These are lillies (exact botanical name unknown) that Minnie gave me many many years ago - - over 20 years ago. They are grown in a tightly packed pot and are very fragile as far as temperatures go, so no, these are not like a tulip that must experience some cold weather to bloom. These are the exact opposite, as freezing temps, cold weather, will finish these beauties off.
These lillies are so dear to me that I take them with me each winter that we are able to escape in Tana. I like to have them outside of Tana, but if cold weather threatens, I drag them into Tana until the weather moderates. This last winter they spent a LOT of time inside Tana.
They bloom in the early spring, as you can see, these photos were taken during the last 18 days or so. They get a lot of leaf structure over the summer, I keep watering. Then in the fall you can cease the watering and the leaf structure dies back. Come late winter, watering is resumed. The last few years I have actually continued watering (lightly) most of the winter and the leaf structure did not totally die back.
This last fall though, when we arrived in Gulf Shores, I discovered, to my horror (yep, HORROR, as I am sentimental about these lillies, the thought of loosing them is horrifying to me), I discovered that my lillies had some fuzzy white nasty buggy thing. This white buggy thing had infected many of my house plants, and I have sadly lost quite a few. So, I sprayed the lillies with a bug killer and prayed. The leaf structure died back all winter long, I was continuously removing dead leaves and fearing the worse.
By the time we were ready to leave Gulf Shores the lilly was pathetic, basically a pot full of small bulbs and dirt. I watered heavily with soap and water (to kill any other little nasties picked up while outside), placed the lillies in the bath tub of Tana for the ride home. There is a sky light in the tub, and I have learned that my violets do not do well in there - - their delicate leaves burn - - even though we have some bubble wrap up there to diffuse the sun. But, when we arrived home, I was delighted to see that Minnie's lillies loved that diffused light from the sky light. When I started carrying my plants back into the stick built, I pulled out the lilly and behold, I have buds, just 4 of em, but they are buds! Can we spell relief?? YAA!!
Since then the lilly has been blooming continuously. Right now there are at least 8 full blooms and even though I did not count them, I believe there have been at least 3 times that already.
Minnie's lillies, yes, I am very sentimental over them.
Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence
7 comments:
Nice slide show.
Carol,
You delight me. You wax as eloquently over Minnie's lillies, as you do genealogy or taking us on your Tana tour. What a friend to have.
Minnie's lilies are beautiful and I understand your horror of losing them - I have a white lilac which was a self-seeded sapling from the garden of the house where I grew up, and I'm very protective of it too. The lilies look very healthy thanks to your care!
They are so delicate-looking; I have never seen lilies like these. Now I am curious as to their botanical name - a habit I picked up from constant wintertime perusing of garden catalogs.
What a delightful, lasting memory of your grandmother. Each spring the bulbs give you an annual reason to rejoice in knowing and loving her. AND I am VERY jealous of that slide show. I'm even on photobucket. Didn't know we could use it on our blog. I am always playing catch up with you Carol.
Carol, Everybody loves your posts, and you are constantly showing us new things. I love the lilies, I thought they were orchids. Nice tribute. Thanks.
Thank you all, your kind words warm my heart.
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