Lilies for English
Gardens (1901)
Gertrude Jekyll
LILIUM TESTACEUM, syn.
L EXCELSUM (HYBRID),
Martagon
THE NANKEEN LILY
The beautiful Nankeen lily
is one of the very best of its kind. It is not only of charming form and
colour, but it is singularly graceful, and the deep mystery of its origin adds
to the interest of a plant which has already every merit that can be desired in
a garden flower. It is supposed to be a hybrid between candidum and one of the scarlet Martagons, either pomponium or chalcedonicum. The flower is distinctly of the Martagon
shape, and it resembles candidum in the disposal of the leaves on the stem and
in a certain grace of habit and way of swaying to light airs of wind, and in
the fact that it is one of the earliest of Lilies to push up out of the ground.
It is said that it has never been found wild. But whatever may be its origin or history it is a lovely Lily for our gardens. The name Nankeen Lily is only an approximate description of the colour of the flower, for whereas nankeen is used as a colour word to describe a kind of clear though rather pale washed-out wash-leather colour, there is a tender warmth in addition that must be allowed for in thinking of the colour of this charming Lily.
It is beautiful in every kind of garden use, though from the tenderness of colouring it loses by being in the mixed border among brighter flowers.
It is perhaps best seen in groups among pale greenery of Fern or Funkia and backed by shrubs, or in a fringe of garden woodland, though how good it is in the mass in bold plantings may be seen by the illustration showing it in quantity in a celebrated Essex garden.
In the good loamy soil that it likes it will grow seven feet high, but it is perhaps best at a height of from five to six feet. It makes no stem roots and therefore does not need deep planting.
