Lilies and Related Plants - RHS Lily Group

A bulb and scales of Lilium ledebourii.
similar to those in the south of the Azerbaijan Republic, with cold winters. However,
the growing zone in the north of Iran is not very close to the Lilium ledebourii
growing zone in Ardabil Province. Lilium ledebourii has not been cultivated yet,
in different parts of Iran, and is still endangered and protected, because of forest
destruction.
Some research about the micropropagation of Lilium ledebourii has been
done, but not published. Therefore, little public information about cultivating this
species is available. In my online research, about this species, I found that it is
not easy to cultivate for ordinary gardeners, but I have not found the reason for
this. My main goal is to cultivate Lilium ledebourii in different conditions and in
different states of Iran by propagating this species with a clean and disease free
technique like Tissue Culture.
Visiting the natural habit of Lilium ledebourii (a species that is difficult to
grow) could provide information about how to cultivate it by establishing what
its requirements are; that is why I decided to do it. With this plan in mind,
I approached my colleague, in our Agricultural Organization, and asked him to
accompany me to a forested area in the hope of finding this species growing in its
natural habitat. An important aim of our visit was to obtain some seeds and bulbs
for propagation purposes. Unfortunately, we did not find any flowering lilies, as
it was too late in the season (we visited the area in late summer), but we did find
some black and dried stems and one seed capsule full of seeds. This visit was very
short, because these forests contain wild animals such as bear, boar and wolves,
but the trip made it worth accepting these potential difficulties.
I should stress that the forest we entered is protected, i.e. under the control of
the forestry service, but we were authorized to take a few bulbs from the forest,
enough to achieve our goal.
In its natural habitat, Lilium ledebourii lives under trees. In the forest we
visited all of the trees were short and they formed a dense cover, which made it
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