Lilium longiflorum Thunb.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘This [Lilium longiflorum] is a native of China: it was introduced by the Horticultural Society, of whom we received it.  It flowers in the beginning of summer: the stems are a foot and upwards in height, the blossoms large and shewy, and the plants moderately hardy.  It may be propagated by offsets and scales of the bulb, and should be planted in a mixture of peat earth and loam.’  [LBC no.985/1824]. 

Also figured in Flore des Serres [FS pl.VIII 9e Liv./1847] and A monograph of the genus Lilium [Elwes pl.32/1880].  The Botanical Register, figures the variety L. longiflorum suaveolens.  [BR f.560/1821].

History at Camden Park

Listed only in the 1857 catalogue [B.312/1857] but the first reference to this plant is a handwritten entry in a copy of the 1850 catalogue held at the Mitchell Library, inscribed on the front Wm. Macarthur, 23rd Dec. 1854.  [ML 635.9m].

Notes

Both Curtis’s Botanical Magazine [BM t.4561/1851] and Flore des Serres [FS f.612/1850-51] figure Lilium longiflorum Wall., a tall-growing species with white flowers, from Nepal and introduced in 1849, synonym Lilium wallichianum Schult.f., but it is clearly distinct from Lilium longiflorum Thunb.  [See Lilium walichianum Schult.f., also grown at Camden Park.]

Lilium longiflorum Hort. ex Steud. (1840) = Lilium longiflorum var. eximium (Court.) Bak. which see.

See also Notes under Lilium aurantiacum Pax.