Lilies have always slightly baffled me but at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show the penny dropped when I looked at a very informative display put together by a lily nursery called H. W. Hyde and Son, of Twyford, in Berkshire. Their circular exhibit displayed lilies that need acid soil on one side and those that need alkaline soil on the other. These two groups were clearly defined by a signpost — acid-loving orientals to the left and alkaline-loving Asiatics on the right.

The two halves of the circle looked completely different. The oriental acid-loving lilies were a sea of whites, pink and carmine and their large, highly scented flowers gaped widely. The foliage was sparse, but any leaves were round and oval. Famous oriental lilies displayed included the white ‘Casa Blanca’, a new pink-red called ‘Love Story’ and a smaller-flowered pink named ‘Sheila’. The Asiatic lilies on the alkaline half came in a wider range of colours, including orange, almost black, red, white, yellow and apricot. So this half was much more vibrant and varied. The flowers were smaller and there wasn’t any scent from most. The stems bore lots of leaves, but these were long and narrow.

Seeing both types together has reinforced the fact that large-flowered, scented lilies have to be grown in pots of ericaceous compost so that they get acid conditions. They will only thrive in a garden setting if acid soil is present. The smaller-flowered Asiatic lilies are more versatile: they make good garden plants as long as the soil is rich and fertile. They increase quickly and come in brighter colours although they don’t normally have that delicious, heady scent.

The lily pictured, the Regal lily or Lilium regale, is from west Szechwan in China. It was originally discovered growing in the Min Valley (between Maoxin and Songpan) in 1903 by Ernest ‘Chinese’ Wilson. Wilson managed to collect a few bulbs and apparently. Wilson collected more of these bulbs for The Arnold Arboretum in Massachusetts in 1908. However, they rotted in transit. Perhaps because of this, Wilson was determined to collect some more bulbs from this area when he returned to China for the fourth time in 1910. He recorded that the “the blossoms of this lily transforms a desolate and lonely region into a veritable flower garden”.

He stayed in the village of Sian Sou Qiao on September 3, 1910, and wrote: “I am certainly getting tired of the wandering life and long for the end to come.” On the next morning Wilson’s party left in good spirits but Wilson suddenly noticed that his dog had stopped wagging his tail. Seconds later a huge rock fall occurred and Wilson suffered a compound fracture of his right leg and used his own tripod as a splint. He had to be carried to safety and forever afterwards referred to his ‘lily limp’. His plant collecting career was over. However, Lilium regale proved to be a great success as a garden plant, despite only growing on the steep rocky slopes of the Min Valley.