Dutch bulb breeders have shifted their intense focus from spring-blooming tulips to lilies, a genus whose bloom times span early spring to late summer. The first fruits of their efforts are available in goodly supply from specialty retailers, whose fall catalogs are showing up now in mailboxes and online.
Although you won't plant Lilium bulbs until autumn arrives, order them right away. The showiest selections sell out first, especially new hybrids enjoying a buzz.
"For the last five or six years, the hybridizing steps are shorter than they were 15 years ago," says Frans Roozen, the technical director of the International Flower Bulb Center in the Netherlands. "They are crossing hybrids with hybrids, so the possibilities increase exponentially. Also, advances in tissue culture make it much easier to bring quantities of lilies to market."
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