Lilium bulbiferum ssp. croceum

'Fire Lily'

[Ex. Alpes de Savoie 1480 m., France]

Liliaceae: a perennial bulb to 1.2m. Found on scrub, amongst bracken and on rocky slopes. The inflorescence has one to five short-haired scentless flowers. From 4–6cm in length and are bright yellow-orange with reddish-brown dots. Blooming from May - July. The stem is erect, the leaves are lanceolate, up to 10cm long. The bulbs are ovoid, with whitish large and pointed scales and can reach about 1.5cm in diameter. Native to much of Europe from Spain to Finland and Ukraine.

USES:

The bulbs can be cooked and eaten. They are sweet and mealy, and can be used as a potato substitute. Cultivated for its edible bulb in Japan.

GROWING INFORMATION:

Fill the pot with compost to the internal level mark, and sow the seeds separately on top of this compost. A simple method with ten or fifteen seeds is to work clockwise round the pot a little way in from the rim, then dot the last few seeds around the centre. Some people score the top of the compost lightly, so that they can stand the flat seeds on edge - they claim this gives better results. If you have lots of seed of one species, don't be tempted to sow them more thickly than this. This doesn't seem to increase the number of young plants you get from that size of pot. Instead, use a deep tray. When all the seeds are in place, top the pot with a finger's thickness of coarse lime-free grit. Put in a label with the name of the lily, the date, and the number of seeds - it's always interesting to see later what proportion germinate, and grow on to be transplanted. After sowing, water the pot well, and put it out of doors, in a shady spot. Some people like to cover the pots with a cloche or cold frame, as protection against very wet weather, slugs, and scratching birds and animals.

Don't abandon a bare seed pot until after at least three years, as some lilies can delay germination till they have been through several seasonal cycles.

Prefers an open free-draining humus-rich loamy soil with its roots in the shade and its head in the sun. The bulbs should be planted 15cm deep. This is said to be one of the easiest lilies to grow. The plant should be protected against slugs in early spring. If the shoot tip is eaten out the bulb will not grow in that year and will lose vigour.

HARVESTED: 2023*