I'm confused. I want to grow some tiger type flowered lilies in my zone 4 garden. I want to naturalize them in an area with dappled shade. There is a lot of contradicting info on the internet about these types of lilies. First, what is this class off lilies called? Then, I've seen L. lancifolium (Tiger Lily-likes full sun from what I've read), L. superbum (Turk's Cap Lily, will take dappled shade, gets tall, like 6-7 feet), L. michiganense (MIchigan Lily, native to MN, but really hard to find) and Lilium martagon (Martagon Lilies-will take shade, but I've killed a few of them already-and they're really expensive) all grouped together and it seems like some people use the names interchangably. Are my descriptions correct? I ordered some Superbum lily corms/bulbs so I'm hoping they will do OK. One other question is, will they survive a zone 3 winter? I might want to plant some at my cabin in northern MN if they are hardy enough. Is there a general rule for how deep to plant them? I was going to dig in some compost and plant groupings of bulbs like 3-5 together in a hole-will that work?
Thank you so much!!!!

I believe "tiger" lilies are generally of the asiatic ad they get the manner from the pattern in the petals. The others you mentioned are species lilies. Species require a more specialized care usually. From a more acidic soil and other things.

Asiatics will grow nearly anywhere and can handle much colder winter temps. Martagons need a cold winter.

Lancifolum will increase rapidly, to the point some people consider them a nuisance. If you plant lancifolum, i would not plant any other lilium anywhere near it. Lancifolum is highly disease tolerant, meaning it may never show signs of being infected, while everything else around it becomes infected.

What is it about the "tiger" lily do you like or the reason you want to plant that one? There is a yellow variety called Leichtlini that has the same exact pattern.

Others on here will come in with their input as well. In the meantime, happy lily planting

*edited to change to disease tolerant instead of disease resistant

L. lancifolium is a pretty tough species and the true "Tiger Lily". These days just about any lilium with a similar spot pattern can end up being called a Tiger Lily, although as Dave says typically this refers to Asiatic hybrids with some L. lancifolium in them. L. leichtlinii is a species that is quite similar to L. lancifolium (the "type" variety is yellow but there is also an orange variety) but is fortunately less of a "Typhoid Mary". It's also a bit harder to grow than L. lancifolium.

If you're after a variety of colours, I would suggest looking at Asiatic hybrids that handle your climate. Others on this forums will be able to advise more on this point.

I'm not overly familiar with the North American species (L. superbum and L. michiganense) that you mention, so cannot advise you there.

Nhra_20 said:
What is it about the "tiger" lily do you like or the reason you want to plant that one?

Thanks for your answer:) I just think that the "tiger lily" flower shape will look pretty in a "naturalized" kind of planting. I did read about the diseases-I think someone called it a "Typhoid Mary":) I thought the superbum might not have the disease issues and would tolerate the dappled shade better than the lancifolium.
I do have some asiatic lilies and love them. They were one of the first things I planted in my yard when we first moved here 15 years ago and they just keep coming back every year!