How to grow lilies and best varieties

Lilies are romantic, showy flowers that fill our borders and pots with glamour in midsummer. Intensive breeding has created lilies of all shapes and sizes, so Which? Gardening magazine trialled a range of different types to find the best.

The bulbs are planted in spring, in either pots or borders. You can also buy potted plants in spring and summer.

Discover the varieties that peformed best in our rigorous trials, plus advice about how to grow them.

Breathe new life into your outside spaces. Sign up for our Gardening newsletter, it's free monthly

Key facts

Plant type Bulb

Position Full sun or partial shade 

Soil Any well-drained soil

How to grow lilies: month by month

Best lily varieties

Which members can log in now to see the full results and which are our Best Buy varieties. If you're not a member, join Which? to get instant access.

Full testing results for lilies

Asiatic lilies for pots

Oriental lilies in pots

Double lilies

Tree lilies

25% off Which? Gardening

Pay £36.75 for the first year and get the garden you want for less

Get this offer

Types of lilies

Asiatic lilies are short varieties, up to about one metre tall, and have upward-facing flowers with no fragrance. They come in a wide range of colours and bloom early in the summer, usually from mid-June into July.

Oriental lilies bloom from mid to late summer and have large, outward-facing flowers that open wide and have a strong fragrance. They tend to be taller, although recent breeding has produced many varieties of dwarf oriental lily.

Tree lilies are hybrids of trumpet and oriental lilies, and this cross of genes makes them extremely vigorous. They make oriental lilies look small in comparison and can grow to two metres or more, but rarely need staking. Once established, bulbs can throw up more than one stem. From mid-July to mid-August, they’re covered in flowers with large trumpets and a sweet fragrance, bearing the best traits of their parents. Crucially, they’re more tolerant of limy soils than other lilies, meaning they will be at home in almost any garden. 

Double lilies The lack of pollen stamens and an increased number of petals mean double lilies can look very different structurally to single lilies and can give a much bolder, more modern feel to a border. Most cat owners exclude lilies from their garden as though all parts of the lily are poisonous to cats, pollen is especially dangerous. However, many double lilies are pollen-free so may offer a safer way to introduce these showy flowers into borders. The lack of pollen may also help people who have hay fever and flower arrangers who dislike how it can stain when brushed off the flowers

Scented lilies are oriental lilies or hybrids of trumpet and oriental lilies that don't grow to extreme heights. 

Planting lily bulbs

Buy the largest bulbs you can to give good-sized plants in the first year. Check any bulbs you buy are free from damage. A small amount of blue mould is fine and bulbs can still be planted, but excessively mouldy bulbs should be avoided. 

Choose firm, large bulbs with intact outer scales and no signs of bruising. Most lilies need to be planted in the spring, so order in good time. Bulbs can dry up and fail to flower if stored too long. 

You can plant in the autumn or early spring, but it’s better to plant in spring, especially if your soil tends to stay wet over winter.

In the ground, choose a spot with well-drained soil. It helps if the bulbs themselves are in shade but the leaves and flowers are in full sun. Dig in some garden compost and plant the bulbs 15cm deep, leaving 15-30cm between them. Mulch the area with soil improver to retain moisture and keep down weeds.

Discover our Best Buy compost bins

In pots, plant the bulbs into deep containers, leaving plenty of space for the roots and 15cm above the bulb to the surface of the compost. Use a Best Buy compost for containers (or ericaceous compost for oriental lilies) and add granules of a controlled-release fertiliser. 

Caring for your lilies

Growing lilies in the ground

Water in dry spells and weed around your plants.

We didn’t stake our lilies and found that most leaned slightly but didn’t fall over by the second year. If you want them to stand bolt upright, then stake them before they start to bloom, placing a cane close to, but not through, the bulb.

Remove seedheads once the lilies have finished flowering to allow the plant to put the maximum energy into the bulb for next year’s flowers.

Wait until stems are brown and hollow before cutting them down.

Try our Best Buy watering cans

Growing lilies in pots

If you’re growing lilies in pots, place them in full sun and ensure the compost is moist at all times, but not wet. Feed with a liquid fertiliser, such as tomato feed, every fortnight during summer unless you’ve chosen to use a controlled-release feed at planting time. 

Repot bulbs in the autumn when the foliage dies down, or transfer them to the garden. To overwinter in containers, place in a cool but frost-free, airy place.

Common lily-growing problems

Lily beetles

Lily beetles (Lilioceris lilii) are attractive, bright-red beetles around 7mm long with black heads, legs and undersides. They can deter predators by squeaking – they are audible if you hold them close to your ear.

Adults and larvae eat the leaves, flowers and seed pods of lilies, fritillaries and nomocharis and can do severe damage. Adult beetles nibble irregular holes in the leaves and petals, while the larvae methodically work their way from the leaf tips towards the stem. Adults are occasionally found on other plants, including Solomon’s seal and lily-of-the-valley, but these plants do not seem to be eaten by the larvae. 

The adults overwinter in the soil or on leaf debris and can appear from late March if the weather is warm. After mating, the female lays 200-300 orange eggs on suitable plants. About a week later, these hatch into reddish-brown larvae that cover themselves with their own black, slimy excrement. When the grubs are mature, they burrow into the soil to pupate, emerging as adults in mid- to late-summer.

If you grow only a few lilies, it’s feasible to control lily beetle by inspecting them regularly. Pick off and squash the adults, grubs and eggs; the earlier you start looking, the more likely you are to break the pest’s life cycle. Keep the beetles under control, at least until the plants finish flowering, to allow the bulbs to build up enough to form next year’s flowers. Where plants have been badly damaged, feed the remaining leaves with liquid feed sprayed onto the leaves.

If you have lots of lilies and wish to spray them, use the insecticide Westland Resolva. If plants are flowering, spray at dusk to avoid harming bees. The grubs are more susceptible than the adults, which are protected by their hard coats.

Slugs and snails

Slugs and snails will eat the newly emerging shoots and the leaves, so apply ferric-phosphate slug pellets at the stated rate and remove any slugs and snails you find.

Read more about slugs and snails

How we test lilies

We planted the bulbs in the ground in spring and then we recorded their progress throughout the summer, keeping records of: how well they flowered, their eventual size, their colour, if they had scent, whether they produce pollen stamens, and if any had trouble with pests or diseases.