Anna Pavord: 'Martagon is an adaptable, shade-loving and rather beautiful early bloomer'

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When should you plant lilies? In the autumn, at the same time as the daffodils and tulips? Or in the spring, with dahlias and nerines? The irritating answer is: "It depends which lilies." If you like martagons, which are relatively early into flower, then you need to plant in September or October. And that means ordering now. The first martagons I ever saw grew in a bramble patch in our old house. The place had been abandoned for more than 25 years and, by the time we arrived, few garden plants survived except for a deep pink moss rose, pinned against a wall by the arms of an ash seedling. And these wonderful pink lilies, pushing up through the dross and chaos around them. Courage. Promise. Optimism. They were a potent symbol of all the things we needed then, having landed ourselves in a rectory with no roof and with a new baby on the way.












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