Lilies and Related Plants - RHS Lily Group

My insouciant friend the male Ibex.
Left, Mt Triglav (2,864 metres), in the
background, from the plateau that
leads to the valley of the Triglav lakes.
instead of where this lily was growing, should I ever pass that way again. Years later
after I was bitten by the lily bug, not beetle (of which more later), I purchased two
bulbs of L . carniolicum var. albanicum (now L . albanicum). I lost one, but the
other bulb survives and produces clear lemon flowers in early June. In his book
Growing Lilies, Derek Fox writes, “As a garden plant it overrides L . pyrenaicum, so
in the early lily season there is no yellow turkscap available to trounce this one. It
would benefit any plantsman’s garden.” I wouldn’t claim to be a plantsman, but
I do agree with Derek’s assessment. Having tried and failed to source bulbs of
the orange type, I have been reduced to brooding impatiently over some very
tardy seedlings I have had growing in a pot for what seems like too long. Hence,
as I scrunched my way up the path I felt keen to reacquaint myself with the
L . carniolicum plants I hoped awaited me, but before that I had a mountain to
climb and a long way to travel.
Growing bored with the dark and airless wood, my attention was suddenly
arrested by the appearance of a Chamois. As he wasn’t too far along the path I could
appreciate his sturdiness and heraldic bearing. I wanted to capture his image, but
I knew the second I reached for my camera he would disappear, which, inevitably,
is what happened. I say “inevitably”, but an encounter with an Ibex – also in the
Julian Alps – ended quite differently. Having stalked the Ibex across a rocky slope,
and positioned myself close enough so that I could take photographs that would
be recognisable as an Ibex rather than as a small fuzzy brown blob, I literally had to
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