The long, tightly clasped, snout-like flower buds of the Tiger Lilies Lilium lancifolium that we grow in pots outside the back door have started to reveal their exotic contents – six dramatically swept back orange petals, each peppered by a seemingly random pattern of dark blotches, setting off six outwardly protruding stamens arranged around an even longer style. Each stamen terminates in a quivering anther, literally bursting with densely sticky rust-coloured pollen that stains in an instant any clothing carelessly brushed against it...
Originating from north-east Asia, Lilium lancifolium has the unusual habit – among lilies – of forming bulbils (little bulbs!) in the leaf axils, where the leaves join the stem. About the size of a chick pea, each bulbil ripens to a glossy black before dropping from the plant and rolling away in search of new ground to colonise. From a single parent plant, I have propagated all our stock using these curious black spheres, potting them on until they reach flowering size in about three years. When in growth I feed the mature plants weekly with organic liquid tomato fertiliser. Once the foliage has died down I move the pots underneath the greenhouse staging, where they are kept dry over winter and started into growth in spring by watering and moving into bright light.
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