Luscious lilies

Beautiful and hardy, lilies are flowers of mystery and legend. Camilla Phelps explains how you're spoilt for choice when it comes to finding the right lily for your garden

- Camilla Phelps

A real show-stopper as it bursts into bloom, Lilium regale, like other beautiful lily types, can be planted now

THE lilium family ranges from towering beauties to more discreet, petite varieties, but they all share stunning, show-stopping flowers. And while the destructive lily beetle creates some tough challenges for growers, it's worth planting lilies now for the glamour and scent they bring to your summer garden.

Legend has it that the first lily sprang from the tears of Eve as she left the garden of Eden. While we don't know which type of lily this was, lilies have often featured in religious paintings, and it underlines the fascination that man has had for lilies over thousands of years.

True lily species

There are many plants that we refer to as lilies such as daylilies and ginger lilies. However, the true lily species come from as far apart as Europe, Asia and North America. There have been hundreds of hybrids bred from these over the years, so it's not hard to find one to suit your garden. There are lilies to suit sun and semi-shade, acidic and alkaline soils, and although their flowers look quite ethereal, they are tough plants that don't need a lot of attention.

Lilies are hardy bulbs that you can plant in autumn or spring, and they don't need lifting and storing over winter like dahlias. In the right conditions they will spread and multiply to form wonderful natural clumps, or self-seed. Once established, they will need dividing in autumn every few years, but they also work well in containers and, of course, make great cut flowers to bring indoors.