Bulb · Liliaceae
Asiatic Lily
Lilium
Set the bulbs once and Asiatic lilies return the first big blooms of summer to your garden, season after season.
Full sun
Every 5–10 days
USDA 4–8
2–5 ft · 0.6–1.5 m
Overview
Asiatic lilies are the most forgiving of the true lilies and tend to be the first to bloom when summer arrives. Rising from a bulb that comes back a little stronger each year, they hold flowers 4 to 6 inches across that face up or out in nearly every shade but a true blue. Scent is faint to absent on most of them, an easy choice for anyone who finds the heavy perfume of other lilies a touch much in a small room or along a path.
Once the bulbs are settled, they ask for almost nothing. Full sun, soil that lets water move through, and a cool root zone make up the whole of it, and these bulbs are hardy enough to shrug off winters that reach -20°F (-29°C). Give them a sunny corner and they spread on their own, building into fuller clumps you can lift and split every few years.
One point belongs front and center: these are true lilies, and they are deadly to cats. Every part of the plant, the pollen and the water in a vase included, can bring on fatal kidney failure in a cat. In a home that shares its rooms with a cat, this is a flower to keep strictly where the cat can never go, or to leave out of the picture altogether.
Care
The short version: full sun and quick-draining soil are what Asiatic lilies ask for above all else. Keep the ground evenly moist yet never soggy, lay down mulch to hold the roots cool, and lift and divide tired clumps every few years so the flowers keep arriving.
Light
Asiatic lilies put on their best show in full sun, six hours a day or more. A little afternoon shade is welcome where summers run hot, and it stretches out the life of each bloom, but set them in deep shade and they grow leggy and stingy with flowers.
Water
Hold the soil evenly moist through the growing season, and never let it bake dry while the plants are working. A drink every 5 to 10 days does it, more often in heat, but ease off the instant the ground goes spongy, since standing wet rots the bulbs. A layer of mulch keeps moisture in and the roots cool.
Soil
Drainage carries the whole thing. Plant into well-drained loam, silt, or sand turned with compost, settling on a slightly acidic to neutral pH of 6.0 to 7.0. Heavy, waterlogged ground is the surest way to lose the bulbs.
Temperature
These are hardy, cold-tolerant bulbs that take a span from -20°F to 90°F (-29°C to 32°C) in stride. They lean on a winter chill to bloom well, which makes them right at home in cold-winter gardens where plenty of other bulbs falter.
Humidity
Everyday outdoor air suits them, so there is no figure to chase. Airflow counts for more here than moisture in the air, because crowded, stagnant pockets are exactly what coax botrytis blight onto the leaves.
Feeding
Turn a balanced or low-nitrogen bulb fertilizer into the soil as the shoots break ground in spring, then feed once more as the buds set. Keep nitrogen modest, since too much hands you soft leafy growth in place of flowers.
Pruning
Pinch off spent blooms so the plant pours its strength back into the bulb rather than into seed. Let the rest of the foliage stand until it yellows and dies back of its own accord in fall, then take the stems down to the ground.
Repotting
Lilies are happiest left to themselves, but a clump that has held the same ground for 3 to 4 years begins to crowd itself and the flowers shrink. Lift and divide it in fall once you notice smaller blooms or a cluster of little bulblets ringing the parent.
Size & spacing
Stems climb 2 to 5 feet (60 to 150 cm) in a fairly slim clump. Set the bulbs 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) down and roughly 12 inches (30 cm) apart so air moves freely and the roots keep their cool.
When to plant
Asiatic lilies keep an uncomplicated calendar. Settle the bulbs in spring or fall, deep and a hand's width apart, and they break ground come spring to open the season's first lilies in early to midsummer.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Plant bulbs in spring or fall, 6 to 8 inches deep and about 12 inches apart
- Harvest: Early to mid summer; Asiatic hybrids are usually the first lilies to bloom
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 4–8
Temperature: down to -34°C
Troubleshooting
Nearly every lily setback comes back to a single cause: soil that holds too much water. Keep an eye on the bulbs and the lower leaves for the early signs below, then move before rot or blight settles in.
Bulbs that feel soft and a bed that never wakes up
When the bulbs turn soft and nothing rises to meet the season, the culprit is almost always bulb rot brought on by ground that holds water too long. Saturated soil starves the bulb of air and opens the door to fungi. Pull anything that feels spongy or smells sour, send it to the bin, and turn compost and grit through the bed before you start over in a spot where water drains away faster.
Fix:
- Lift and discard rotted bulbs
- Improve drainage by amending soil with compost and coarse material
- Replant healthy bulbs in a raised or well-drained site
A gray bloom of mold and brown patches across leaf and bud
Stretches of cool, damp weather usher in botrytis blight, a fungus that settles into water-soaked spots and crowns them with a tan or gray haze. Clip the marred leaves and flowers and bag them rather than turning them into the compost. Open the planting up so air can pass through, send the water to the soil instead of the foliage, and sweep the spent leaves away in fall so spores find no shelter to overwinter in.
