Hi Rick: I buy from 3 suppliers: Vesey's (PEI) has a fairly good selection - nothing unusual but well priced and guaranteed Breck's Canada - large variety - from Holland and a little more expensive The Lily Garden (Vancouver) - a very large selection and a bit more expensive; guaranteed and reliable These all have online catalogues and some will send you a paper catalogue if requested. Occasionally I pick up a few packages of 'sales' items from Canadian Tire. For example, a 5-pack of Orientals (Dizzy) bought this spring, started indoors, blooming now. If you know how to verify the condition of the bulbs through the packaging, you can pick up a number of deals. Hope this helps.

Helen, I wasn't meaning to dig them up now but one poster suggested digging them up in the fall, dividing them and putting them 10" deep. I only meant if I had done something drastically wrong would I even consider digging them up. That was a lot of work for me. Intuitively, I buried them about 6" like the directions said, but some had sprouted so much that I left all the sprout above the ground and made sure the bulb was well covered. Some of the sprouts were about 6 inches long already and terribly crooked, almost doubled back. One had two. I suppose I could have split that one but didn't want to risk it because this is my first try with lilies. I'm inclined to just let them grow as they are for a couple years, then reassess the situation. Just got finished spraying with Liquid Fence all around the little plot. My was that stuff expensive. Smelled bad but not as bad as I thought. How those kinky stems are going to straighten (and turn green, they're white now) is beyond me. If they are a mess this year, maybe they will die back for the winter and grow more normally next year if I'm lucky and don't lose them. Haven't had evidence of moles for years but see it all the time in the park a block away, don't know if we have voles. Liquid Fence would be ineffective for them. The lilies are close to the house foundation (out just a little bit), so that might help with that potential problem. Thanks much for your helpful post. I'm having trouble keeping track of my threads here. If I do a self search, it doesn't pick most of them up, so I just have to try to remember where I posted. If I start a thread, I check the notify me email now but it doesn't work if you tack a comment onto an existing thread. I almost missed your reply.

Hi drcntyaah, Different types of lilies may have very different leaf patterns. They also have different bloom carriage, as well as bloom shape, time, and fragrance. All lily leaves are relatively long and slender (compared to other plants). While the leaf patterns of Asiatics, Orientals, Longiflorum, and Trumpets, are similiar (all along the stem), Asiatics and Trumpets tend to have a larger number of skinnier leaves than Longiflorums and Orientals. Some of them (such as my Davidii) look down right "Dr. Seuss like" especially early on - like they have "tufts". Asiatics also have a distinctive bloom carriage. The stems of each bloom curve upward radiating from the same point like an upside down umbrella, called an "Umbel". By constrast, Orientals have bloom stems that come off the main stalk at different points near the top. From each of these will come a bud (or more if it has secondary buds) and a leaf (in addition to those along the main stem). Martagon, along with many North American species, has whorls of leaves collared around the stem at several points. Martagons bloom has a "turk's cap" shape. "Turk's cap" is a common name used most frequently for two species, Martagon and Superbum (AKA "American Turk's Cap"), but more properly it is a phrase referring to any downward facing highly recurved bloom shape that many lilies across many divisions have, (including some Asiatics and Orientals though NOT Trumpets or Longiflorum). Of course, the most obvious way to tell them apart is that they bloom at very different times of year, generally going Asiatic, Longiflorum, Trumpet, Oriental. Though with individual varieties there is plenty of overlap (Regale is a very early Trumpet and Mona Lisa a very early Oriental). Also, most Asiatic hybrids do not have a fragrance - though Lankongense hybrids will have a mild sweet fragrance. Longiflorum has a moderate Tropical/fruity scent, Orientals a strong spicy scent, and Trumpets have the strongest scent of all, rather overpowering if brought indoors but beautiful in the garden. -Helen

I planted a few oriental lilies the fall before last and got very good results. I used the varietal Josephine that I got as bulbs via a catalog order and also some called Maru that I got as freebies from a friend that bought the potted and already blooming kind at Lowes [and was letting them die in their pots so he gave them to me]. Anyway... I planted them in the front bed with ammendments and bonemeal because the soil is clayish. I left the bedraggled stems on the ones already growing stand so they could capture what little energy they could on their few leftover leaves. Last year all of them came up and were extremely healthy. Every one of them bloomed as well. There was one in the shade of a tree and it's leaves were rather floppy and pathetic compared to the others but that tree has since been removed by roommate who was worried about it falling on our cars. I was so impressed by them that I bought a bag of mixed oriental lilies and put those in the other spots were there weren't any. They are pretty big and showy so I planted more muted stuff like bee balm and ajuga around them so the yard has an overall balance. Of Note: My roommate uses pine needle mulch in the front yard so the soil is rather acidic, and as other posters have said, oriental lilies seem to like that. Looking forward to seeing how much they have multiplied this coming spring. Also of note: They emerge from the ground rather late so just be patient and remember where you planted them.