Antipodean lily season is in full swing, and I wanted to share some photos and ramblings without hijacking gwhizz's menagerie. While I have two offspring of the primate variety, lily babies have been with me longer and earned their place as my first children, so maybe this is more of a family album?

None of these is registered, just seedlings of varying vintages but inter-related breeding. It all began so long ago when a dear lily mentor gave me Lilium davidii and I came home from a lily show with a handful of unusually copper-coloured 1b/c flowers. The F1 generation had serious issues with short, crowded pedicels, but the plants themselves were such resilient survivors over the years in dry, hot, sandy soil, that I figured they had something worth passing on. Finally they met a tall, finely-figured turkscap asiatic with an outstanding inflorescence - fantastic length, placement, angle. It was sold to me un-named, and along with the F1s, was regretfully left behind on moving. Some of their babies though are with me still; mostly (I think?) they have tolerably ok inflorescences, and have gone on to share their genes with other tough and interesting (to me) lilies.

This I nickname 'light', it's the one in my avatar:

And centre in a group of siblings:


On left is what I reference in my head as 'pale':



And just out of picture are a couple more opening now, something rather non-descript but showing the frosted, raised papillae that I like:


and 'zoned':

(because it displays a central frosted eye and spots in distinct concentric zones - will take a clearer picture when fully open)

Interestingly, the second last picture displays subtle pink tones over the rather ordinary orange, something I had never noticed on the plant itself, but something this one photo picked up. When I looked again at the flower, I could see what the camera had 'noticed' that had escaped me. It's not as pronounced as the photo made it appear, but it is there... makes me wonder what I may have missed in the 'just' orange siblings of this group that I gave away over the years - They could have had interesting breeding potential for subtle colour blends, and were generally more vigorous than the more interesting colours I kept. It's so easy to overlook something in a flower!

Your have a very nice family, Della.

The pic with you hand in it shows the floral nectaries terminating in V-shaped ribs.

I've never seen that before.

Hmm... now that's something I hadn't noted distinctly different from other lilies. I'll have to take a closer look now at everyone, and see how other examples relate.. So many pics to sort through and re-size! I think I'll make an attempt at posting more tomorrow. I'm tending to spend hours on end just staring at lilies and dreaming.... such a great way to be

Thanks

Not as silly as this old crazy man!!!!!!getting lost in the lilies[in the garage, canopy of the truck, backyard, front yard, flower box,,side garden, front verandah, back stairs, and shhhhh!-neighbors side garden!!],' like a child in a candy store'

I've got a good ways to go before I can't get out the door or driveway for lilies! That's inspiration ;)

Well, my 'zoned' friend seems rather hard to capture:


Whether it's the central eye effect:


...or the texture changes of radiating lines created by papillae:


it just doesn't seem to come out quite the same in photos, but the total effect is something I find rather different from other lilies I've seen.

I'm still trying to get a handle on the 'v' effect in the earlier picture too. I'd say that maybe some other flowers here display it too, if I could define quite what it is... am I looking at a subtle continuum between parallel ridges running from the nectary furrow v, toward those lines continuing the v line? Don't all lily nectaries terminate in a v, it's just a matter of where the lines flow from there? I'm afraid I'm missing some detail, and might have missed it for years!

Rick, perhaps as I upload more pictures, you could point out to me other examples (or lack of)?

You are correct, Della. All nectaries terminate in a some sort of V shape, however tiny it may be. I could only zoom in so far before your pic gets blurry, but it looked as though those particular nectary ends might be more pronounced. But really, I was talking about how the petal ribs extend the V. When petal ribs are present in lilies, they are parallel. On that flower, they diverge significantly (making the V) before assuming parallel status.

It seems to be a feature of many of the seedlings here, but then it can be confusing just where the nectaries end. I really like pronounced nectaries and prefer seedlings with lots of 'topography' (like 'twisty-cot' below; an F3 or F4 seedling)... just where a nectary ends and a tepal rib begins isn't easy to define. The extended 'V' seems to occur on the sepals, whilst petal ribs on the same flower are parallel. Sometimes spotting continues along the lines too, pronouncing the feature. Twisty-cot here maintains parallel ribs on both sepals and petals, the other - a cross between one of my F2 seedlings and an un-named Neil Jordan seedling from his Tas Township bloodline - seems quite pronounced in showing sepal rib Vs:




A couple more of the F2 generation recently opened, 'dark':





and 'other':



I'm really relieved for their reappearance, because both fell victim last year to a neighbour's well-meaning herbicide spraying. I went on holiday, having asked them to water for me, and they did a total yard clean up. I thought they were going to die... (the lilies, not my neighbours! ) So, just a very few flowers this year, but not lost forever!

