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Oriental Lily St Andrews

Mike FridayMike Friday Posts: 80
in Plants
In 2017 we visited a branch of Homebase in London and saw an upright trolley loaded with highly-scented white Lilies. The label stipulated acidic soil, and said it dies back in winter and regrows in spring, so we bought a pot. At the time, I looked it's name up on the web, but there was just one reference to it from a wholesale supplier.

It was only recently it came back into my mind, and I asked my wife what happened to it. It seemed like it never did come back the following year and was forgotten about.
Maybe Homebase bought them as a job lot, shame really, as the scent alone made it an attractive acquisition. Has anyone heard of it - or bought one?


Posts

  • gondorgondor Posts: 135
    I got one of these last year for £2, marked down from £8. Left it in the original pot and they'd rotten by spring.
  • FairygirlFairygirl west central ScotlandPosts: 49,135
    Not one I've ever heard of, but perhaps they're not terribly reliable, like most other lilies are, so they've been binned.  
    Most lilies cope with quite wet conditions over winter, and actively need a lot of moisture, so maybe these ones need much drier growing conditions to thrive. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....


  • royjones_royjones_ Posts: 1
    I also brought these from Homebase last year at a much reduced price. They looked a bit on the shabby side but I repotted it straight away into a bigger pot using my homemade compost and they have all come back this year but look a bit leggy.  All my other types of lily are all looking lush.
  • Mike FridayMike Friday Posts: 80
    royjones_:  We don't go to Homebase a lot, certainly not since the lockdown in 2019, so I didn't realise that they were still selling them. There's currently an ad on Gumtree for them, but the lack of any real references on the web makes me think that the variety is a greenhouse crop.


  • valmanlindsay50ca62dyuavalmanlindsay50ca62dyua Posts: 1
    gondor said:
    I got one of these last year for £2, marked down from £8. Left it in the original pot and they'd rotten by spring.
    Hi I bought 1 of these lily's a few seasons ago let it finish flowering cut the stems by about half planted the short stems in a large bucket with half decent compost they don't start to rise out of the compost until late April early may but every year and I'm on my 3rd season and now have about 11 stems not bad only started with 4 stems
  • Mike FridayMike Friday Posts: 80
    valmanlindsay50ca62dyua:  That's interesting - what part of the country do you live?

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