Rogers famous giant tree lilies have grown bigger and bigger each year and put on a glorious show of colour and fragrance each summer but what about when the flowers have finished?
Roger shows us how he leaves the stems and leaves, after the blooms have drooped off, while they are still green through late summer and early autumn until the leaves fade from green to yellow... and then it is time to cut them back.
Leaving the stems and leaves for those extra few months will allow the leaves to store more energy back down to the bulbs below ground in readiness for even more flowers next summer!
The lily variety seen in the video is an Orange and bronze variety which we think is called Debbie
Once cut back the bulbs seem to happy in cold weather they are several inches deep into the soil so well protected from frosty weather and seem to come back every despite some cold winters.
This autumn / fall Roger is trying out a new type of environmentally friendly mulch which is a biproduct of the green energy industry ... products like this could be a big part of our 'green' gardening future as we try to reduce the use of peat.