Lilium 2009

[Lori S.]

1) Unnamed martagon from a friend, who has started to produce crosses.
2) Asiatic hybrids 'Sheena' and...
3) 'Cinnamon Toast'

[Ragged Robin]

Lovely colours, Lori - the unnamed one is very attractive in colour and spotting - do the petals start off curved in to a turks cap?

[The Russian]

Lori, Sheena is fine! Very beautiful!
The similar lily blossomed this year.  And we cannot define the name.

[Martin Baxendale]

Now I'm hooked! I'm going to have to get some hansonii and medeoloides and try some crosses with my various martagons. I assume using medeoloides is how those gorgeous orangey, marmaladey colours are introduced into the martagon hybrids. Does anyone know if there are any other lilies now known to cross with martagon, as my knowledge in this area is a bit dated. Also, anyone know of a reliable source for medeoloides?

I'm sure I can find the space and time for raising a few martagon hybrids in between all the snowdrop crosses...I think...I hope...I'm mad.

[Martin Baxendale]

Actually, raising martagon hybrids alongside snowdrops isn't such an odd idea. I find martagon is the ideal lily for growing with snowdrops in the sort of summer-dry woodlandy garden that suits snowdrops. The martagons, I find, are tough as old boots, don't need summer watering and will get along in quite deep shade and even bone dry summer soil provided they get some rain in spring to get them started. Interplanted with snowdrops they're ideal summer-colour companion plants.

[Lori S.]

Robin, the martagons open somewhat flatter and then curve up into a turk's-cap.

[The Russian]

Martin, when you speak "others martagons", you think of orange colours? I correctly understand? Sorry, my English very bad both for conversation and for understanding. I have very orange grade Brunswieck. Still is very bright orange "Tsing", "Super Tsing", "Tsingense", "Nepera" (sorry, no photo). Light orange "Lightning Bug". And I wish good luck!

[Lori S.]

Martin, I will have to check references, but off the cuff... I seem to recall that crosses with L. tsingtauense, which is closely related to L. martagon, may have been the way to produce orange martagon crosses.

[Martin Baxendale]

Yes, Elena, I meant what other lily species would cross with martagon to give the orange colours. I know the orange medeoloides is supposed to cross with martagon. I wondered if any other orange species are known to also cross with martagon.

Thanks, Lori. I'll see if I can find out anything more about tsingtauense crossing with martagon and where it's obtainable from.

[Martin Baxendale]

Elena, Brunswieck and Lightning Bug are both lovely.

[Jean-Patrick AGIER]

Elena,
All those hybrids are extraordinary!!!
Martin,
I'm not a specialist but could it be possible to cross martagons with lilium hansonii?

[Martin Baxendale]

Martin,
I'm not a specialist but could it be possible to cross martagons with lilium hansonii?

Yes, that's been done quite a lot in the past, but it doesn't produce the sort of bright oranges seen in some of Elena's hybrids. I think that colouring must come from crossing with medeoloides and/or tsingtauense - both these orange-flowered lilies grow in parts of eastern Russia, so it would make sense for Russian breeders to have used them in the past.

[Lori S.]

Some Asiatic hybrids...
1) 'Suntan'... L. cernuum was used in the breeding of this one, by Barber (1975).
2) 'Caress' with Rosa 'John Cabot'.
3) Another of Ed McRae's "pot lilies", 'Butter Pixie'.
4) 'Granny', a tetraploid.
5) 'Simply Red'
6) 'Goodnight'
And...
7) Lilium amabile.

By the way, Ed McRae, in his book, Lilies: A Guide for Growers and Collectors, has a lot of the history of hybridizing - it's a very good read in general.

[Ragged Robin]

All lovely looking growing amongst other flowers, Lori, all the combinations are beautiful but the combination of lilium caress with the rose(?) is fabulous 

[Lori S.]

Thanks, Robin!  I put 'Caress' in a raised planter, to make the down-facing flowers easier to see... but now it's being crowded out by a thuggish giant columbine, so I will have to intervene again!