Haven't grown those two in particular, but I *love* Oriental lillies - the scent is out of this world.

Problem is - foliage is u-g-l-y. I get around this problem by "hiding" the foliage behind other plants that are short enough to allow the blooms to be seen yet tall enough to hide the lily foliage. I also have steered around the foliage problem by growing in pots - I place in an inconspicious sunny spot until bloom time then enjoy the pots on the patio while blooming, then re-locate (read: hide) them again when blooming is finished. Works great.

Lily bulbs should be readily available in the spring, and they're aren't too expensive.

I grow both of these lilies and don't have foliage problems until early fall when the plant is dying back.
Is that what you mean by 'ugly' foliage? The die back process?
Clumps of 'casa blanca' are gorgeous and their fragrance travels far. 'Stargazer' sure adds spots of color.
Both bulbs can be planted in early spring.

I have grown lots of orientals and find that the bulbs rot in everything but very fast draining rocky soil. However, I have been able to get around this by digging a large hole 3 inches deeper and wider than needed and lining with 3 inches of coarse gravel (pea gravel). Then you can water as much as you need to for your other plants and the bulbs will not rot. We don't have a lot of rain, but if you do, this should also solve your rainy problems with the bulb rotting issue. Works for all plants that need fast draining conditions, like rosemary and lavender.

No, what I meant by u-g-l-y is the foliage is just not attractive (to my eye, anyway), not even during the growing season. I wouldn't be without the glorious flowers and fragrance of the Oriental lilies, but like I said, I hide the foliage, plenty of things I'd rather look at than those gangly stalks.

I used to grow Casa Blanca before the lily beetle got the best of me and unfortunately it was only after I had them planted and blooming beautifully when I realized how very allergic I was to them. Drats! The one thing that surprised me was how tall they got. They were much taller (about 2' taller) than my Stargazer lilies planted in the same area. The flowers are huge and gorgeous. I didn't mind the foliage but I had them planted behind peonies so probably didn't think too much about it. I had them in average garden soil and did not find them to rot, so maybe that's less of a problem up here in Z5.

I grow both Casa Blanca and Stargazer. I love the Casa Blanca, they are so beautiful. I have mine planted in the back of the perennial bed and behind the Stargazers which have other perennials planted in front of them.

I thought that lily bulbs in zone 5 should be planted in the fall.
I bought several oriental lily bulbs from Brent and Becky's bulbs last spring, and none came up at all!
Maybe squirrels eating them?
Or they rotted in the ground?
Or they are hybernating till spring this year?
They were planted for good drainage too. Hmmmm? Don't know.
They were all healthy and huge bulbs when I received them.

I bought Yelloween and Salmon Stars.

In my zone 6 (approximately) New England garden I have sucessfully grown Casa Blanca, a tall purple black with a well known name I forget, Stargazer, and other shorter ones.

You really should find out if the red lily beetle is in your area before you make a commitment to these. If you think lily foliage is unattractive, wait until you see the chewed up leaves, covered with beetle excrement hiding the beetle eggs, and the beetles themselves which drop onto the soil quicker than you can pick them.

I am not a squeamish gardener but these critters will turn your stomach.

If you have a few lilies you can hand pick them and drop them into water.

Or you can spray with a theoretically less harmless spray

All that said, I still grow and plant these lovely bulbs. There is nothing like them any time in any season. I pick bugs, squeal and curse in equal measure, and sometimes spray the leaves. (When I remember the name of the spray I'll write)

Don't just plant Casa Blanca by herself. Paired with lilium Black Beauty or Shezernaze (mispelled) you'll learn to ignore the foliage and look skyward to the blossoms while inhaling deeply

In my garden, I have (at least temporarily) quit trying to grow asiatic or trumpet lilies, due to the red lily beetles. I have found that the orientals and regale lilies are much less affected by these beetles. My two favourite and most reliable orientals are Casablanca and Stargazer. These are also the cheapest and most readily available here. Since I garden in quite a bit of shade, I have to replace my lily bulbs every few years, so price is a big consideration for me.

I love these two. Fragrance is out of this world.
Stargazer
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I have grown Casa Blanca lilies for the past 7 years. I just love them. They smell great! and I like the texture of the petals. I was discouraged enough in 2007 to yank out my Casa Blanca lily bulbs. The Red Lily Beetle was making such a mess of the foliage, I couldn't stand to look at them. But to my surprise, they came back in 2008. I guess I thought I had gotten them all out, but I forgot they make more bulbs. So since they didn't want to leave [g], I decided to make a more concerted effort to keep the beetle under control. I had let them go in the previous two years. Last year, they weren't bad at all and I tried a new technique. In the past they had defeated me because when I tried to pick them off, they move faster than me and they would drop on the ground upside down and the underside is brown and you can't see them. I am organic and wouldn't spray for them. Last year, I used a 5 gallon bucket with water in the bottom and I would hold it under where they were and just flick them into the water, then I would dispose of them. It worked great! You can see in this photo that the foliage looks very good. So, now I'm not as concerned with the beetle as I was.

