lilium canadense red form

[pontus]

Hello Everyone,

3 years ago I planted some bulbs of the ordinary yellow canadense. this year they finally reached flowering size, and what a nice surprise it was to discover that they where in fact a very nice orange rd form highly spotted as well! one of the most beautifull lilies i have ever grown!

Pontus

[johnw]

Pontus  - The orange red Lilium canadense is native here, the yellow and red ones are hard to find.  The red ones are found in northern New Brunswick - probably around maggiepie's haunts - but we have never seen it or been able to get it. Tthey are indeed stately plants

johnw  - 21c at 22:29

[pontus]

yes, very stately.

I have been trying to find the one called var editorum or is it var coccinneum? which is deep red, almost unspotted. So far i have only managed to find some small seedling bulbs, and they take a very long time to reach flowering size...i have read that var editorum is more of a dryland lily than the others...

Pontus

[julian]

Are you both in North America? We have, and struggle with, both the yellow form and var. editorum in southern England. Does anyone in the UK have advice on growing it really well over here?

[Afloden]

The orange-red form is the "common" one in my area. The natural habitat of canadense is usually mesic mountain forest edges or open wet drainages in grassland. It prefers a richer, heavier soil with consistent moisture. I doubt over in England there are any issues with heat as it seems to like cooler sites than michiganense does.

 

[pontus]

I live in switzerland,

in the UK, is the problem you are having that the bulbs dry out in summer or rot in winter?

canadense needs quite a dry winter, ideally covered with snow and without too much moisture. In summer however the bulbs resent drying out.

I finally had sucess with them planted in a spot where they get sun from 7 am to about 10 am and then evening sun from about 5 or 6 pm which they love. I plantred the bulbs quite deeply so they would not suffer from our very hot summers, in a very well drained mix made up of 40 % humus, 30 % pine needles and the rest a few bark chippings, aquarium grit and normal garden soil. I grow my fritillaria camaschstensis in the same spot band they seem to like these conditions as well.

I have a friend in the Uk in northamptonshire who grows canadense sucesfully in ericaceous sandy soil in half shade in deep pots plunged into the ground.

in the wild, in canada, canadense grows along streamsides, so does get quite alot of moisture in summer, but is quite dry in winter as its then covered in snow.

in gothenburg botanical gardens they grow both forms very sucesfully in raised sandy ericaceous peaty beds in half shade together with pine trees, lilium grayii and lilium paryii

[julian]

Oddly enough, we used to have problems with them getting too DRY in winter - we were overcompensating, but that's solved now. They tend to come into growth quite well, but peter out and go dormant early. On the basis of your comments, I think they might be getting too hot during the day - it's quite common for us to have hot sunny spells with dry air during April and / or May.