Monthly Feature
Humboldt Lily
Lilium humboldtii
This month's plant of merit is the Humboldt Lily. Humboldt Lily is a bold, tall bulb featuring myriad orange, tigerlily-like flowers in a raceme above whorls of glossy, narrow leaves. Plants can grow up to 8 feet tall and bear over 20 flowers each. Humboldt Lily blooms in summer, usually June or July, and is best in dry shade. It is an excellent candidate to grow under oaks. If you allow seed pods to form, you will have a large quantity of flat, coin-like seeds to plant. Humboldt Lily is easy to propagate from seed planted in fall but takes 3 to 4 years to reach flowering size. It can also be propagated from individual bulb scales. This glorious lily lives in the lower pine belt of the central and northern Sierra Nevada. (It is common in the Feather River area.) Variety ocellatum occurs in coastal canyons in southern California and on some of the Channel Islands. It differs by having an eyelike rim around each spot on the petals. Either form is beautiful in the garden.