Lilium Salmon Party - Oriental Lily

The Lilium ‘Salmon Party’ is a compact and fragrant oriental lily with large, star-shaped cream and salmon flowers, beautifully spotted and striate with orange. Its low-growing habit makes it an excellent lily for pots and borders, which it decorates in the heart of summer. Its spicy fragrance will be much appreciated in cut flower arrangements.

Belonging to the genus Lilium (Lily family), this perennial bulb is classified in the Oriental Hybrids horticultural group, renowned for its lilies with particularly large and fragrant flowers. Like other lilies, it goes dormant after flowering: the deciduous foliage disappears in winter and then regrows from the bulb in spring.
'Salmon Party' is a small oriental lily, reaching 45 to 60 cm in height with a spread of 25 to 30 cm. Its flowers, measuring 12 to 15 cm across, are star-shaped, with petals slightly recurved at the tips. The petal colour is a creamy white to pinkish white washed with salmon, with a broad central orange band and numerous small coral-red spots. They bloom from July to August depending on the climate, on sturdy stems clothed with dark green, spiralled leaves. The foliage dies back in autumn, while the bulb enters dormancy. This cultivar is hardy down to -15/-20°C in well-drained soil, with protection in the coldest climates.

In the garden, the ‘Salmon Party’ lily is best placed at the front of a border, near a path or not far from a terrace to enjoy its fragrance. It can be paired with daylilies like 'Everydaylily Rose', with scabious ‘Butterfly Blue’, or with the Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ whose violet spikes accentuate its salmon tones. In a pot, pair it, for example, with a compact hardy geranium like Geranium sanguineum ‘Max Frei’ or with a pretty ornamental grass Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Little Bunny’. Its cut flowers bring a soft, contemporary note to bouquets, mixed with pastel achilleas or white cosmos.

In many parts of the world, certain lilies – notably Lilium lancifolium – have long been cultivated for their edible bulbs, used in cooking or traditional medicine. Ornamental cultivars like 'Salmon Party' are, of course, reserved for the garden.