Lily Bulb - 'L. sargentiae' (Species or Wild Lily)

This native of Szechwan in Western China grows up to about 5000 feet in elevation. Unlike L. regale, also from this general area, L. sargentiae will not tolerate lime in the soil and is very prone to boyrytis attacks making it a very difficult subject in growing areas such as ours in the Pacific Northwest.

Known to be one of the parents along with L. henryi of Debra's L. x aureliense, we will be uploading a photo of L. x aureliense, one of the hybrids that "started it all" when we get fully into the 'Trumpet / Aurelian Knowledge Base. We were gleeful in finding an example of the Debras hybrid in the Hoffman collection of slides donated by their daughter. In breeding, L. sargentiae has proved to be far more valuable than L. regale.

Having never grown or flowered this particular species we are very grateful to Alan Mitchell of Scotland for his contribution to the Species Knowledge Base not only for the title photo but also for photo insets #1 and #2 showing first the production of stem bulbils as well as lovely open throat shot of this lily.

Photo insert #3 is of an example of L. sargentiae as flowered and photographed by Boyd Cline in the late 1940's, from the photo collection of Bill & Mary Hoffman.