Lilium Sweet Surrender - Asiatic Lily

The Lilium 'Sweet Surrender' is a Asiatic lily hybrid with tiger markings, bearing large, very pale creamy-yellow flowers, almost white, brightened by a greenish-yellow heart and speckled with small dark red spots. The slightly recurved flowers face upwards, outwards, or downwards. They follow in succession in great numbers on each stem, offering a generous and prolonged summer flowering. Its colouring is easy to combine, in a border as well as in a vase. This variety, of undeniable elegance, provides remarkable cut flowers for arrangements.

Belonging to the Liliaceae family, Lilium 'Sweet Surrender' is part of Division I of Asiatic hybrids, resulting from cross-breeding between species originating from East Asia such as Lilium lancifolium (formerly L. tigrinum) and other Asiatic lilies. A bulbous very hardy perennial (down to –20 °C in well-drained soil), it is a deciduous plant: the foliage and stems dry out after flowering and disappear in winter, while the scaly bulb remains dormant underground. This 'Sweet Surrender' cultivar was developed by the breeder Hugh Cocker, based in Rochester, Minnesota (USA), before 2004. In horticultural literature, it is sometimes found under the commercial names "Tiger Sweet Surrender", "White Tiger Lily" or Lilium (lancifolium / tigrinum) ‘Sweet Surrender’.
The plant forms a clump of upright stems, green to slightly brownish, 80 cm to 1 m in height, potentially reaching 1.20 m under good conditions, with a spread of 30 to 40 cm. Each stem, bearing roots along the buried portion, carries numerous narrow, lanceolate, medium green leaves, arranged in a spiral. The inflorescences gather around ten flowers, or even around twenty on well-established specimens. The flowers measure 12 to 14 cm in diameter. They feature 6 recurved tepals, coloured cream to white, more yellow towards the throat, densely speckled with reddish-brown spots around the centre; the prominent anthers are a deep orange. Flowering occurs in June-July, or even August depending on the region. Like most Asiatic lilies, this cultivar is unscented.

In the garden, the lily 'Sweet Surrender' finds its place at the heart of a sunny border. Plant it in small groups of three to five bulbs amongst large perennials like Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Orange Field’ and Sanguisorba hakusanensis. To accentuate the chic side of your display, you can add a few clumps of Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’ and Veronicastrum ‘Pink Glow’. In a cut flower arrangement, its stems combine very well with other creamy or apricot-coloured Asiatic lilies ('Apricot Fudge'), or with large umbels of white ornamental alliums 'White Cloud'.