When I was growing up, my Mom always had a small patch of big, bold, beautiful tiger lilies. They grew under the weeping popular below my bedroom window and the flowers came up after the poppies were done.
I’ve tried tiger lilies a few times, but I’ve never been terribly successful. Too much darned shade, not enough sun. Ironically, I prefer a shade garden because I’m not much of a sun worshiper.
A few years ago I came across a native tiger lily at a native plant sale and picked it up. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the bulb, but it has provided a pleasant surprise. This is it’s third year, but I’ve manhandled it a bit too much by moving it around the garden a couple of times.
I never expected it to grow as tall and delicate as it does, so last year, after creating the waterfall/stream/pond water feature in the middle of the garden, I moved it to the back of the waterfall where it would be protected from my unintentional disturbances with a shovel, and where it could grow upwards and dangle delicately over top of the falls. I moved it after it finished flowering and crossed my fingers that I hadn’t hurt it.
It was a success.
It will be a couple of years before it builds a stronger root and bulb system and produces multiple blossom stems, but it will happen. I noticed this morning that it had opened one of its fabulously orange blossoms, petals peeled back against itself to expose its stamens to pollinators.
Lilium columbianum is a lily native to western North America. It is also known as the Columbia Lily or Tiger Lily (sharing the latter common name with several other species in its genus). It occurs in open woods and forest openings from southern British Columbia in Canada south to northern California and east to Idaho and Nevada in the USA. It grows up to 1.2 meter tall, and bears from few to many orange flowers with darker spots. The petals are 3 to 6 centimeter long and the flowers are lightly scented. Like many true lilies, the leaves are arranged in whorls around the stem of the plant.
(bit.ly/columbialily)
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