Turk’s cap lilies are blooming in the Laurel Highlands this week.
I counted 35 flowers along two miles of the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail but there should have been more. Deer love to eat them so the majority are topped off like this.
Lillium superbum stand three to seven feet high but can be amazingly hard to notice in the dappled forest light.
Here are more views of these superb lilies.
(photos by Kate St. John)
Fortunately, seed is not the only way these lilies reproduce. Mature lily plants produce daughter bulbs which can be split off from the main bulb and replanted to grow new plants. Lilies, being bulbs, must be dug when dormant — in the fall. I have grown Turk’s caps from seed, and it is not difficult. It is, however, a very long process and one must have patience. A plant takes 6-7 years from seed to flower.
Unfortunately, deer are not the only creatures who eat lilies. All the parts of the plant are edible, both above and below ground. Some people surround the bulbs with coarse grit or gravel to deter hungry diggers.
I had one randomly grow in my PA backyard one summer. Only saw it one year – I assume it was delicious to some above ground & underground critters.
A few days ago I went to see the Turk’s Cap Lilies at Wolf Creek Narrows near Slippery Rock in Butler County. The lilies growing with good light look like they are on steroids. Some of them are more than 10 feet tall with 20 to 30 blooms on one plant. Extremely impressive.