Experienced gardeners and gardeners are well aware that in order for a summer cottage to look beautiful in summer, you need to start preparing it in the fall.
We will tell you how to decorate a flower bed with lilies. The photos presented in the article will clearly demonstrate how it will look during the flowering period.
Why lilies? Because these flowers look great both solo and in combination with other plants. Lilies are distinguished by an abundance of colors, they smell delicious, are unpretentious and, importantly, are perennials.
Lilies in the garden
The palette of lilies is incredibly diverse. This makes it possible for a large number of options for using these colors in landscape design. Depending on the variety, and they are both tall (up to 2 m) and miniature (0.5 m), they can be placed in the foreground as a border or behind lower flowers,like solitaires.
Large lilies planted along the fence look good as a boundary of the territory of the site.
Beautiful tall lilies next to conifers and shrubs with small leaves - barberry, mahonia, euonymus, boxwood. This kind of flower bed with lilies is in the photo below.
The tone, shape and texture of lily leaves vary by variety and these nuances can be used to create contrast with other plants. The lily beds presented in our article give a complete picture of what it will look like in the flowering season.
The skillful combination of different types of lilies allows you to admire the flowering of royal flowers until autumn, especially if you combine them in mixborders or discounts, next to annuals.
Beautiful flowering conditions
Lilies tolerate partial shade well and feel best on neutral soils. When choosing neighbors for them, you need to give preference to moisture-loving plants, as lilies love moist soil, but without stagnant water.
At the end of flowering, the leaves of lilies wither and look unaesthetic. Faded stems and leaves are well masked by lower and lush bushes of marigolds, wormwood, lyatris, geyhera or annual ground cover phloxes. They will serve not only as a good background for the lilies that entered the flowering time, but also mulch the ground around them from drying out.
For the same purpose, lilies are surrounded by ferns, hosta. It is not at all difficult to build such a flower bed with lilies with your own hands.
In spring, it is recommended to moisten the ground under lilies with a solution of calcium nitrate and apply complex fertilizer. At the end of flowering, in order to provide the bulbs with strength for the next year, the ground under the lilies should be watered again with liquid phosphorus-potassium fertilizer.
The main disease of lilies is botrys, or gray rot. The disease-causing fungus infects the bulbs if they are planted too closely and the ground around them is excessively wet and compacted. For the prevention of botrys, the soil at the base of the peduncles must be regularly loosened with a pitchfork, and in the fall, thin out the overgrown bushes. Only in this case, a flower bed with lilies will decorate your summer cottage for many years.
Popular combinations
Climbing roses are often planted against the background of a high wall, and lily bulbs are placed in front of them. This is beautiful, but only suitable for large spaces, for example, near the porch of the house or around the gazebo. Children often play in these places and can trample small plants, and tall lilies are allowed to be planted near the wall, under the branches of roses. In such a neighborhood, they will feel quite good. Plant a few hostas at the roots. The plant remarkably mulches the ground and grows in such a way that it will be quite difficult not to notice and trample it, as well as the stems of lilies stretched out from under its wide leaves. A beautiful flower bed with lilies surrounded by a hosta is also presented in our material.
What can not be planted with
Lilies should not be planted next to irises. Despite the fact that their flowering time is different, and according toin appearance, these plants seem to be compatible, such a neighborhood will adversely affect both. The fact is that faded irises should never be watered. Their main root, located on the surface of the earth, will quickly rot, and lilies during the flowering period require regular moistening of the root area of the soil.
The second unfortunate neighbor of the lily is the tulip. These flowers have common diseases. In addition, tulip bulbs invariably attract the attention of mice. Having spoiled tulips, they at the same time will gnaw on lily bulbs. And they, especially varietal ones, are very expensive and rarely available for free sale. If you want a flower bed with lilies to please with flowers all summer, starting from spring, plant daffodils or a blueberry near it.
Experienced gardeners who do not want to part with tulips dig in lily bulbs along with plastic or metal cans. With their walls, they block access to them for both mice and other pests.
The jar is cut off at the top and bottom and is driven into the ground around the bulb with a hammer. This will make watering difficult later, but will keep valuable specimens from garden vandals.
Lilies under the tree
Lily is one of those plants that can be planted under tall trees right along the perimeter of the trunk, stepping back 50 cm from it. It is not only beautiful, but also very practical - by watering lilies, you will water the tree as well. It will also take away excess water, which can harm the bulbs.
When choosing a combination, do not forget to clarify whether the flowering of the queen of the garden will matchwith fruit ripening on the tree under which it is planted. Falling apples or pears will easily break the peduncles, and all your hopes for a luxurious flower bed with lilies, fragrant with a delicate aroma, will go to waste.
Framing paths
Lilies do not like crowding, but require stems to be masked. After all, after the flowering period ends, they will lose their decorative effect. Both of these tasks will be successfully performed by medium-sized garden flowers, for example, coleus, primrose, lobelia, if planted in the foreground of flower beds with lilies.
Primrose blooms in the spring, when the lilies are just starting to grow. These bright perennials will leave a miniature rosette of leaves after flowering, which will not spoil the look of a flower bed with lilies in the country house or in the front garden, in front of the windows of a city house.
