Midsummer is when the true royalty of the garden make their entrance, as the Oriental lilies raise their haughty, regal heads above the other plants

Like all gardeners, I have my particular favourites among the plants in my garden, and this time of year, I find myself waiting like a little kid for the lilies to bloom.

It still amazes me that such impossibly beautiful flowers are so easy to grow. Just meet a few very basic needs, and they’ll return year after year. Some of them, like other flowering bulbs, will even multiply.

True lilies (lilium spp., not to be confused with daylilies, peace lilies, or any other plants that happen to have “lily” in their name) are available in just about any colour you can think of except purple or blue, and range in height from dwarf varieties barely a

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