Lilium Lady Alice - Lily

Lilium 'Lady Alice' is a worthy descendant of Henry's lily, from which it inherits great vigour and flowers with recurved petals, but adds an elegant colour combination of orange and white. Its beautiful bicoloured flowers are widely marked with golden yellow turning to orange on a white background, speckled with apricot and have a dark green throat with very long green stamens with brown anthers. Each bulb produces up to 20 flowers, usually in July. This lily is easy to grow even though it takes a little longer to establish. It faithfully flowers every year once established and will be a source of pride for any gardener.

Lilium 'Lady Alice' is derived, among others, from Henry's Lily, a botanical species that grows in the mountains of central China, particularly in the Yangtze Gorges, on limestone soil. This species could almost be described as forest-dwelling and has given rise through various cross-breeding to easy-to-grow varieties with great vigour. 'Lady Alice' is a deciduous bulbous plant with a narrow and very vertical tuft of foliage from spring onwards. It belongs to the Liliaceae family. This sturdy plant is slender and graceful and will reach 1.50m (5ft) to 1.80m (6ft) high when in flower. The clump will spread indefinitely over time, with the bulbs producing bulblets through vegetative multiplication. A mature bulb can weigh up to 250g before dividing. In July, large 7 to 15 cm (3 to 6in) flowers appear, grouped in umbels on sturdy stems. They hang down towards the ground and their petals curl up when mature. Each stem bears about twenty flowers with a light scent, most noticeable in dry and warm weather. The whorled, dark green leaves are lanceolate. This hybrid is a very long-lived plant that naturalises over time.

In your garden, you can grow this lily with hybrid martagon lilies (Orange Marmalade, Claude Shryde), which tolerate the same growing conditions, or with perennial plants as they like having their base in the shade. You can also grow it in a pot to bring it closer to your terrace or window borders and fully enjoy its exceptional flowers, full of style and grace.