Lobelias start flowering in June and remain decorative until the end of September. Their spherical bushes with bright scarlet or blue flowers are not only very decorative in themselves, but will be wonderful neighbors for lilies. Red lobelias are best combined with lilies of the same shade or white, and blue - with almost any. How cute they look in a flower bed with lilies in the country! The photos presented in the review prove this.
It is good to scatter escholcia seeds between bushes of tall orange lilies. Its small orange flowers will not only decorate lilies and emphasize the nobility of large-flowered tiger varieties, but will decorate flower beds with lilies in the country (the photo clearly confirms this) until the very winter, because the flowering of escholcia often continues until the endNovember.
You can keep the attractive appearance of the path for a long time by planting bushes of low ferns among the lilies. It will turn out to be a sort of flowering ferns from an old legend.
Flower without weeding
The need for regular weeding near lilies often makes gardeners refuse to plant lilies on their plots. Rough weeds quickly clog the tender shoots of lilies, and they soon stop growing altogether.
We suggest making flowerbeds of lilies with your own hands (the photo is presented in the article), among plantings of rhododendrons and astilbe.
A large flower bed in the middle of the garden, on which these large plants flaunt, will harmoniously perceive the neighborhood with lilies. Astilba takes root quite deeply, therefore, in a short time, it quickly and permanently displaces all the weeds that used to grow in this place. In such conditions, lily bulbs will feel absolutely perfect. Lush rhododendrons will divert attention from the unsightly stems of lilies, and the flowers of the lilies themselves against the background of waxy rhododendron leaves will look especially noble.
If the appearance of bare ground seems dull and uninteresting, then it can be covered with a layer of well-dried and crushed tree bark.
Combination with small-flowered flowers
Large glasses of lilies look incredibly attractive and aristocratic against the background of plants with small flowers. Plant yarrow next to them. It comes in different varieties with white or pinkinflorescences. Delightfully combined with lilies yarrow ptarmika. Don't like yarrow? Replace it with Iberis perennial. The effect will be the same.
A lily bush looks very decorative (a photo of flowers in a flower bed is in the article) surrounded by small balls of tall anafalis pearl or fluffy bush of small-flowered gypsophila. Branches of these plants, they are also called "pearls", florists often add to bouquets with lilies or roses.
Scented alyssum or matthiola will hide the unsightly lower branches of a lily and, mixed with its aroma, will create a divine cocktail of smells. Arrange this flower bed near the window of the house or veranda and in the evenings you will enjoy the fragrance of paradise.
Combination with decorative foliage
This option will appeal to those who love conciseness or have a sufficient number of bright mixborders and discounts in the garden. Next to them, a flower bed with lilies against the background of decorative leafy plants will stand out very much, so we recommend using this option for zoning the recreation area near the gazebo or barbecue area. Or, alternatively, plant the selected plants along the path leading from the door of the house to the gate. On the back line, let there be tall lilies, and in the foreground, a strip of gray seaside cineraria, with velvety carved leaves. An alternative to cineraria can be a geyhera with multi-colored leaves and small flowers, it will ideally emphasize the noble bells of lilies during flowering and hide the unsympathetic stems of already fadedqueens of the garden.
Continuous Bloom Flowerbed
What gardener doesn't dream of a perennial flower bed that blooms from spring to late fall? You can make such a flower bed, but you still have to take care of it. We will show you how to minimize the effort of caring for a lily bed.
A large number of plants planted nearby quickly depletes the soil, so once in the winter and once before flowering it will need to be fertilized with the appropriate minerals. Well, in the summer she will need watering and only occasionally loosening.
The centerpiece of our continuous flowering flower bed is lilies. Bulbs of daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths are planted next. Between them are primroses. In the intervals between them, plant pearl oysters, and the next circle - ground cover asters. Thus, you will get a flower bed that will delight with flowers from early spring to late autumn.
Lilies and hostas
This is a very successful combination especially loved by landscape designers. Hostas cover unsightly stems of lilies with their large leaves. They grow quite slowly and do not cause problems for gardeners with weeding, and the large leaves of one bush can cover a whole square meter of area around the lilies. So that in spring the land in the flower bed is not empty, because the hosts wake up quite late, plant bulbs of snowdrops, muscari or crocuses on it. They do not bloom for long, so hosta leaves that have grown in summer will not interfere with them. Such a flower bed with a minimum of effort appliedat the very beginning, it will look well-groomed and decorative for many years. What is called, planted and forgotten.
Lilies and conifers
Lilies are successfully combined with undersized coniferous shrubs. Against the background of juniper, arborvitae, dwarf pines and cypresses, lilies look very impressive. Since their flowering period is quite short, it is advisable to plant different varieties with large flowers and with different flowering periods at a distance of 1.5 m from each other, and plant small-flowered climbing roses between them.
The conifers creeping along the ground will keep the ground moist longer, but will not impede the movement of air.
Some experts object to this combination, because conifers, roses and lilies require soil of different composition, but here the solution is quite simple: individual fertilizer complexes must be placed in the planting pit of each plant. Almost a meter distance between them will create suitable conditions for each individually. In the meantime, the conifers have not grown, fill the voids with spring, summer and autumn annuals or perennials.
Such a flower bed will take up a lot of space, so arrange it in advance so that later it does not interfere with movement in the garden and is clearly visible from different angles.
