Tiger Lilies

Tiger lilies have started to bloom in my Missouri hillside garden, a sure sign of summer.

Tiger Lilies

If there is one plant that marks the beginning of the hot summer Missouri season, it's tiger lilies in bloom.

These very old-fashioned lilies survive in most drought conditions, their flowers swinging from on top of 4-5 foot stems.

Tiger lily flowers (Lilium lancifolium or Lilium tigrinum) propagate through black bubils in the axils above the leaves. That may explain why I have a number of plants scattered throughout my flower beds, their little seed starts scattered by wind and my carelessly knocking the bubils over when I walked close by.

Growing tiger lilies involves planting the bubils and waiting, as it may be five years before these produce tiger lily flowers. If you have tiger lilies growing in your existing garden, keep them happy with soil amendments. I give them a handful of aged compost followed by mulch every year.

I think about moving the various ones scattered around the garden so they are all together but the soil is usually so hard and dry mid-summer in Missouri. I think I will wait for more plants to grow where the original ones area, that's much easier!

In the meantime, time to make another one of our charming baby jungle quilts, I think of tiger lilies having faces every time I see them!

Charlotte