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Health & Fitness

Garden Pride Photo Contest: Behold, the Lily!

Nature Photographer Shares Treasures from her Cottage Garden

Got some amazing photos over the weekend from a Patch member in WI, a walk-through of the many varieties of lilies in her garden. I learned all sorts of things over the past few days researching my second blog entry on these summer garden staples. For one thing, lily “petals” aren’t really petals, but “tepals”. Oriental lilies (the largest of the lilies) have six of them, known for their intense aroma—bad news for allergy sufferers. Hybrid growers work to encourage many different kinds of markings and patterns on these tepals. Spots, smudges, stripes and freckles, to name but a few.

Apparently there are nine horticultural dvisions for lilies. Asiatics, the most common,  have curled tepals and blossoms that tend to point downward—including the popular Tiger lilies. Trumpet lilies have fused tepals to create a conspicuous trumpet shaped flower; plants can grow 4-8 ft. tall and often need protective staking. Martagon lilies also droop downward and are described as “tuban-like”. Orienpets are hybrids that combine characteristics of Trumpets and Orientals.  One lily is even known as Martha Stewart pink.

A complicated business. I can tell already that I am NOT likely to master which lily is which.  But to nature photographer and fabulous gardener Carol McIntyre of Appleton, WI, who shared her favorite lilies with us...hats off to our Garden Photographer of the Week and Happy Gardening! These are all varieties that will grow in the Northeast as well as the Midwest where temperature extremes are more severe.

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