Nell, that is great! I wish I'd seen this a month ago. I am redoing my barn bed (making more work for myself), but I couldn't tell which lilies were which. Now that I look at your pictures, I can see the differences. So next year when I redo again ;-) I WILL be able to tell.

very helpful!

That is a very good set of pictures. This is very helpful and all gardeners should have some of each. Great producers, those lilies.

Thanks foxesearth for such a great topic. I moved here and never had lilies before. I don't know a lot about them. Except that they are easy and gorgeous, and come back every year. There are a lot planted here. I have a tall group of them that gets about 14 feet tall! They are massive. They require serious staking. The first summer I lived here, I couldn't believe it. They are gorgeous and are cream colored. Anybody know what kind they are? The second picture is of a shorter kind of hot orange lily. They are such a great color! I love them. I also have Orientals planted here and there. The third picture is of our Shih-Tzu Poo - Lily, She's four and a total sweetie!

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Oh! What a cute little pup!

I have some lilies, too, and they embarrass me. There are not many...and they just stick up there - as if by accident. They lived over our well drilling - right on top of them! (I almost hoped they wouldn't so I wouldn't have to figure out how to make them fit in.) So now I have to find a solution. Do I plant them behind stuff? Do I get a whole bunch more so they don't look so random? Do I yank them out and pretend I never had lilies? They ARE pretty when they bloom...but they spend a LOT of time looking silly before that happens. And then there they are for the REST of the season!

Linda, I tend to plant lilies in the middle of stuff. Single lilies will tend to multiply, so they aren't alone for long. What works for me is to plant them among companions that will be tall when the early blooming lilies are finishing up just standing there being green stalks with skinny leaves. Mexican bush sage is my very fav, and Pineapple sage works well, too.

Right now I have yellow lilies among blackeyed susans -- Salvia leucanthemum following the BSEs because they don't last until fall. Acidanthera among the S. leucanthemum for fall bloom doesn't show up yet, shorter than the others. {{gwi:683358}}

These lilies are at the opposite end of the 'fence' of found wood that I made to support some lanky trumpet lilies that are not blooming yet. {{gwi:683359}}

Not a stunning composition, but shows what can go together, lilies, daylilies and echinacea. They need some salvias or other companions to come on up and hide the lilies in late summer and fall. {{gwi:683360}}
For next year, I'm planning darker pink with echinacea and orange lilies among gaillardia. Other companions, too, but that's it for right this minute. I'm thinking about candlestick plants (senna) to hide lily foliage; have to see how my candlesticks from seed turn out this year. Right now they're only a few inches tall.

Nell

These were 2 no-name lilies bought on a whim at Wal-Mart last year. I just plopped them into the ground to see what would happen, and have been rewarded with these blooms. I need to update this photo to show this entire bed in bloom, and how particularly nice these lilies look.

Thanks Nell for identifying them as Lolipops!

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Famm, in the fall, you can dig gently around the stems of Lollipop and find little bulblets that you can remove and grow on to have lots and lots of Lollipop.

Nell

Here are some of mine.

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Sorry i forgot you said early growth patterns.Senior moment.LOL
Kathi

Beautiful display, Kathi. The 'Early Growth Patterns' were just mine, to help decide what kinds of lilies were coming up. Everybody else needs to show PURTY pictures.

Kathi's lilies are daylilies, or Hemerocallis, to further confuse us all. True lilies grow from a bulb, with scales. They have a single stem with leaves up and down the stem. Daylilies grow from fleshy roots and have fan-like fountains of leaves in a clump. Crinums and Alliums and all the onion family are in the lily family as well. They're all beautiful and all are good mixers in the cottage garden.

We haven't even explored lilies growing with roses. I know somebody here must grow Stargazer lilies with pink roses?

Nell