'Silk Road' Lily: Fragrant, Beautiful, Hardy - Perfect!
Written: Mar 22 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful flower, incredible fragrance, very strong grower, very perennial
Cons: I can't afford as many as I would like!
The Bottom Line: The world would be a much better place if more people filled their gardens with 'Silk Road' and all the other beauties available from The Lily Farm!
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| cathyb53's Full Review: Lily Bulbs Lily Silk Road |
'Silk Road' is definitely my favorite lily of all time, maybe even my favorite flower. (Oh, all right, I know, I say that about so many flowers - but I really, really mean it!) There few things as rewarding in this life as a good lily; you buy it, you dig a little hole and pop it in, and very shortly up comes a strong, sturdy stalk that doesn't take up much space laterally (which allows you to have more of them in any given space), you wait a little longer, and then out comes a succession of gorgeous, often fragrant, flowers. Hummingbirds love them too - an added bonus!
So what makes 'Silk Road' such a prize? Well, it does all of those lily-things to an extreme degree, with absolutely no more effort than it takes to plant, say, a daffodil. The flowers are incredibly beautiful, with an intense crimson throat shading to rose and then to white, and its vigor and strength are remarkable (my original ones have been dug up, moved, replanted, and mown off in their prime by my lawn-mowing guys, yet they keep coming back better each year). It comes back every year with no assistance on my part, it doesn't need staking, and I do nothing to deserve such rewards. But my favorite attribute is its heavenly fragrance! Never heavy or cloying or sickly-sweet, yet one blossom fills the room, if you can bear to cut it, or your garden, if you can't.
'Silk Road' is a member of the relatively new category of Lilies known as Orienpet lilies: a cross between the late-blooming Oriental hybrids (the most beautifully colored and shaped category) and Trumpet (or Aurelian) hybrids, the tall stately beauties that are very persistent and heat-tolerant. Here's what White Flower Farm has to say on the subject:
"Orienpets combine the best features of both groups of Lilies—fragrance, large flowers, and sturdy garden performance—but bloom about two weeks earlier than most Orientals. The advantage is an almost continuous sequence of Lily blooms, if you start with Asiatic varieties, then follow with Trumpets, Orienpets, and Orientals."
All of which is probably of interest to only if you are a fellow lily-lover, in which case you probably already know all this. For me, here in upstate New York (Zone 4/5A), they bloom from early/mid July through early/mid August, just when many other flowers in the garden have pretty much pooped out for the year. The flowers are very large, and have great substance - these are no flimsy little pansies! They grow 4-6' tall, and I don't even stake mine unless they've flopped into the path of the mower; one thing I appreciate in these particular lilies is the strength of their stems - I live on a windy hilltop, and I really hate to see my proud beauties lined up & lashed to the stake like a row of soldiers awaiting execution, so it's pretty much a "stand up on your own or die" situation. And the next year, it does it all again! And again! Deer are particularly fond of tender young lily buds, but that's just a fact of life for most folk, and I guess we all just have to deal with that however we can - I prefer to just plant LOTS of lilies, so that if a couple get nibbled it isn't a major source of depression.
The only other caveat about growing lilies is that they won't grow if the ground is waterlogged, or if their roots stay soggy; they grow beautifully in pots, though, so it's not too hard to be sure conditions are just right. To be honest, I never even feed my lily bulbs, other than top-dressing them once in a while with some good rich compost.
I prefer to order my lilies direct from the hybridizer/grower - Judith Freeman and the van der Salm family at The Lily Garden in Washington State (http://www.thelilygarden.com/). No affiliation, just an ardent customer. One of the great but happy paradoxes in buying from The Lily Garden is that not only are they far and away the BEST source for 'Silk Road' and all of its beautiful cousins, they are also less expensive than from other sources - if not always downright cheaper, always at least a better value in terms of quality and years of repeat bloom. In the case of 'Silk Road', for instance, it is priced at $10/bulb, or 3/$27, where other nurseries usually are asking around $12 -15 per bulb; Park Seed and White Flower Farm, for instance, are selling it @$12.95 this year. The quality of the bulbs you receive if you order from The Lily Garden, though, is much higher than I have seen anywhere (including both sources mentioned above) - when I first unwrapped my first 'Silk Road' bulb, it was the size of a large grapefruit! No exaggeration!
The Lily Farm packs everything with great care, and always, ALWAYS gives the customer the benefit of any doubt; for instance, they often tuck in an extra bulb or two if they feel that a particular bulb isn't quite up to size (and their standards exceed industry standards - they really know their lilies!), and they have never sent me any bulb that has failed to grow. That's quite a record, and after a few ill-fated flirtations with buying lilies from other sources I've decided to just not waste my time and energy and money ordering lilies from anybody else.
By all means, buy and plant 'Silk Road' with confidence - I can't imagine that you would not be delighted with it. And while you're at it, go to http://www.thelilyfarm.com or Fax them at (360) 253-2512 and order a few other lilies, and get a catalogue, and you too will be hooked!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
cathyb53
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Cathy B.
Location: beautiful Ithaca NY
Reviews written: 133
Trusted by: 40 members
About Me:
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now"...Bob Dylan
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