Lots of luscious lilies

The lilies have come into their full bloom, and the damage from the lily beetles is not nearly as bad as I thought it was. I'd like to move them out of the vegetable garden. The reason I planted them there is because the bulbs arrived very late in the fall of 2006 as a gift (thank you again Susan and Claude), and I didn't have a bed ready for them at the time. They were pretty spectacular last year, and even more so this year, but they are competing with the wild strawberries that have invaded that part of the garden. I really don't want to get rid of the strawberries so the lilies will need a new home. I think I'm going to tag them according to color and move them into groups of all one color. Maybe I'll wait till spring to prepare separate beds for them and move them next fall.



You can see the cold frame behind the lilies in this photo. I think the lilies benefit from the heat reflected from the glass.

I especially like the color of this one. Its a deep pumpkin with rust colored freckles. There appear to be only four like this in the whole row, but I could be wrong since there are some buds that haven't matured enough to show their color yet, and some of the bulbs still won't produce bloom this year because they were a little too small when they were planted.

There appears to be only a single one of this color, and it only has one bloom. I've never seen one quite like it. The center is a true black rather than just being a deep purple. I quite like it, and I hope there are more like it among the younger plants. If not I'll have to nurse it along untill it multiplies on its own.