Lilies: How To Plant, Grow, And Care For Lily Flowers

With stunning star-shaped flowers, lilies add elegance and fragrance to any garden. Enjoy their colorful blooms from spring through the first frost by blending early-blooming, mid-season, and late-blooming lilies into your garden. Learn more about choosing, planting, and growing lilies.

About Lilies

Everyone loves lilies! Grown from bulbs, lilies are perennials that require minimal care if planted correctly. Most lilies do well in containers and look spectacular in a vase.

True lilies belong to the genus Lilium and grow from plump, scaly bulbs. Several popular lily species exist, including Orientals, Asiatics, Orienpets, and Species types.

We say “true” lilies because there are also plants, such as daylilies, peace lilies, and canna lilies, which have the term “lily” in their common name, but they’re not actually lilies at all. They do not grow from bulbs but are in a different plant genus. Water lilies aren’t lilies at all, and neither are lily-of-the-valley.

With 8,000 or so varieties, lilies parade an endless range of colors, shapes, heights, and bewitching scents. Lilies have six plain or strikingly marked tepals (“petals”) and are often trumpet-shaped, sitting atop a tall, erect stem with narrow, long, lance-shaped leaves. They come in many beautiful colors, including pink, gold, red, orange, and white.

Most lilies also take readily to containers at home in formal and naturalistic settings. Plus, they make excellent cut flowers!

To create a sequence of Lily blooms in your garden, remember that Asiatics generally flower first, followed by Orienpets and then Oriental varieties.

• Asiatic lilies (Lilium sp. - “Asiatic hybrids”) are the earliest to bloom (usually in May or June), right after peonies. They are also the easiest to grow, as long as they are planted in well-draining soil, not waterlogged. They are the shortest type of lily (about 2 to 3 feet tall) and come in many colors, from pastel to tropical. Hybrids come in pure white, pinks, vivid yellows, oranges, and reds; heights are from one to six feet. Intense breeding has erased much of the Asiatics’ fragrance, but despite their lack of perfume, they are a favorite with floral arrangers.
• Oriental lilies (Lilium sp. - “Oriental hybrids”) have that famously intoxicating fragrance. They are tall and stately (4 feet), and tend to grow more slowly. Oriental hybrids bloom in mid- to late summer, just when Asiatic lilies are beginning to fade. Orientals are always a striking choice, producing masses of huge white, pink, red, or bi-color blooms. They make wonderful cut flowers that fill even the largest rooms with spicy scents.
• Easter lilies (Lilium longifolium) are most commonly grown indoors as a holiday plant. As their name suggests, they are typically forced into bloom around Easter, in March or April. Outdoors, they are better suited for warmer regions of North America, where they can be planted in the garden after blooming has finished. These are generally hardy to Zone 5 (and to Zone 4 if given 1 to 2 feet of mulch in autumn for winter protection). Learn more about Easter Lilies.
• Trumpet lilies (Lilium sp. - “Trumpet hybrids”) are similar to oriental lilies, producing many blooms with a nice scent. Their flowers tend to be smaller and more closed (like a trumpet) than those of the other lilies.

There are other lilies out there, of course, such as tiger lilies (Lilium henryi) and Turk’s cap lilies (Lilium superbum), as well as hybrids like “Orienpet” (Oriental + Trumpet) and “LA” lilies (Easter + Asiatic). Browse through your favorite online gardening retailer’s catalog to find what you like best!