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This month’s plant of
merit is the Humboldt Lily. Humboldt Lily is a bold, tall
bulb featuring myriad orange, tigerlilylike flowers in a
raceme above whorls of glossy, narrow leaves. Plants can
grow up to 8 feet tall and bear over 20 flowers each.
Humboldt Lily blooms in summer, usually June or July, and
is best in dry shade. It is an excellent candidate to
grow under oaks. If you allow seed pods to form, you will
have a large quantity of flat, coinlike seeds to plant.
Humboldt Lily is easy to propagate from seed planted in
fall but takes 3 to 4 years to reach flowering size. It
can also be propagated from individual bulb scales. This
glorious lily lives in the lower pine belt of the central
and northern Sierra Nevada (it is common in the Feather
River area). Variety ocellatum occurs in coastal canyons
in southern California and on some of the Channel
Islands. It differs by having an eyelike rim around each
spot on the petals. Either form is beautiful in the
garden. |
