Cultivation Notes No. 74 The Wild Society Winter 2019 canadense, Canada Lily Family: by Anne Raver arolyn Curtis fell in love with the Canada lily’s trumpet-like flowers, Carolyn recalled, “So there, I had Lilium canadense, the Canada lily, which vary in color from pale yel- my answer! I kept thinking, ‘We Cdecades ago, when a woman low to near red, each speckled on the gotta have this!’ but for a long time I giving a talk about flower arranging inside with reddish-brown dots. This couldn’t find seeds.” to the South County Garden Club lily is mainly pollinated by the ruby- She finally found them through Prairie brought buckets of the cut lilies from throated hummingbird. Moon Nursery, a mail order company Nantucket. I first saw this magnificent lily in mid- in Minnesota, and read up on how to “I was so excited I asked the woman, July three summers ago in Carolyn’s grow this species. ‘What is this?’” said Carolyn, a long- Narragansett garden, when I joined a The seeds require a warm period fol- time RIWPS member and propa- group from Seed Starters East to learn lowed by a cold one before planting, gator for the society’s plant sales. some propagation secrets from the then several years of watching little “The woman said, ‘I don’t know, I master. We gaped up at the candela- leaves grow. Obviously, this flower is just picked them off the side of the bras of flared golden flowers dangling not for impatient types. “I was gar- road.’” over our heads from multiple stalks dening in Matunuck at the time,” said near the top of the Carolyn, who moved to Narragansett seven-foot stems. with her husband, Richard, 16 years This was about 25 years ago. “But they did bloom there, five after Carolyn’s first mo- years from seed.” (The books say five ment of love with this to seven years.) She later discovered lily—“I was possessed!” that planting the scales of the lily bulb, she recalls. After the preferably in the spring, shaves two lecture, she asked for a years off that time. stalk and drove straight One morning early last October, Car- to Irene Stuckey’s house olyn led the way to her propagation in Kingston. “She beds on the edge of a woodland and wasn’t home, so I just showed me how easy it is to plant the Carolyn Curtis showing off her lilies laid it on her doorstep.” scales. She dug up a lily bulb—actually PHOTOS BY ANNE RAVER (Dr. Stuckey, a plant two bulbs, the current season’s, which physiologist, taught produced the stem, and which was for years at the University of Rhode attached to another that had grown Lilium canadense, which is native to Island and wrote several books dear Rhode Island, flourishes in wet over the summer—both covered with to native plant lovers’ hearts, includ- kernel-like scales meadows and sunny to lightly shaded ing Rhode Island Wildflowers, Endangered ditches along roadsides. It can be of Rhode Island, and more re- “When I collect the bulbs in the Lily plants, ready for transplanting found from Quebec across to , cently, with RIWPS founder and first spring for the sale, some of the scales down to Kentucky and western Vir- president, Lisa L. Gould, Coastal Plants come off the bulbs,” said Carolyn. “So ginia. The books say it grows to five from Cape Cod to Cape Canaveral.) I just put them back in the ground.” feet, but it reaches about seven feet in Carolyn’s garden. Whorls of three or When Carolyn called Dr. Stuckey a She carefully pried off a few, no big- more long, lance-shaped leaves space few hours later, the botanist said, “I ger than the tip of my pinky, handed themselves elegantly up the vigor- wondered who left that Lilium canadense me a couple to plant in my own gar- den, and then stuck the others an inch ous stems. Six reflexed tepals form here.”

6 WildfloraRI Cultivation Notes and a half down in the soft, rich soil can reduce any problems with fun- # 10 CAPTION of her raised bed. She replanted the gus or mold. hefty bulb about five inches down During this warm period, the seed and then led the way to a stone swells and sometimes forms a little retaining wall near the house where root. Carolyn then places the bag the lilies bloomed this summer. The in a refrigerator for three months heat from the wall and afternoon and checks it every two weeks to sun apparently suited them. “They make sure the medium hasn’t dried like to have their feet shaded, so it’s out. After three months, she plants good to have ferns or something at the seeds about a quarter-inch deep their base,” Carolyn said. in a flat filled with a good com- Though she had already collected post mix and places it outside in a most of the seed pods a few weeks lightly shaded, protected area and earlier to keep the seeds from being keeps it moist. The first leaves eaten by various critters, a few dried will appear within a year, if all # 11 CAPTION pods still perched on the brown goes well. Once the leaves are an Top, lily scales; below left, lily bulbs; inch or so tall, Carolyn transplants below right, lily seeds. stems. them to her deeper propagation “The pods were light brown when I beds. When the bulbs are about began collecting, and some had been References the size of a small acorn, Carolyn pecked by birds,” said Carolyn. transplants them to her garden beds. Aiken, George D. Pioneering with Cultivation If you are lucky, those beauties will Wildflowers.Prentice-Hall. Engle- bloom for you in five years, maybe “I open the pods and place the seeds wood Cliffs, NJ. 1968. seven. on a paper towel on my dining room Cullina, W. Wildflowers: A Guide to table,” said Carolyn. “I put them When you talk to someone who Growing and Propagating Native in moistened sphagnum in a sealed loves something, you sometimes Flowers of North America. Hough- plastic bag as soon as possible—usu- forget to ask the obvious: Why do ton Mifflin. Boston/. ally within a week at the longest.” you love Lilium canadense so much? 2000. She uses Canadian milled sphagnum “Because they are native, majestic, Stuckey, Irene H. Rhode Island Wild- moss moistened with distilled water tall, and elegant,” Carolyn says. “For flowers. University of and keeps the bag in a bowl at room me, they stand out and say, ‘Look Press. Knoxville, TN. 1967. temperature out of direct light for at me, I’m special.’ Apparently, they https://gobotany.newenglandwild. three months. Using distilled water make good cut flowers—at least org/species/lilium/canadense the flower arranger thought Lily plants, ready for transplanting so—but I’ve never cut them, because I want the seeds.” Rhode Island Wild Plant Society PO Box 888, N. Kingstown, RI 02852 401.789.7497 • [email protected] www.RIWPS.org

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