I have Orientals that generally come up each year. You have to mulch heavily over the winter, though.

Thank you Marcia, it is great to know they work for you. Good tip on the mulching. Even if I get one season out of them, I'll be
content.

They had potted lilies for sale at the grocery store a few weeks
ago. I was tempted to get one and plant it in the garden, but
heard many of the potted white Easter lilies may have lily symptomless
virus.

My Asiatic planted on the south side of the house are
starting to grow. I have not seen any more red lily beetles in the last
two days, but will be checking daily after seeing that first one.

It's amazing to see after one season the Asiatic bulbs have already started to spread.

LSV virus study

Great info! I was wondering about Oriental Lilies in Calgary myself too. I love their look but have not grown them in zone 3 before.... Now I gotta find some space for them! LOL

I'm in zone 2b; I have the dwarf oriental 'Mona Lisa' planted in my garden. It has survived the last 7 years, though I kind of laugh at it every year, because it never, ever increases for me. It produces 2-4 blooms per plant(I have 2 plants) and it has done the same thing ever since I got it! No more, no less. To be fair, though, I never mulch it, it gets no special care. So I treat it as a cut flower; it has a lot of fragrance and is very beautiful, so every year I cut the blooms and put them in bouquets for my house, or I give them in a bouquet to some lucky friend!

I wonder if perhaps that is your secret, weeper_11? Perhaps by cutting the flower off, it gives the plant more time to recoup and put energy back into the bulb before the next year?

I planted 5 stargazers in the same spot, maybe I'll test out cutting the flowers off of some of them and see what happens.

Lily beetles, I am ready for you.

I grew Stargazer in the old yard, did well for quite a few years. I currently have a white oriental lily that's doing quite well other than the damned beetles.

One thing you might need to keep an eye on, rabbits, squirrels, voles, moles, mice deer etc seem to LOVE eating oriental lilies (the bulbs), much more than asiatic.

Yeah, maybe I have been unintentionally benefiting the plant...just make sure you leave as much of the stem as possible, so that it can take in lots of energy for next year!

I planted 2 Stargazer in the NWT a few years back - they were slow to come up and eventually disappeared - just a little outside of their range I think. The Asiatics did just fine if the snowshoe hares could be kept off of them.

I caught another lily beetle yesterday, the bugger was hiding in the lower crevices of the emerging leaves.

Good tips on the critters liking lilies. I'm lucky to have a couple of dogs that frequently patrol the yard. I've noticed the amount of critters that wander into the yard has gone down substantially since getting the dogs.

Where we used to live, I would see many many gardens securely fenced in with chicken wire. Now I understand why, there was an abundant population of hares, domestic rabbits, and squirrels taking over the neighborhood.

I have a bit better luck with the LA Hybrids in my zone 2b garden. I do have the odd Oriental lily but they sort of dwindle down to nothing over time...as weeper said, they don't thrive in our climate....and I refuse to coddle any of my plants.