Below is a photo taken in 1933, during the Great Depression. It is a field of Christmas lilies on a property at Pennant Hills, in New South Wales. The farm produced 100,000 cut flowers for the  Australian florist trade that year.

Ladies could pick up a fragrant bouquet on pre-Christmas trips to the city.

What a display. (photo from Trove)

The lilies  were also a rural  tradition, grown in  cottage style, homestead  gardens. For many  of us their fragrance evokes Christmas as  powerfully as the smell of pine needles, plum puddings  and mince pies. My mother grew them in her Tasmanian garden and we all loved them.

But which is the ‘real’ Christmas lily? This was being debated  In The Age newspaper, way back in 1951. Some insist it’s Lilium longifloram, which flowers closest to Christmas, but the consensus seems to be Lilium candidum, even though it blooms a few weeks earlier. Both are pure white, and perfumed. I have no idea which variety  my mother grew,  but I suspect they were  L. candidum. appropriately known as The Madonna lily.

Lilium candidum (wikipedia).

The best way to tell the difference is that L. candidum is a semi evergreen, with  a rosette of broad leaves produced after  the flowering stems die down.

I’m not religious, but I do love this poem, linking the lilies to the Virgin Mary, and  Galilee.

CHRISTMAS LILIES

I used to watch, oh, long ago,

The slender Christmas lilies grow

In row on row, so straight and tall,

All burning white against the wall.

And as I saw their tender grace,

I dreamt that in another place

That as they grew, by that far sea,

Where Mary lived, is Galilee.

In Galilee, in Galilee,

Oh, that was never strange to see,

I smelled the hot and scented air

And saw the lilies everywhere.

by  CAPEL BOAKE

This tender, beautiful  WWI poem was published in December 1918

CHRISTMAS LILIES

Last Christmas Eve the lilies swayed,

Late-blooming by the poppies’ flame. 

And ‘neath the oleander’s shade,

Drunk with a million scents I came.

And dreaming of my own brave love,

Far off from all he held most dear,

I thought to pick a single bloom

That, loved by him, would bring him near;

And leaning out with starting tear,

One lily bloom I picked for me…

In token of his chivalry.

by MYRA MORRIS

Christmas lilies (photo courtesy of Rhonda Brown

In autumn last year my friend Maureen generously  sent me some bulbs from her garden in Victoria.  Again, we are not sure of the variety, but at least  I know they are  fragrant ones, unlike those I purchased a few years ago.

My garden helper Editor  Des was as delighted to see the bulbs as I was.

I planted them  in various positions, to give me the best chance of success. Those in an open, sunnier spot have done the best so far.. They may not flower this year, but that’s OK.

MID DECEMBER – CHRISTMAS LILIES BUDDING!

Just look at those buds! How exciting.

ON LILY WATCH

Oh dear, seems they won’t quite make it after all I will have to decorate with  festive crimson  lilies that have no fragrance.

Never mind, next year I will put a warm blanket over my white ‘Maureen’  Christmas lilies, and get them off to an earlier  start.

UPDATE ……THEY FINALLY DID IT!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS