The lilies are a full bloom in our garden right now. What wonderful fragrance they provide me while I walk through my garden. Every year we have a large batch of daylilies bursting that look like a firework display they are so tall and lively. We will need to divide them after they have bloomed because they have grown so dense. I am still deciding where I want to put them and I am looking forward to their expansion in our garden.
This year we had the unexpected pleasure to also have our Asiatic lilies bloom. About 10 years ago our friend Joey gave me a bag of bulbs that I planted in what I affectionately called Joey’s Lily garden. The plants came up the first year, but were quickly eaten by the deer before they blossomed. After that, I don’t recall seeing them again, even just the buds, until this year. My husband Andy has been diligently spraying the garden with Bobbex (it smells like rotten eggs) and the deer have stayed away! And that means the lilies actually had a chance to appear. I am sure that the spraying helped, but it had to be something more that caused our lilies to finally bloom again because Andy has been spraying all the gardens for the last 3 years or so. The only thing that I can say is different about that particularly garden is that we mulched it for the first time about two years ago. Maybe as the mulch decomposed, the added nutrients helped the lilies? Who know, but whatever the reason, I am happy to see the splendid cream and yellow lilies in Joey’s lily garden!
Lilies are wonderful in bouquets, boutonnieres and flower arrangements for just about any event. They are easy to find in florists all yearlong and they are even fragrant which is not that common for flowers that are grown in hothouses for florists. Lilies add boldness to your display and mix well with other flowers. Lily symbolizes purity and refined beauty, elegance and sweetness. White lily symbolizes modesty and virginity, orange lily symbolizes passion, pink lily represents wealth and prosperity and yellow lily represents gaiety. Take your pick of color for a beautiful lily with a beautiful sentiment.
There Is A Garden In Her Face
By Thomas Campion
There is a garden in her face
Where roses and white lilies grow;
A heav’nly paradise is that place
Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow.
There cherries grow which none may buy,
Till “Cherry ripe” themselves do cry.
Those cherries fairly do enclose
Of orient pearl a double row,
Which when her lovely laughter shows,
They look like rose-buds fill’d with snow;
Yet them nor peer nor prince can buy,
Till “Cherry ripe” themselves do cry.
Her eyes like angels watch them still,
Her brows like bended bows do stand,
Threat’ning with piercing frowns to kill
All that attempt with eye or hand
Those sacred cherries to come nigh,
Till “Cherry ripe” themselves do cry.
XOXO Rachel
Wondrance 