Fix:
- Remove and destroy infected foliage
- Improve air circulation and avoid overhead watering
- Apply an appropriate fungicide if severe
New shoots curling under a sticky film
Tight little colonies of soft-bodied insects on the fresh shoots and the backs of the leaves are the mark of lily aphids, and the sticky honeydew glazing the foliage comes with them. A firm blast from the hose clears most of them, and insecticidal soap finishes the rest. Keep checking, because aphids ferry viruses from one lily to another as they feed.
Fix:
- Spray plants with a strong stream of water to dislodge aphids
- Apply insecticidal soap to affected growth
- Encourage natural predators such as lady beetles
Toxicity
Here is where Asiatic lilies call for genuine care. Being a true lily, the whole plant is severely poisonous to cats, and even a lick of pollen or a sip of vase water can set off fatal kidney failure. Dogs come through with little more than a queasy stomach, and the plant poses no serious risk to people, but a cat should never be within reach of it.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds · People
Cats Severe
Nothing else on this list compares. A couple of bites from a leaf or petal, a single lick of pollen caught in the fur, or a sip from the vase is enough to shut a cat's kidneys down. The first hours bring vomiting, a turned-up nose at food, and a flat, lifeless cat, and from there it runs to fatal kidney failure unless a vet steps in quickly. Treat any contact as an emergency and go at once.
Dogs Mild
A dog comes through this far better. One that chews on the plant might drool or be sick for a while, but true lilies do not seem to touch a dog's kidneys the way they devastate a cat's.
Horses Caution
Horses escape the kidney failure that befalls cats, yet the plant belongs nowhere near their feed. Keep bulbs, foliage, and garden clippings clear of the paddock to head off mild digestive upset.
Rabbits Caution
Trials fed heavy doses without visible harm, but that leaves no real cushion of safety. Keep a rabbit from grazing on the leaves or bulbs.
Livestock Caution
Cattle, sheep, and goats have no record of serious illness from true lilies, though the plant gives them nothing of value. Fence the bed off and keep trimmings well clear of anywhere grazing animals roam.
Birds Caution
No reliable accounts of poisoning in birds exist, which leaves the matter open. Read that gap as a cue to keep cages and aviaries far from cut stems and stray pollen.
People Caution
None of this plant is meant for the table, and chewing the leaves, bulbs, or flowers can leave the mouth and stomach sore. Keep young children from putting it in their mouths, even though it holds none of the lethal danger it carries for a cat.
Keep this plant and any cut stems, fallen pollen, and vase water completely out of reach of cats. Even brushing against pollen and grooming it off the fur can poison a cat.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
Poison Control: (800) 222-1222
Canada
Poison Centres: 1-844-764-7669
Varieties
Asiatic lilies arrive in a broad sweep of color, and a couple of true lilies earn a place in the conversation by name.
Asiatic hybrids (general)
First to open of all the lilies, they hold mostly unscented flowers 4 to 6 inches across that look up or out, arriving in reds, pinks, oranges, yellows, lavender, and white.
Tiger lily (Lilium lancifolium)
A cousin among the true lilies, it bears orange, dark-spotted blooms with petals folded back on themselves and sets tiny dark bulbils where the leaves meet the stem.
How to propagate
Asiatic lilies multiply on their own with barely a nudge, which is why one planting fills out into a clump so fast. Dividing the bulbs is the dependable path, while seed is slow going and best left to the breeders.
DivisionEasy
Fall, every 3 to 4 years when clumps become crowded · One growing season; divisions often bloom the following summer
Every 3 to 4 years, once a clump grows tight and busy, lift it in fall and ease the parent bulbs and their bulblets apart by hand. Set each one back at its proper depth right away, and the divisions take hold across a single season, most of them flowering again the following summer.
Offsets & pupsEasy
Fall, when lifting and dividing bulbs · One to two growing seasons to reach blooming size
With a clump already lifted in fall, twist off the little bulblets gathered around each parent bulb and pot them to grow on. They want one to two seasons to fill out before they flower, so picture them as next year's lilies rather than this season's.
SeedDemanding
Sow ripe seed in fall or stratify and sow in spring · Several years to reach blooming size; named hybrids do not come true from seed
Ripe seed can go down in fall, or be chilled through winter and sown in spring, but the seedlings keep you waiting several years before they bloom. Named hybrids will not come true this route either, which makes seed a breeder's instrument rather than a way to recreate a lily you already love.
Myths
A cat is only at risk if it actually eats the leaves or flowers.
The threat runs far wider than the leaves and petals. Pollen licked from a coat or water sipped from a vase that once held lilies carries enough toxin to bring on kidney failure. For a cat, every part of a true lily and even the water around it counts as poison.
Asiatic lilies are just as deadly to dogs as they are to cats.
The two animals meet this plant on completely different terms. A dog that takes a nibble tends to end up with nothing worse than a sour stomach and shows none of the kidney damage the same plant inflicts on cats. This lethal lily toxin is a danger to cats, not to dogs.