Grand Finale III

This series, and this summer lily season, ends on quite a high note. The famous "Casa Blanca" lily patch here; a lily renowned both for its' beautiful purity as well as its' strong fragrance closes my Oriental Lily season here at WillOaks Farm. I just love this lily as it's such a beautiful form. There is something so fresh, so pure and so innocent about big white flowers...if I'm not mistaken, in medieval paintings, white lilies were symbolic of the Madonna, the Holy Mother.

Thanks so much for enjoying my lily season with me here. I really appreciated all of your wonderful comments about the flowers and the photos!! (And yes, unless otherwise noted, all photos used here are my own, as noted by the watermark signature.)

And next, we'll be back to our "regularly scheduled program"...lol!

Grand Finale II (for the Lilies)

The "big red lily" patch blew me away when it shot up to over 6' tall this summer and THEN began to bloom. To me, these blooms aren't really as pretty as some of the white and pink lilies, but I have no idea what it's called and have never grown Oriental lilies this tall before.

So this is the second installment of our finale for lilies here this summer. If you missed part one, go down to the next post.

Thank goodness I got these photos done before a huge rain storm moved in this morning...and stuck around all day. I wonder how many inches it added up to? Soon, I'll probably be talking about our 8' tall corn!

Grand Finale (for the Lilies)

This is the climax of the Oriental Lily season for this year. And since the oriental lilies are the last to bloom here, it's the winding down of the 2009 lily season here at WillOaks Farm. I've been shooting images for a few days now, and saving them up for a few nice collections to be posted over the next couple of days.

I feel very special right now, in that the perfume of these lilies, wafting onto my deck, is just lovely. Tonight, the air is warm and moist, a "just past" full moon is rising, and then there's the fragrance of lilies.....you get the picture!

And A Few More Asiatic Lilies

The Asiatic lilies are winding down now. It's nearly time to survey them all with a clippers in hand to remove the seed pods that may try to form if the flower was pollinated. With most true bulbs, it's typical to remove any seed pods in order to put energy down into the bulb as this is the preferred way to multiply these plants in the garden. And seeds rarely breed true, especially when the plants are a hybrid.

It seems that the typical disease problems for lily foliage aren't too bad this year which is such a surprise considering we've had so much wet weather...which usually allows for some of the bacterial and fungal diseases to multiply and spread quickly.

What's left for lilies here? Just a few different Oriental lilies are budded up but not quite opened, including one of my favorites: Casa Blanca, a pure white beauty with an amazing fragrance....stay tuned!

Oriental Lilies Part Two

This collection of Oriental lilies is just beginning to bloom so the petals aren't as full outstretched as they will be in a few more days....enjoy! Wish I could 'post' the fragrance to share, too.