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Improve your home design with lovely lilies!

Lilies are beautiful flowers that come in a variety of different types and colours and are a fabulous addition to your home garden. Here a few top trending lilies that you may want to consider planting in your home garden this summer:

Lilium longiflorum - The queen of lilies

Lilium longiflorum also known as the Snow Queen, has a combination of snow-white blooms and a majestic fragrance. This lily’s stem can grow up to 90cm tall.

Planting tips: The secret to cultivating this type of lily successfully is cool soil with good drainage. Choose a spot where the soil will remain cool, for example near shrubs, and ensure the flowerbed is thoroughly dug up. They also require light shade to full sun, although in saying that, they should not be placed in direct sunlight. Your Snow Queen bulbs are ready to plant from late May until August and will start to flower from September until January.

Tiger Lilium

The tiger lily’s (L. tigrinum) incredible flowers make it one of the most attention-grabbing members of the Lilium family. If you walk into a garden of lilies, tiger lilies are instantly recognisable by their bell-shaped, reflexed flowers with large petals dusted with black dots. Tiger lilies are strong bloomers, they have a long flowering period and large bulbs that can produce a good number of flowers on each tall and sturdy stem.

Planting tips: Tiger lilies do not require a vast amount of attention. They are resilient, and grow best in soil with good drainage. Tiger lilies can be cultivated in most soils, but if the soil quality is quite poor then the addition of a good compost will greatly assist their growth. They can grow in a range of lighting conditions, but full sun to partial shade is best. Available from May until late August, tiger lily bulbs should be planted soon after you buy them. The tiger lily can grow particularly tall, up to two metres, so it may be necessary to support them with a stake.

Lilium L.A. Hybrid

These lilies can bloom in yellows, pinks, reds, whites, and oranges and their cluster of flowers crown up to 1.7m tall! They will create a stunning spectacle in any home garden!

Planting tips: L.A. hybrids are very easy to care for. Plant your lily bulbs in a flower bed or container as soon as you receive them, as they should not be out of the soil for too long. Just like other lilies, select a spot that will provide your bulbs with full sun on their foliage but allows shade for the base of the stem. This can be achieved by placing mulch around the base or planting them amongst low shrubs. Lily bulbs can be placed in the ground or a container from now until late August and they will flower from mid to late summer. When you prepare the soil it is important to ensure there is good drainage, which can be achieved by thoroughly digging up the bed or, if planting in containers, placing broken pot shards over the drainage holes.

Oriental Lilium

These lilies are not only beautiful but if you just walk past an Oriental lily, their aroma is just so heavenly too!

Planting tips: When it comes to planting an Oriental Lilium, the bulbs are available from early August and should be planted as soon as possible after purchase. Just like all other lilies, it is essential to select a position in your garden that will allow their roots to stay cool and their flowers to receive sunlight. Once you start to see the small lily shoots emerge it is a great idea to provide your new lilies with a balanced (10-10-10) fertiliser. This extra nutrition will give your lilies a boost as their stems and leaves start to develop. Oriental lilies will flower in late summer and you will see that the stems are tall and straight so you are able to cut them in put them in a vase. When cutting your lilies, remove only as much of the stem as you need to ensure some leaves remain to nurture the bulb left in the soil. The best time to cut your lilies is when the first bud just starts to open and show colour. The wonderful scent and blooms make Oriental lilies a gorgeous addition to any home décor.

Once you plant all your stunning lilies just remember the three F’s:
• Water your bulbs for forty minutes,
• Every four days, and
• Do not forget.

Complied by Kayla Myburgh for Fix Shack’s Home Inspirations. Source: Hadeco

Learn about other beautiful flowers or find all available plant related products to purchase!