Lilium nepalense

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“If at first you don’t succeed…”

I usually make three attempts at growing a plant; after three failures, I give up and move on to something else. I have planted bulbs of lilium nepalense twice before and nothing appeared so this was my third try. I first saw this flowering in a garden in New Zealand and it immediately went on my ‘wants’ list. While fairly readily available for sale, it is a bit fussy where it will grow.

Firstly, it needs an acid soil in a cool, moist spot in an open, humus rich soil. But it needs to be drier during the winter which can be tricky with our predominantly wet winters. It does not take well to pot culture as the stems run around underground before coming to the surface, not appearing until June. Nor will it tolerate much in the way of frost.

My first two attempts to grow this were in my spring garden, near a small apple tree but on both occasions, it disappeared without trace. I have now planted it very deeply (about twelve inches down) on the north side and in the shade of a flowering crab and a couple of months ago, shoots started to appear. These have now reached between two and three feet in height with large, elongated flower buds. At this stage, the stems start to droop with the weight of the flowers and need staking. Finally, the buds open to these hanging flowers. Well worth the wait I’d say.

• 12 Aug, 2010
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