This Year's Starring Couple

Last year, Nicky phlox was my perennial pick of the season.  This year, it's grown taller and pairs up beautifully with my Opus One Oriental lilies.  These lilies are over my head!  And the scent of these two together is awesome - spicy and sweet.

Linda's Perennial Pick of the Season

This was a hard choice!  However, I am a BIG fan of phlox and this phlox paniculata 'Nicky' is my new favourite.  It had a rocky start - I planted it bare root in the spring of 2008 and it has taken this long to grow and bloom.  It was well worth the wait.  I've noticed that many of the tall phlox change colour depending on the time of day (or maybe the temperature?).  Nicky looked quite pink when it was first opening and had me confused.

I also love Danielle's perennial pick and was tempted to post my 'Summer Sun' heliopsis - it was a close second.  (I managed to sneak it in here anyway ;)

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.

Can't you smell that smell?

Contrary to what people who introduced us thought would happen, Linda and I agree on almost everything. Where we disagree though, we tend to be at totally opposite ends of the spectrum. Enter the Lily. Linda prefers Oriental to Asiatic and this year, mentioned to me that she is considering sticking to only Oriental for future additions to her garden. Linda does have Lily problems in her garden that I do not have to contend with in mine so I will leave it to her to outline her preference. I however, prefer Asiatic and when these Stargazer Orientals started blooming, I began to consider only adding Asiatic to my garden in future. This Spring, I received 25 Stargazer Oriental Lily. I gave a couple away to another gardening friend and planted the rest all in the same garden, in three patches, to both sides of the path. They are blooming now and look awesome. The buds start green, turn bright white and open to this blinding pink. I can see them from the front deck which is an added bonus for anything blooming in the lower level of that garden. I can't say enough about how bright and cheery they are in the garden. Lots of people tell me that Stargazer are not spectacular for Oriental Lily but they look pretty darn beautiful to me. The problem is the smell. I find the smell very disagreeable and if I am standing in it too long, it can even give me an upset stomach. I had a friend in my garden last week that mentioned that same thing as we walked through this spot. She agreed that the smell is both strong and sickening. Since she mentioned it before she knew how I felt about Oriental Lily scent, I know I am not alone. The Asiatics typically do not smell and if they do, it is not the same cloying kind of scent that I find so overwhelming with the Orientals. I am keeping these Stargazer and they can stay right where they are as long as they don't get to the point where I can smell them on the front deck. If that happens, they will need to be moved further from the house so it is a good thing they are so bright. As I suggested to Linda, she will just have to be my Oriental Lily expert and I will try to do that for her with Asiatics. As soon as I buy another book ;)