Lilium "Black Beauty"

The last of the lilies to bloom - in fact a good three weeks after the Dunyazade, which it resembles in all but size: Black Beauty is small. Here it is with the plectranthus in the background. Estorbo had something to say about it after it arrived from the Pacific Northwest, earlier in the year.

Coincidentally, the New York Times ran a story on lilies which I have just now read - in their picture captions they managed to scramble their lily names, calling the Black Beauty a Sandhill Fire Lily and vice versa. But I have to be nice as they're doing a story on one of our gardens this week for the September magazine...still, a little polite note will suffice.