Delicate garden lilies are used to decorate summer cottages and city beds. These flowers not only have an attractive appearance and pleasant aroma, but also have healing properties. From time immemorial, people have known about the properties of lilies that help cleanse the skin, heal burns and abrasions, and relieve swelling and bruising. The plant is able to calm a person and even heal mental wounds.
general description
By the amazing grace of the representatives of
the Lilein family, one can only compare with orchids. This encouraged scientists to create new hybrid varieties, today there are about 6 thousand different species. Nevertheless, these are extremely capricious garden flowers. Lilies need special care and attention.
The height of the flower depends on the variety, varies between 30-200 cm. Leaves are most often linear-lanceolate, curved, up to 20 cm long. Single inflorescences consist of 6 petals from 5 to 25 cm in diameter. They can be in the form of a funnel, a bell or an open bowl. There are white, lilac, yellow and orange garden lilies.
The underground part of the plant consists of bulbs and roots. As soon as the bulbs grow to the desired size, the lilies begin to bloom. This happens for about 3-4 years. At the same time several buds are opened at once. Propagation by seed is possible, but bulbs are often used to breed new plants.
Landing conditions
Is garden lily too demanding on soil quality?
Planting is possible in a slightly alkaline and slightly acidic environment. However, for the vast majority of varieties, neutral soil is preferable. And clay or sand is definitely not suitable for breeding lilies.
Before planting, the soil must be prepared: to loosen, if necessary add a little peat or humus. Note that these flowers do not tolerate stagnation of water, so the soil must be drained.
The bed on which garden lilies grow needs fertilizer with the obligatory content of potassium and phosphorus. Potassium deficiency negatively affects the quality of the bulbs for future planting. With a lack of phosphorus, the color of the buds becomes paler, and their size is smaller.
Hybrid varieties
The most unpretentious are Asian hybrids. They are distinguished by endurance and frost resistance, grow well in partial shade or in open sunny areas. They bloom earlier than other hybrid varieties and multiply fairly quickly. They should be planted in neutral or slightly acidic soil. These garden lilies have a variety of colors. There are white, yellow, cream, two-tone or even three-color specimens. Their only drawback is the complete lack of aroma.
Oriental hybrids are considered exotic and well tolerate transportation. Despite the stunning beauty, the plants are extremely capricious and susceptible to various diseases. They prefer partial shade and space protected from drafts, but grow better in greenhouse conditions. Buds are large, pink, red, lilac, yellow, orange.