black_beauty_oriental_lily by b00ng
TheGardenLady received this question from Becky about the photo in the last post of the lily taken by Per Ola Wiberg.
Hi there, what a BEAUTIFUL photo of the pink Lily–could you please tell me the variety? I would like to get one for my son who lives in KY and for me too in CO! ALSO… I am currently savoring Genius of Place, it is just a wonderful book; I caught most of the author’s interview on Book TV about a year ago (great interview, never forgot about it). Then I asked my library to get it for me and ended up purchasing my own copy which I’m SO glad I did! My nephew was a landscape architect (Rutgers). I would have loved to talk about Olmstead with him but he passed away in 2008. ANYWAY, thanks for mentioning that book.
I love the oriental and Asian lilies. But so do the deer. So I tread cautiously when I plant lilies. My first group of lilies was totally wiped out by the deer. That was before Liquid Fence was sold in the market and IÂ was experimenting with different things to keep deer off my plants. Because that photo is one of those lilies that was eaten by the deer, I regret that I do not recall the name.
Since then, with Liquid Fence sprayed on all my plants, nothing has eaten my plants; so I have been able to grow lilies. Now I can introduce more lilies to my garden. I have mostly the Stargazer Lilies – Lilium ‘Star Gazer’ and the Turks Cap lily- lilium superbum. Someone told me that the deer never touch her Turks Cap lilies. It is a native lily, so that might be the reason deer don’t bother it. (see here) However I find that deer eat native plants when they grow in my garden. These are plants that grow wild along the roadside. So I continue to spray frequently with the Liquid Fence to be sure that I will have flowers.
I also grow what is called a Lily tree. A few years ago l bought one white lily tree from Breck’s Nursery and love it because it does not have to be staked after the second or third year of growing. The stems are stronger than my sunflower stems. Amazing. (see here)
That being said, I believe the pink lily in the photo is an Oriental lily so it might be the Oriental Hybrid Lily ‘Sorbonne’ (see here) or the Oriental Lily ‘Corso’ (see here or here) or the Oriental Lily ‘Josephine.” (see here)
Some lilies that I want to add to my collection, other than the Lily trees, are Casa Blanca lilies, a beautiful white lily as well as the Black Beauty lily. These Black Beauty Lilies are in the perennial gardens in the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. (see here)