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The contrast of those large white blooms with burgundy anthers and the narrow green foliage creates a very beautiful photo! I love those lilies!
Thanks for posting 'Casa Blanca' at the peak of perfection, prairiemoon.

Prairiemoon2, if you're dividing them in spring, could I possibly trade you for some of your casablanca lilies?? I have leonotis leonurus, several varieties of scented geraniums (couldn't tell you which ones though, as I have a deaf nose lol). I know I have other stuff, but I won't know until spring. Plz let me know.

Hi perennialfan, I'm not much of a trader. I've done a little seed trad*ing which to me is a lot more convenient. Because I attempted to dig out and throw out my Casa Blancas in the fall of 2008, what I have left is a lot smaller patch of them and I would actually like more than I have. My entire garden is very young. I just ripped out every shrub in the back in 2004/05 and started from scratch, and I started out with small plants, small shrubs and perennial plugs mostly. At some point, I might be in a different position to need room and have excess, but not yet. :-) Also, if I were you, I would try to trade with someone from a state that does not have the Red LIly Beetle.

Here's a photo of "Mona Lisa", it's a shorter cultivar, I have a couple stands of them:

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Hey Prairie Moon, can I ask where you store your uploaded photos? My work computers all censor most of the photo hosting sites but yours shows for me and so I am wondering if that would be a good alternative.

In my old garden I seemed to have trouble growing Orientals though the Aurelians/trumpets and asiatics were easy and rewarding (that is until deer come through one summer evening just before they all open and eat all the flower buds....deer LOVE lily flower buds...AARRGGHH). Suspect my problem with growing Orientals was alkaline clay based soil and not so good drainage. I am going to plant a bunch in pots this year.

While we are at it, what place has the largest Lily bulbs for the money spent? Sometimes I have found really cheap bulbs are puny non-blooming size. Any good suggestions? Where do y'all buy lily bulbs?

Hi David, gee, I'm sorry to say, that I post photos with Tinypic dot com. I export mine from my software pro*gram to the desktop in a useable size, then pick it up from Tinypic with a url that will work for the post. I guess that's not going to help you much. My DH has that same issue on his work com*puter and it can be annoying sometimes, although I can understand why it is done.

Here in my garden, there has never been a deer problem which I am grateful for. Red LIly Beetles are bad enough. I have clay s*oil that is a little on the acid side and surrounding silver maples close to our property seem to make sure there is never a drainage issue. [g] If you plant them in pots, will you have to plant them in the ground in the fall?

I bought my bulbs locally, so someone else will have to share that info about bulbs. B&D lilies were recommended to me and if you want to see what other people's experiences are, you can check them out on Garden Watchdog. I noticed people mention the size of the bulbs.

I buy mine from local specialty growers that always offer premium sized bulbs. And while they don't offer orientals in these sizes, both offer very large bulbs ("bulbzillas" or private harvest bulbs) that are enormous and produce very large, robust stems with many flowers. The Lily Pad's 'Pink Perfection' bulbzilla lilies are amazing!

B&D Lilies: http://bdlilies.com/index.html

The Lily Pad: http://lilypadbulbs.com/

I have Casablancas. Orientals donÂt increase very much for me, so I have none to trade. One problem I have with them, though, is how the stems sprawl sideways. Mine never stand up without staking. Even if I can get the stem up straight, the flowers face down. I tried another white, Bahia Blanca, that I am much happier with. Flower form might be slightly different, IÂm not sure. I assume from the name that they are derived from Casablanca. If you cut a flower from each IÂm not sure you could tell them apart. The stems are much stronger and more upright on Bahia Blanca. I bought them at MenardÂs, a local hardware chain.

I ordered lily bulbs from B&D (Fall 2008) and was amazed at how huge my flowers were last year. Don't laugh; however, I have these in a cutting garden and the problem was that the blooms were too large! They were awkward to arrange in a vase because of their massive size. So, I can't say enough great things about B&D after last year's blooms.

Teresa

Photos are gorgeous! Now I want to pick up some Casablanca bulbs to pot up :0)

I planted Casablanca bulbs beside the porch so I would have them close by for cutting to bring in the house. Problem is they smell so good when I'm sitting on the porch I don't have the heart to cut them. Foliage isn't the prettiest, but with the right pairings most of the foliage is hidden by other plants. Hoping to get some more in the ground this year. Plus the flowers are huge and such a beautiful crisp clean white.