Hi Susan Hi everyone and welcome Helepolis,
What does "Helepolis" mean? What's it's story?
I have been away from my PC for 2 days working in the garden almost 8 hours.….have been very busy planting 350 roses and 500 oriental lily bulbs and ..and…and... Tiny muscles I did not know I have are a bit stiff. Busy to create similar effects in Moby’s and Jmorth’s and gel1836’ pictures.
Thanks for the comments.
I leave the lilies in the pots all year round. I make sure I cover the top soil with gravel/shingles to stop the grey squirrels from digging up the soil and damaging the bulbs. I water the pots regularly when the lilies are in buds and in flower. After they finished flowering I put the pots behind the Oak trees and big bushes away from the eyesight. I then gradually reduce the watering and forget about watering one month after they finished flowering. Then I let the nature take its course.
The lilies seem to flower in shaded areas in my garden as well and the flowers last longer and stay un-faded. I have my “Black Night” lily in the same pot in the same shady spot under the canopy of two Oak trees for about 10 years now. It has been doing very well. The lily is getting morning sun only. Every year the flowers come in this shiny leathery texture spotless almost black color.
The idea of a pot is to fight off the beetles indeed.
I am afraid I do not know the name of the pink-purple lily in the pot. I bought the lily as mixed ornamental lilies bag. The white ones live in the ground.
I can’t believe you are asking what a lily beetle looks like. I envy you because you do not know what it is and I hope you won’t have any experience of the beasts. You are one of the luckiest persons on this earth for not having any experience with these monsters. You are not winding me up are you? Lucky you. WOW. Perhaps I should emigrate to your area and enjoy my lilies without the lily beetles!!! . Have a look at the pictures. It is a horrible horrible beast.
and a bit of serious info from Wikipedia:
According to the link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...:
“The lily leaf beetle is indigenous to parts of Europe and Asia. It is thought to have been introduced to North America through the importation of plant bulbs around 1945. First spotted in Montreal, it spread throughout Canada and the eastern United States within decades.[3] It has also become established as an invasive species in the United Kingdom since its introduction in 1943. It has spread from Surrey to as far north as Fort William.
“
Coming to where I live: I sincerely hope that this is not going to put you off in any way: I live in the UK. The hardiness zone where I live is equal to America’s 5 to 7 hardiness zone. I know UK and America are seperate continents but a plant is a plant and a lily is a lily where ever you are in the world. It is all the same TLC and looking after and the same beautiful flowers. I find it the most interesting thing to see and read about the same plant behaving and adapting to different environments. I learned the propagation technique from one American web site and now I have lovely pot of lilies… All day for two days I have been digging the soil and tucking my lilies into the ground. I also planted more into 4 more 40lt pots aaannnddd covered the top of the pots soil with some shingles.
What else I forgot to answer... next time round.... Pictures ....please keep coming..
Another one from the front garden:
You might be sorry. 
