Mmmm, Smell that Smell

It's taken me 6 years of gardening to get that heady scent of Oriental lilies and phlox permeating my backyard.  Danielle dislikes the lily fragrance a lot, but I love it.  And now I have so many blooms that I don't have to stick my nose right into the flowers to get a whiff.

As much as I love the smell, my preference for Oriental over Asiatic lilies comes from a different source.  For the past 4 years, we've been fighting red lily beetles.  They start in the spring and the only way to fight them is to pick them off by hand and crush them.  If we don't stay on top of them, they multiply fast.  It's the larvae that does the most damage.  The thing is that they seem to prefer Asiatic lilies to Oriental ones.  Oh, the Orientals get attacked, but not nearly as bad as this.

Obviously we're not as careful about picking off the beetles once the lilies are done blooming!  While lily stalks should be left standing once done blooming, I really hate to have this mess in my garden.

Even though there is a greater variety of Asiatic lilies, and in brighter colours, I may just satisfy my lily fetish with new Oriental hybrids in the future.