Lilies are the one constant in the most stunning gardens that I’ve toured. Vibrant, colorful, fragrant lilies, grown in large swaths and reaching to the sky. Realizing a woeful lack of lilies in my own garden and wanting it to be stunning, too, I learned more about these effervescent plants, including how to grow them in my mostly shady landscape.

If you’re like me, you may be confused about what exactly belongs to the lily family. Does the genus Lilium include daylilies? Which ones are most colorful? Which are most fragrant? Will they work in shade? How do I keep the display coming? There are five lily divisions that work well in our
northern gardens, each with its own special characteristics. Here they are, listed in order of bloom time.

1.) Martagons

Martagons are a popular choice for shade gardens. They grow best in filtered light and need only about two hours of direct sun a day. Martagons are the first lilies to flower, usually around Father’s Day. A species lily (meaning those originally found in the wild), its mostly down-facing
flowers hang pendulously from the center stalk.

2.) Asiatic Lilies

Asiatic lilies are a good choice if you want your plants flowering at a time when not much else in the garden is blooming. Most Asiatics open in early summer after the peonies fade, and they’re a good size—2 to 3 feet tall— for the middle of the border. I love that they offer brilliant color—think deep reds, oranges, purples and yellows. For this reason, the Asiatics are my first choice among lilies.

3.) Orienpets

A hybrid of oriental and trumpet lilies, orienpets usually begin blooming during midsummer, right
after the Asiatics fade. Most reach 6 feet in height and combine the best characteristics of both parents—large flowers plus fragrance.

4.) Oriental lilies

These lilies are famous for their alluring fragrance but, unfortunately, aren’t as long-lived as the other divisions. Orientals grow 3 to 4 feet tall and bloom mid- to late-summer. Their color offerings are softer, more pastel, and many display speckled petals. A member of this division, ‘Stargazer’, is the most popular lily in modern history.

5.) Trumpet lilies

Trumpet lilies are also very fragrant, and they bloom at the same time as the orientals, mid- to late summer. Stretching 6 feet tall, they stand like soldiers in the back of the border.

While these are the lily stalwarts, we have other choices as well, such as the recently introduced Asiatic-oriental lilies. They offer the bright colors of Asiatic lilies with the larger flowers and taller habit of orientals. Longiflorum Asiatic lilies, reaching 4 feet in height with a light fragrance, are hybrid crosses between longiflorum lilies, the variety to which our Easter lilies belong, and Asiatic lilies. They display thick, smooth petals and upward-facing flowers.

And no, the genus doesn’t include daylilies, which are similar in flower appearance but belong to another genus, Hemerocallis.

Gather more information from northstarlilysociety.com and lilies.org to see which lilies might meet your needs, and then head to the nursery. With an abundance of lilies, our gardens will be standouts, too.

This article originally appeared in the Mar/Apr 2022 edition of Northern Gardener® Magazine.

Diane McGann is an award-winning garden writer and the design columnist for Northern Gardener magazine. She also serves as a University of Minnesota Master Gardener and Tree Care Advisor. Diane has both studied and taught landscape design, her particular gardening passion. She serves on the University of Minnesota Extension Ask an Expert panel and is a member of Garden Communicators International and the Washington County Horticulture Society. Diane resides in Stillwater where she maintains extensive perennial and shade gardens on her 4 ½ acre property..