'Denia Pixie'
Dwarf Pink Asiatic Lily
"Day in melting purple dying,
Blossoms all around me sighing,
Fragrance from the lilies straying,
Zephyr with my ringlets playing,
Ye but waken my distress:
I am sick of loneliness."
-Marie Gowen Brooks
(1794?-1845)
(1794?-1845)
'Denia' dwarf or pixie lily is named for the beautiful port town on the eastern coast of Spain. It is a bicolor flower, creamy-white or sometimes pale yellow with bright pink tips and/or edges, strikingly freckled all about the center, & pink in the very heart. It grows to about 17 to 20 inches, stalky & sturdy enough to not tip over nor even lean in the manner of full-sized lilies.
There seem to be several strains sold as 'Denia,' unless the variation in color is more the effect of lighting & soil conditions, as I have seen them without the pink in the heart, sometimes with deeper yellow where most would be creamy white, & sometimes the pink is all around the petal edges, elsetimes primarily at the petal ends. The pink occasionally washes out in bright sun as the flower ages. Plus I am not convinced that the equally varied 'Pink Pixie' is always a different cultivar.
This one clump of 'Denia' has an odd bloom schedule which is not terribly uncommon but also not typical. It blooms late June & very early July (when the photo above was snapped), then by July's end it produces additional stems of buds for August rebloom.
It can do well in bright shade but in the main wants full sun with a little protection from heat at the height of summer. It wants well-draining soil or may rot out in the winter. It will otherwise perennialize with great ease & return each year as a slightly wider clump which after several years may want autumn or spring division.