Hi Amoc, Lilium Speciosum, one of the species "parent's" of Oriental hybrids is just about the latest blooming lily that's also winter hardy. My Stargazer have been done for a while for me now (they bloom mid-July for me), my Scheherazade are just finished, my Black Beauty are very close to finished, yet my Speciosum have not even opened yet - though they look like they will start soon. Black Beauty, like many of the late lilies is a Speciosum cross (L. speciosum var. rubrum x L. henryi). Journey's End (AKA Summer's End) blooms late and it was my understanding that it is the latest Oriental hybrid (I don't have this lily). Not surprisingly its also a Speciosum cross, ('Phillipa' x L. speciosum 'Gilrey' cross). However, The Lily Garden has some Oriental's they note bloom in mid-late August. They have a bloom time chart on their website. But use it with a "grain of salt". Horticultural zones are defined by how cold winter gets (NOT how hot summer gets). My experience is that with Maryland's hot summers my lilies bloom earlier here than in Northwest areas with the same zone. Use the chart as a *relative* bloomtime guide, and then it's pretty accurate. The very latest lily I've found is the species lily, Lilium Formosanum. (If anyone knows of any later lily please send it in!) However, because it blooms late and naturally has a small bulb, it's not generally winter hardy in the colder zones (much lower than 6-7). You could try it in zone 5 if you found a warm sunny spot for it. The problem isn't that the bulb can't handle winter freezes, but that it doesn't have time to build back up after being depleted by blooming before it goes dormant in the Fall (stopping photosynthesis). The safest bet for you is probably Speciosum, it has a number of varieties, "Rubrum" (colored like Stargazer) and "Album" which is white. "Uchida" is a superior selection of "Rubrum". In addition, this lily is more shade tlerant than most and is a real butterfly magnet! These three varieties are all readily available both from inexpensive suppliers, (Van Engelen - John Scheepers) and the moderate (Brent and Becky's, The Lily Pad). More unusual varieties like "gloriosides" can also be found if you look around the web a bit. -Helen Here is a link that might be useful: Bloom Time Chart

The flowers have powerful sweet spicy nocturnal fragrance. With a slight early summer breeze you can smell even one flower 30' away. And it sends you searching to track the source and bask there. My goal is to get a nice stand of them going like these folks posted on the internet. Notice the flower stalk stem diameter height differences? It's a massive nutrient feeder and pushing light just to the edge can help bump up the size too. Internet photo showing full 14' potential of the C. giganteum v giganteum variety. <click photo below to grow lily> The above photo is also massively informative. This is a full sun location! By the shadow on the base leaves ir looks like they planted it on the north side of a scrub to give it morning sun but to shade the base leaves in rhe afternoon and early evening. The smaller upper leaves must be more sun tolerant and collect extra energy to support taller flower atem growth. Bet the would have gotten only 9-10' feet from it in a fully afternoon shaded northwall of a house. In a hotter summer this open sun to top location would likely burn the leaves. In our former house we had a v yunnanese between two 5' hydrangea on the northside of large evergreen trees. When flowering a few of the upper leaves were in a brighter location. But there was not enough sun here to reach full size potential. It was 9' instead of 12'. When we moved to a sunny yard last year in February we had tubbed the above v yunnanese in mid winter. And one of the offshoot bulbs from the spend mother bulbs bloomed on the northside of our shed that June! More sun here gave us fuller flowers with better shape, and more of them. We'll be working it into the landcape project in the next couple weeks. There are again offshoot bulbs from the spent mother bulb. In the tubbed plant shoots are growing now again in February. And there are with two pineapple sized bulbs looking ready to bloom this year. If it does bloom, we will have gotten the initial bulb to make a clump blooming three years in a row! It takes 5-7 years to bloom from seed, However, it looks like nearly yearly blooming might be possible from a well managed clump if fed heavily enough. When you have a pineapple sized mother bulb it sits at the surface exposed a bit. Then here in the first.week of February the top leaf scales of the bulb open out and a 12" new bud starts opening new leaves. You'll be running outside each morning to see what it does next. Note the little pellets on the ground. Heavier than average 10-10-10 pelleted slow release fertlizer (bluish color) and mammal/bird safe slug bait (cream color) are key at this growth stage! I found a rare internet photo of v yunnanese being studied in the native China Yunnan provience Chinese habitat. Looks Tropical Sub Alpine in zone and the plant can obviously be smaller in stature (6'?). This one however has drop dead amazing flowers! From my experience it has little on no fragrance until dusk triggers it. Otherwise their eyes might have looked very surprized and jaws been dropped. It'd be worth collecting seed to select more cold tolerant superior flowered varieties for horticulture. Not sure if the flowers work well as a cut flower. I love seeing them above my head and collecting the amazing seed capsule stem for dried flower arrangements. Internet photos ... they have a dramatic 'little shop of horrors' movie devious plant look. I'd grow the Giant Himalayan Lily just for the seed capsule decorative feature alone! The candelabra shaped array looks great when cut to about 3' tall. There's absolutely nothing subtle about this dramatically engaging species!

Well, cynic, that marks you as a Minnesotan! My favorites are Indian, Greek, Middle East, or Thai. Anything but the native meat-and-potatoes German/Midwestern cusine I grew up with! Luckily we now have some good ethnic restaurants in the Twin Cities. My least favorite is Korean--just can't get into the spices they use (and despise kim chee). This has been somewhat problematic for me since a good friend of mine is Korean and invites us for many dinner parties. . .

Verbena bonariensis pops up all over my garden, too. I love those little purple flower-clusters, and goldfinches love the seeds! Another of my garden favorites is Zebrina Hollyhock. It isn't a hollyhock at all; instead, it is a mallow, Malva sylvestris. Like the Verbena bonariensis, Zebrina has a long season of bloom. In addition, it attracts plenty of pollinators, and I recently learned that the leaves and flowers are edible.