“No garden should be without it,” wrote Woodcock and Coutts in 1935 of this wild, martagon-like lily, echoing C.L. Allen of Boston who in 1893 ranked it as one of the dozen best lilies for American gardens. With 4-12 small, freckled, amber-saffron blooms in early summer, it’s easy to grow and can last forever. Protect from hottest sun. 3-5 feet, zones 3-7aS/8WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Inexpensive, easy, and wonderful, this graceful Chinese wildflower has tawny-orange petals that swoop back like the wings of a falcon. Named for an Irish plant explorer, it was highly praised by cottage-garden artist Gertrude Jekyll in the early 1900s, and today it’s still a favorite in lily society popularity polls. Mid-summer blooming, sun to light shade, 4-6 feet, zones 5a-7bS/9WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

This is the only native California lily that thrives anywhere it’s not too hot. A knock-out with brilliant orange-red petals that are splashed with gold and leopard-spotted, it was first brought into gardens back in the days of the Gold Rush. In 1939 lily expert George Slate praised it as “not particular as to soil, easily established, handsome and graceful.” Amen! 4-6 feet, zones 5a-7bS/9WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Favorites for centuries, these wild European “mountain lilies” were crowded aside in the 1800s by flashier lilies arriving from Asia. But their charms endure, and today they’re making a big comeback. Blooming in earliest summer with dainty, pinkish-purple turk’s-caps, they’re extra cold-hardy but not always easy to please. Give them a cool spot, humusy soil, filtered sun — and patience. 3-4 feet, zones 3-7aS/8WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

As if made by fairies, the tiny, luminous blossoms of this mountain wildflower are, well, bewitching. A cold-loving perennial, it’s slightly bigger, stronger, and some say even lovelier than the purple martagon. But it’s not for beginners, demanding a cool spot, filtered sun, humus-rich soil, and patience. 3-5 feet, very early summer blooming, zones 3-7aS/8WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Subtle but spectacular, ‘Mrs. R. O. Backhouse’ offers an impressive pyramid of up to 30 fuzzy pink buds that open to small, martagon-like blossoms, each a soft amber and cream blushed with pink and lightly dotted with maroon. It’s happiest in very light shade; easier and stronger-growing than its wild parents, L. martagon and L. hansonii; and never needs staking. 4-5 feet, zones 4-7S/9WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

Grandma’s red velvet cake, rich with cocoa, is the same dark, luscious color as this enduring Hall of Famer. (Try our heirloom recipe!) Its New England-bred, triploid vigor makes it easy to grow almost anywhere, and hummingbirds love it. Asiatic, 3-5 feet, zones 4-8aS/10WC, from Washington. Chart to compare.

Discovered growing with abandon in the rugged wilds of Szechuan, this richly perfumed lily is so beautiful and easy to grow that it led to a lily renaissance in the 1920s. In fact, George Slate in his 1939 Lilies for American Gardens advised, “If only one lily is to be grown, it may well be this.” Kissed with burgundy outside, it glows with gold on the inside. 3-6 feet, early summer blooming, zones 4-8aS/10WC, from Holland. To see one customer’s fasciated regal lily with over 50 blossoms on one stem, click here. Chart to compare.

Is this what heaven smells like? It’s my favorite floral fragrance – lush, complex, and never too much. ‘Rubrum’ is achingly beautiful, too, with pink and white petals “all rugged with rubies and garnets, and sparkling with crystal points,” to quote the RHS’s John Lindley soon after the species arrived from Japan. My wife Jane and I liked it so much we included it in our wedding 28 happy years ago. Wonderfully late blooming, 4-5 feet, zones 5-7S/9WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.

‘Casa Blanca’ is a fine lily, but we like its wild ancestor even better. Exquisitely fragrant, its flowers are more graceful, less huge, with showier, jade-green nectaries that enhance its sparkling whiteness. Like L. speciosum rubrum it’s a form of the variable “Japan lily” which “commanded extravagant prices” when first imported (Breck’s Book of Flowers, 1851) and went on to become one of the Victorian era’s most popular flowers. Its late bloom extends the lily season. 4-5 feet, zones 5a-7bS/9WC, from Holland. Chart to compare.