What do you think is the most beautiful species of lily in the world? Someone said a long time ago that the most beautiful lily is the one that is just blooming and that is true. In the sea of beautiful lilies it is very difficult to choose your favorite. However, there are not so many wild lilies and choosing the most beautiful one is less of a problem than with hybrids. Choose in order 5 of the most beautiful species lilies according to you. The most important characteristic of beauty in this case is the flower and its shape, color or combination of colors. You can also fit the look of the whole lily (stem, leaves, etc.) into it.
It doesn't matter if you grew that lily or not. At this link you have pictures of most species of lilies and their cultivars but also you can find more on the internet if you need.
https://www.bdlilies.com/resea...
Warning - some variations are inaccurate and are no longer called that, so use only the main type. For example, lilium speciosum has a lot of variation, but regardless of that you only write lilium speciosum. In an additional explanation, you can add a variation that you particularly like (eg lilium speciosum (especially var. Gloriosoides).
Scoring system: from 5 to 1 point. So the lily that is first on your list gets 5 points, the second gets 4, etc. So choose the order carefully. I know it's hard, but give it a try. You can explain your choice, but it is not obligatory.
Voting will be open until 30.9. so that as many people as possible could vote.

This is harder than I expected.
Ok:
1. lilium canadense (especially red)
2. lilium monadelphum
3. lilium leucanthum (var. centifolium)
4. lilium regale
5. lilium pardalinum

Lilium speciosum var. gloriosoides (hands down favorite)
Lilium bakerianum var. rubrum
L:ilium candidum (lovely! And is one species I know I can grow here fairly easily)
Lilium duchartrei
Lilium janke

Interesting thread to start Lucius. Thanks! It was fun to think about this for a bit.

Np.
Just a note; when I count the points I will put only lilium speciosum. I won't single out the variations, but I will definitely mention them. You mentioned the ease of growing lilium candidum. Easy to grow or not it doesn't matter for this poll. I hope that didn't affect your choice about beauty.

May remind everyone that in that link above, clicking on the link often offers additional pics.

"Beauty" is a good choice of words, Lucius. Had you used glamorous, wondrous, pretty, showy, attractive or glorious, I might want to pick from hybrids. But "Beauty" belongs to the species, in my opinion. My picks:
1. Lilium canadense
2. Lilium majoense
3. Lilium lijiangense
4. Lilium duchartrei
5. Lilium oxypetalum (var. insigne)

1. L. pardalinum
2. L. speciosum
3. L. nepalense
4. L. poilanei
5. L. kelloggii

There's a reason pardalinum has been my screen name for more than 20 years now .

There's such a number of beautiful species lilies and it's hard to choose, but here are my five:
1. L. auratum
2. L. lankongense
3. L. canadense (particularly var. flavum)
4. L. kelloggii
5. L. speciosum

I have L. auratum, kelloggi and speciosum (which is flowing in the garden now); I'm still on the lookout for lankongense seeds, and though I have tried to germinate L. canadense in the past I have always failed. I think winters aren't cold enough here in the Pacific Northwest. I struggle with martagons too for the same reason I think...

For me it is this order.

1) L. canadense
2) L. nepalense
3) L. majoense
4) L. primulinum var. Burmanicum
5) L. Speciosum var album
But they are all beautiful though.

Edited to add one more.

@Nhra_20 Add one more.

After much deliberation, I have selected the following:

1. L. kesselringianum
2. L. wardii
3. L. davidii
4. L. martagon (can't pick a variety... too many nice ones!)
5. L. amoenum

I must point out that I have not succeeded in growing any of these to flowering... my second attempt at growing L. davidii from seed has returned this year and L. wardii (bought as a flowering-size bulb a couple of years ago) will hopefully make an appearance after the stem was damaged last year and I lost its first bloom.

Some of my seedlings of L. callosum and L. candidum have returned but aren't flowering size yet.

Top 5 so far:
1. lilium canadense 18 points
2. lilium speciosum 11 points
3. lilium nepalense 7 points
4. lilium majoense 7 points
5. lilium pardalinum 6 points

We need more voters.

1.candidum
2.regale
3.ciliatum
4.canadense
5.pumilum

Magnolialover, have you crossed with candidum , & with what success?

Never crossed candidum with anything, but my bet would be it would take ER (embryo rescue) to get anything, though I think Brian Bergman says he used it possibly to get a seedling with Cupid's Gift. If I recall though, he was not 100% sure on the tag for the cross.

You would probably want to stay with the Candidum section of Lilium if you could.
--- but then, you never know....

5 days left.

1. Speciosum var gloriosoides
2. Majoense
3. Wardii
4. Lijiangense
5. Bakerianum var rubrum

This is my choice:
1. L. regale
2. L. candidum
3. L. leichtlinii
4. L. henryii
5. L. lancifolium

One more day left!

Top 5 right now:
1. lilium canadense 20
2. lilium speciosum 16
3. lilium candidum 12
4. lilium majoense 11
5. lilium regale 11

Lucius93 said:One more day left!

Top 5 right now:
1. lilium canadense 20
2. lilium speciosum 16
3. lilium candidum 12
4. lilium majoense 11
5. lilium regale 11

The poll ended. I forgot about it but the final results are here. I wish we have had more voters. Although there was a small number of voters, we can see a huge number of species in the poll (29) which only proves how beautiful wild lilies are and how difficult it was to choose the most beautiful ones.