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Big, bold and beautiful in your garden or on your table. What if I told you that there
was a family of plants that make great cut flowers that you can use in the house, they're
easy to grow, you can have a succession of blooms –so you can cut anytime you want,
well, within season and within reason– and that this plant comes back year-after-year–it's
perennial. Well, that would be these: lilies. I love the fact that these blooms are bi-colored.
They have a deep, rich sort of orange, almost red center that gives way to a lovely apricot
at the edge. And the little speckles, well, they add a lot as well. I love to arrange
these, quite simply, with another flower form–like a hydrangea that's white and creamy and has
a completely different flower form. A big, round, ball-shaped flower contrasted with
this–it's dynamite. Now, come on over here, I wanna show you a bed that's finishing up.
Just take a look at these: These bloomed earlier. And when you're thinking about lilies, think
about this: What I have first is my Asiatics: They bloom first, and they're finishing up
here. Then come the L.A. Hybrids: I just showed you one of those–first crown. And then,
the next are the Oriental Hybrids to bloom, so you get the succession of bloom–early,
mid and late, which is great. Now, after they bloom –you see, I didn't cut these for flower
arranging. That is a seed head right there. What you want to do is cut off your lilies,
like this, and just discard the seed head. And what happens is you wanna leave this foliage
and bolster that bulb under there for next year's bloom. So, that's the great thing about
these lilies is they come back year-after-year. And when you plant them, you wanna make sure
you give them plenty of sun. They like full sun and the soil must drain well, otherwise,
the bulbs will rot. So, I just wanted to give you an example of lilies in a garden setting.
Earlier, I was showing you how I had them in rows for cutting, for using in the house.
But here, they're part of the landscape. Here's first crown, in bloom, with this backdrop
of ninebark, which is very beautiful. And if you'll look here below, this was the first
wave of Asiatics that have already flowered. And what I need to do today is take off the
seed heads, just as showed you before, and I will leave the foliage. And next year, this
display will come back. By the way, this variety down here is called Orange Pixie, and it bloomed
about two weeks before these started flowering. So, that's what I love in the garden– is
that succession of color blocking –bold, bright, bloom– which you can get with these
lilies. If you're enjoying these ways to improve your garden and your life with gorgeous flowers,
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