The First Lily Blooms

and very much brightens our life.  A friend tells me that lilies are referred to as 'the queen of the garden,' which I didn't know, probably because I'd never grown lilies before.  (Well, they pretty much grow themselves, although I do feed them as advised by B&D Lilies, which is my bulb provider.)  I have somehow found myself responsible for about 4 dozen of these plants which do multiply over the years.  And some of them don't make it through the winter because my landscape is pretty wet.  But over about four years, I've netted 4 dozen, anyway.  And the stalks with the most buds (16-18, the most efflorescent--and I've never thought to use that word in relation to flowers but surely that is where it had its birth) are the ones that bloom in June-July.  So we are headed for some lily abundance.