Lilies ‘Karen North’ and ‘Eurydice’ in full bloom - late June/early July. The “oranger” one is ‘Karen North’. These Asiatic lilies with their candelabra of hanging “Turks-cap” flowers are very different from the the large-flowered, upright-facing Asiatic lilies grown for the cut-flower trade and commonly available in garden centers and supermarkets. Yet they are related - notice the closely-spaced whorls of leaves up and down the main stem. The Asiatic hybrids involve the bloodlines of many species, with a wide variety of progeny loosely categorized in three groups: Upward-facing, Outward-facing, and Pendant.
These two lilies are closely related, and result from a hybridizing revolution developed by Chris North of the Scottish Horticultural Research Institute in the late 1960′s and 1970′s. Dr. North developed a technique to raise seedlings from the interbreeding of two different species that were just a bit too unrelated to successfully produce hybrid offspring on their own. Apparently, cross-species fertilization was successful and hybrid embryos would develop. However, the seed capsules would fail to mature, and thus no seeds were produced. Dr. North extracted the hybrid embryos and raised them using tissue culture methods. This new procedure was termed “Embryo Rescue”.
‘Karen North’ is one of Dr. North’s personal hybrids, resulting from crossing the lovely orange, brown-spotted pendant Lilium davidii with the pink, burgundy-spotted pendant Lilium lankongense, which were then crossed with various Asiatic species. Both are native to the mountains of North Central China (NW Yunnan/SE Xigang [Sichuan]), but L. davidii has a much wider range throughout the central and eastern Himalayas, into Central China. It is reported that L. davidii blood is found in almost all modern Asiatic hybrid lilies.
Dr. North used another L. lankongense cross, but with the ‘Maxwill’ form of L. davidii, to create ‘Ariadne’ (1976) - a lovely blend of orange and pink, with dark spots. Maxwill was itself a cross between two wild forms of L. davidii, but exhibited hybrid vigor in form and robustness.
The following information is from www.thelilygarden.com:
‘Eurydice’ is a marvelous hybrid from ‘Ariadne,’ with a long panicle of pendant, beautifully recurved, shimmering “red raspberry” flowers delicately etched with deeper “rosepoint” markings. It flowers in our fields for a full month, delighting us with its glowing color and light fragrance! Bred by Vaclav Jost of the Czech Republic, ‘Eurydice’ grows superbly well and has proven to be a truly outstanding garden lily worldwide!
4 to 5 feet, late June.
‘Karen North’ is another wonderful Lilium lankongense hybrid from Dr. North that has been drawing raves in our field! Coral rose buds abound on tall, willowy stems, opening one by one for weeks to reveal warm coral-orange flowers with plum-colored spreckles. A hummingbird magnet with a lovely light fragrance!
4 to 6 feet and taller, mid June to mid July.
NOTE: so far, these lilies in our garden have only reached about 2′ high. But they are young, having been planted only last Spring. The bulbs were obtained at the NW Flower and Garden Show just a couple weeks before COVID19 shutdown in Washington State. They did not do well the first year [lesson learned - plant lilies in the Fall!], and I was both surprised, and very pleased, to see them all return this year and bloom with vigor!
