Jacobean lilies

After last year's flowerless summer, the Jacobean lilies - one of my favourite of all flowering plants - are in bloom. They are incredibly beautiful with rich crimson spidery petals, an elegant narrow white stripe the length of each petal and rich eye of the tiger gold stamens. They simply gladden my heart. They are one of the few flowers I pick and bring inside although the pistil has to removed or it drips sticky nectar all over the table. They are so stunning that I only put one flower in a tall, narrow necked vase and stand it in splendid isolation. Every time I pass it I'm overwhelmed by its magnificence. I grow mine in pots so heavy as to require fists of steel to lift them because they won't flower in the garden beds no matter how carefully I nurture them.