or design, I am more like a collector of plants. Although I started one section of my garden a white and pink theme, last fall when I can't find the right spot for Original Love and Chambertin, I planted them in that section.
I dug my photo file and here is how the package pic look like:

Thanks for the additional pictures. After reading your post last night I googled the name and most of what I found did look different from yours. Almost everything has a darker zone in the center of the petal : which I think would look really nice, if this does have it. One wholesale site listed it as "brick red" (!). Neither the picture on my bag, or yours, leads me to think it might be brick red. The bag my C of C came in is not the same as yours. Mine says Product of USA and Van Vyderzen as the grower. The Triumphator and Pink Heaven are in the white bag, just like you have, marked Product of Holland. (I thought I was the only one that saved the bags! I cut off the picture with any info and save it.)

I might just have to plant half in each site, assuming I will have to move the other half later. Deep raspberry would still be ok, as I have no asiatics that color either. Loads of later blooming things in orientals, nothing early. It would just change where I put them.

I dont know that my garden is that organized: Im always trying to shoe horn things in. Just that my main, largest garden has a lot of soft colors. It just evolved that way. When I later bought other things that were unlabelled or mislabeled and found they were orange or bright yellow, I had to move them when they just didnt go. Thats how my "hot" bed got started. I did not want to throw away things that were great plants. I have tried several times to get a soft creamy yellow asiatic. What I got was one like yellow Gatorade: almost fluorescent screaming yellow. Great bloomer, but, ouch, it hurt my eyes. So the hot bed started with that, plus moving in an orange pixie, then Monte Negro which is red but with an orange cast, more like dark rust color. Bought Lily Red Dutch, which is yellow and red. The rabbits ate them to the ground before they were 8 inches tall so I have not seen them bloom (hope they lived). I added red lobelia cardinalis and some other perennials. My pictures are on a different computer; if I can find them Ill post some.

The second picture is yours? I really like the color on that one. Looks rich. It does not have a pink cast in that shot.

Now I have to figure out what to do with the sprouted lilies. Im afraid Ill have to pot. I dont know where to put them after I pot them, though.

Yes, the second pic is mine. Those were the last flowers in my garden last fall.

Sorry I did not mention that Chambertin is a Red Oriental and Original Love is a red LA. I really don't have that much perennials in my lily bed. I dug all the daylilies from that bed and traded them last year to give way to my lilies. I have a large hosta bed and this is where these BB store and on-line store bought lilies will be planted this spring.