Garden Surprise

     Intending to ride my golf cart up to the mail box, I started down the driveway but  was stymied by a huge electric company truck blocking my way.  I turned around and headed back up to the house but stopped by the plants in the curve of my road.  I saw yellow lilies which I KNOW I did not plant.  What I had planted there were white lilies (Lilium longiflorum).  My family has been generous over the years to present me with  Easter Lilies which made their way into my garden, after the bloom had faded.  I have other bulbs planted there, a pink and white striped Amaryllis,  along with the white lilies and double orange day lilies.  Other perennials are there also.  Never did I plant yellow lilies.

     So, I had to know how they happened to be there.  Across the road I have yellow, scented day lilies which bloom later in the summer, but the only yellow lilies I have are some distance up the road, behind my house.  I had to know more.  Thus I went looking for information and found a great source of information on the Easter Lily.  It is the Aggie Horticulture web site.  Here is the easy way to access it:  http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/lily/lily.html 

     It has  some fascinating information about the beautiful Easter Lily which is the fourth largest crop in wholesale value in the U.S. pot plant market, behind poinsettias, mums and azaleas.  That is a direct quote from the web site.  I have a renewed respect for the perfect white lily which I have enjoyed all these years.  One fact is that the white cultivar (Nellie White) is named for a grower's wife, Nellie White.  A very specific area between California and Oregon has the perfect climate, soil and conditions for producing the bulbs for this joyful Easter plant.

     Since I did not find any answers from a professional standpoint, I did find other gardeners, like myself, who have been puzzled by the same thing.  Some had the Easter lily come back up as orange and some had come back as yellow.  No one seems to know exactly why.  If an Iris can revert to the original color, then I suppose it is possible for the Easter lily to do the same thing.  I once had fifty white Iris plants, given to me by a friend.  They all reverted to their original color which was mostly purple.  The yellow lily which showed up this year was not robust like the original plant, this year there was only one bloom.

     I shall enjoy it as it is, where it is, and not complain.  It is a miracle to me, that a bulb which looks much like an onion when placed in the ground, can come up each year and present a lovely perfect bloom to delight the beholder.