According to Monty Don, you must plant this particular flower soon or risk missing out on a stunning display that could be the star of your garden this summer.
As milder weather draws in, gardening expert Monty Don advises gardeners what plants need actioning right away.
If you are thinking about what to plant and when in order to achieve the best possible blooms this high season, Monty Don may have the answer for you: Lilies. Bold, elegant, and impossible to ignore, these flowers if done right, don’t just compliment a garden but have the ability to turn yours into a truly colourful and fragrant display. But as Monty Don warns, you must plant them soon or potentially miss out on their beauty this summer.
Specifically, the gardening guru advices that lilies should be planted in March and early April into pots. The flowers mostly prefer a an ericaceous soil, or more acidic soil but Monty recommends mixing in plenty of leafmould and grit into a bark-based general purpose, compost. You can added perlite or vermiculite to give your lilies an even better chance. Don’t pack it too firmly as they prefer and loose compost.
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Ensure your pots have good drainage and pant the bulbs, pointed end up, leaving approximately 4 inches of compost above each one. Place them somewhere lightly shaded and water them regularly – within a couple of months, in May and June, you could be seeing buds develop.
These flowers prefer to be in the sun and their roots in the shade, so bear this in mind when moving them to their permanent position in your garden. Aim for somewhere west or east facing in a nicely sheltered spot and, with a little bit of luck, they’ll bloom into on of your garden’s most eye catching flowers.
There are hundreds of varieties of Lilies to choose from, each with their own unique look, hue and fragrance. Bear in mind that some types, like the popular Madonna Lily for example, thrive in a an alkaline soil given the right conditions, should be the first to flower this summer and will continue to return year after year. It is worth choosing which lilies to plant based on the quality of your soil.
To keep your lilies in tip-top condition, be sure to dead-head them and whatever you do, don’t let them dry out. Feed them often and watch out for aphids, a tiny green insect which have the potential to spread devastating viral diseases to your plants. If you spot any red beetles on your lilies too, get rid of them as soon as you can.
You should also beware if you have cats as lilies, as beautiful as they are, are extremely toxic to our feline friends. Even tiny amounts of the plant ingested by cats can cause sever kidney damage and on occasions, death. Early signs of lily poisoning in cats include low activity level, drooling, vomiting, and loss of appetite. If you are worried, you should take your cat to the vet as soon as possible.
Like lilies, many plants need to be sown or planted in the spring to ensure a vibrant summer bloom. Other popular choices include dahlias, gladioli, peonies and agapanthus which all thrive when their bulbs or tubers are planted after the last frost in Spring.
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