Lilium rhodopaeum

'The Rodopean Lily'

[Ex. Zapadni Rodopi 1320 m., Bulgaria]

Liliaceae: a spectacular rare perennial bulb to 1m. Found on mountain meadows, pine and beech forests. The inflorescence is a panicle with three to five strongly fragrant, bright yellow, funnel-shaped flowers. Blooming around June. The leaves are linear, overlapping, and tapered. The Rhodope Lily is native only to mountain meadows of the middle and eastern Rhodope Mountains in the borderland between Bulgaria and Greece.

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.

Grow plants in well-drained gritty soil, in full sun to part shade.

HARVESTED: 2019

 
APPROX. 20 SEEDS