To borrow the timeless words of Rod Serling, “Imagine if you will…” an idyllic community awash in a cacophony of colors, its countless gardens floating like shimmering islands atop the luxuriant green lawns under a high green canopy of the urban forest.
Everywhere you look, lilies of all colors abound; in the gardens that anchor the stately houses to the hillside, in the parks that look as though they were torn from the grounds of some Victorian estate and moved here, in the old churchyards that look too well tended to be real.
It’s like the explosion of color in a Thomas Kincaid painting come to life, but to excess, if such could be possible.
This past weekend I discovered lilies.
I don’t mean that I found a pretty garden with lilies in it, I mean that I had an epiphany.
I did something I have never done before, which is somewhat odd given my proximity – I visited the town that bills itself as “The Lily Capital Of The World”, and right at the peak of the lily season.
In fact, it was right at the time they celebrate their annual “Lily Festival“, which as an avid gardener, you’d think I would have done before. And was I in for a surprise…
From Neepawa With Love
The town of Neepawa has always taken my breath away.
Nestled on the deeply sloping escarpment of the Manitoba parklands along the well-traveled Yellowhead Highway that connects Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Edmonton, it is a sight to behold in any season.
It’s the birthplace of the famous Canadian author Margaret Laurence and is notable for the numerous stately old stone homes that rise like pillars under the dense canopy of the town’s venerable elm forest.
Many towns have a gimmick they hang out as a bone to tourists, hoping to get one or two mentions in the big city papers for the novelty, and luring a couple of tourists who enjoy having their picture taken beside some kitschy statue of a giant mosquito or fish or duck or whatever.
But the 5,000 or so residents of this prairie community have gone where I’m sure no others have gone before.
This town has staked its claim to fame on a flower, and not just any flower; the noble lily, queen of the summer flowers.
One might have thought the town had a few screws loose to pursue this; I’m sure more than a few heads were turned when this idea was brought up.
I myself was a skeptic; I mean, how many towns try and latch on to a gimmick just to get themselves on the map? And a town building its summer festival on a single type of flower? This could have been quite the flop.
I am pleased to report that I was not only proven wrong, this town has achieved something truly amazing.
It’s the kind of thing I would recommend any avid gardener on the continent come and see.
You’ll be overwhelmed by the colors, the shapes, the markings, the oddities, the love and care, and the attention to detail of the many show gardens.
It’s everything you ever needed to know about lilies in one concentrated location, complete with all the real-world examples you can possibly absorb.
For this one weekend in summer, this town really is the place for lilies.
The Lily Festival is worth the trip, and it works because the town has bought into it wholeheartedly.
It would be one thing to have a few dazzling showcase gardens with a plentitude of lilies, but the citizens and businesses of this community have all hopped on the bandwagon and done their part to contribute.
So many have planted some lilies around their homes, in their yards, in front of their stores, and around the many parks, churches, and even cemeteries throughout the town.
Some of these would-be gardeners are clearly old hands at gardening, while others should probably be kept out of the garden, but overall these efforts combine to convert this town into a veritable lily phenomenon.
It’s almost uncanny…
Lilies In The Landscape
So what of this lovely flower, the lily? To tell the truth, I had often seen lilies used in gardens in the past, but I was never taken with them to the point where I would say I was in love with them (or where I would wax poetic in an article about them!).
They kind of stood alone, screaming out for attention from the garden, these misplaced green candles with exotically colored flames.
Most of the time they looked out of place, like some obnoxious and hyperactive child sitting through a long church sermon.
To me, they always seemed inappropriately used.
I guess therein lies the key to using lilies properly in gardens, a lesson I got firsthand from seeing it in practice in Neepawa.
The first thing one must do is acknowledge that lilies are bold, loud, and audacious flowers, so there’s no point trying to muffle them.
Instead, they should be given a place of prominence in the garden where they can be used to provide color in the extreme.
Having seen the wonderful ways lilies are used in Neepawa to maximum effect, I would propose that there are two highly effective techniques for using lilies in your gardens and landscapes.
First, they are clearly effective when they dominate the garden, and the more the merrier.
By planting large swaths of lilies with no mind to color or harmony, you’ll blow the socks off passersby in the heat of summer when your garden literally reaches out and grabs them.
Sure, you can put a few other plants around for textural or form contrast, but this is the lily’s garden, and don’t you forget it!
Lilies can also be used effectively in mixed gardens, but here is where I would extend a word of caution.
Remember, these flowers are loud and flashy, so they don’t make sense in a restrained or calculated composition.
While I respect the good garden design principles of color coordination, I think lilies might justify the one occasion to throw this rule out the window.
Go ahead and mix colors to your heart’s content; they love to make noise, they scream to be seen, and they love all the sun they can get.
These, my dear, are not wallflowers.
No matter what approach you take, always, always use lilies in groupings of at least 5 clumps, that is critical.
I would go so far as to say that five is a minimum for even the smallest of yards; if you can spare the space in the garden, plant them in sevens or nines, or plant two or three swaths of different colors.
Remember, you are going for impact in the design of a lily garden, so if you have one of everything, you’ll only end up with a big blur of color that makes no sense visually speaking.
On the other hand, if you use them too sparingly, they’ll stand out like sore thumbs.
And Then They’re Gone…
There’s one other thing you’ll need to consider when using lilies in a landscape – their relatively short period of bloom.
Like the stunning azaleas and flowering crabs of spring, these flowers burst forth onto the scene, steal the show, and then exit stage left as fast as they came.
Individually, their shows last for a couple of weeks, and then they’re gone. So, you need to plan for this.
I would suggest two ways to manage this. First, you can be a creative gardener and interplant them with other perennials that rise to the fore ahead of and after the lilies.
I’m not sure I would advocate actually planting other perennials on top of the bulbs, as the competition would possibly hurt their performance, but I would plant other sun-lovers nice and tight to the lily clumps.
Use them in a balanced combination with other long-blooming perennials, annuals, and shrubs that add to the colorful scene.
It doesn’t matter whether they’re cool colors or warm colors or contrasting or complementary – the lilies will be stealing the show when they’re on stage, just accept it.
Or, you can do it the “Neepawa way” and live for those few weeks in the heat of summer when your garden can be seen from an airplane when the police have to come and direct traffic around your home.
The rest of the season – who cares? You still have a couple of the longer-lasting garden stalwarts to keep the interest up, and you’ve got the memories of a garden gone wild forever etched into your psyche, or at least until the next gardening season.
After all, it’s your garden!
And back to my life-altering experience in the “Lily Capital Of The World”.
Did I learn anything from this? Well yes, of course! I learned that a community that puts its mind to a dream can work miracles, no matter how unlikely it might seem.
I’m proud to declare that Neepawa is in fact deserving of their chosen moniker.
And I also learned to really see the value of lilies in a landscape.
Yes, I am now a convert. So pardon me while I go out now and plan that new lily garden for next year…