'Dark' has tremendous texture and substance, and both seem to display sepal Vs... unless I'm really going cross-eyed? I love the opportunity to examine all these babies with a new perspective, thanks.

(I'm also wondering if parallel ribbing is a necessarily restricted feature of petals because of the way they must accomodate sepal edges in closed buds, whereas sepals lack the feature, and any rib-like feature they do display may just be the extended ridges of nectary furrows, making them more obvious in these seedlings because of the emphasise on papillae and nectaries?)

Oh... I'm reducing file size (and picture quality) to take account of Anthony's ultra-slow download speeds....

Where does the nectary end? Good question. My educated guess would say where the fuzzy part ends, or where the fuzzy part changes to a different texture. But even that doesn't really hold from flower to flower.

The botanical definition of a nectary is "a tissue or organ which produces nectar". Well that sure clears things up . I've observed butterflies on lilies before, and they seem to "lick" all over the petals....

I still think your first pic here
http://garden.org/pics/2012-12...
shows a wider V than any other so far.

It's fairly easy to see where the nectaries end on this flower of yours
http://garden.org/pics/2012-12...
But on others, yes, very difficult.

dellac said:I'm also wondering if parallel ribbing is a necessarily restricted feature of petals because of the way they must accomodate sepal edges in closed buds, whereas sepals lack the feature....

Oh boy, and I though I had an inquiring mind! My thought is yes, petal ribs could be more pronounce due to the "accomodating feature", but no, I don't think it is exclusively in petals and not sepals. Both can have more than just the two ribs that we have talked about so far.

dellac said:Oh... I'm reducing file size (and picture quality) to take account of Anthony's ultra-slow download speeds....

Even so, the photo detail is better then the first pic that brought on this V talk. Dave has some kind of parameter here on the ATP forums that automatically reduces them if they file size is too large. What "too large" is, I don't know.

Hehe, I probably think too much about things sometimes. I think it might just be the angle of light that gives the first 'V' lily prominence. In the flesh, or petal or whatever a lily may be declared to inhabit - several other seedlings here seem just as pronounced. It's an interesting feature, and I'm glad you pointed it out.

If ants have any taste to judge nectar production, then their habit of haunting the nectary furrows is pretty indicative. I used to have a 10X botanical lens... now I think it would be useful again - surely anything distinctive would be clearer under magnification.

Anyway - on with the mission to make asiatics look like L. speciosum!

(And now I'll save time and try just uploading my unshrunk files )

A couple more siblings from the group I've been posting:



...and...



Photos of this lily from last year were posted in the introduction thread - the colours here are quite different from the light and conditions of last season.

Groovy, Della,..,.I've run out of herbs!!!!!![worn out] 40 % of what was next to the truck is 'GONE'......!Hope you and the kids have a great christmas-Anthony

Inundated by last minute christmas shoppers? More folk to be bitten by the lily bug, I hope!

And this is great:


A little someone very impressed with all your happy lilies! And someone else I showed the picture to a few hours ago had eyes for nothing but the truck!

Amazing you can keep so many lilies going in such a small, sun-baked space. I really have no excuse - when we got home on Sunday it was so much cooler here. I'll know to add at least another 5 celsius to those scorching days to get an idea of how the heat is at Rosetta!

Have a wonderful christmas

Very nice lilies ~ I especially like the ones with the rosy blush. That is one fantastic truck.

Thanks, Moby. I like the rosy ones too. And I'm trying to find out what my little camera can do



Another shot of 'other'.

Anthony's truck is a marvel! Being ignorant of autos, I'm just impressed by retro, silver and shiny... and so much room for lilies in the back!

Such lovely pictures, Della. Feel free to practice with your new camera by showing us pictures.

Absolutely ~ and we'll graciously let you know when you've come to perfection and can stop.

Thanks guys

I've just been away camping (well, the luxury of a mountain hut!) for a few days - only really started to fret this last day, about what my lilies were doing without me. Now I can get back to dreaming and photographing and pollinating... more photos soon.

Pollinating!-Did someone mention pollinating?-The mad pollinator has been busy,.,

And you're the busiest bee in the garden! Nice to see your pictures Anthony!