I was a little shocked when I first spotted the newest flowers blooming in the garden of my neighbor Cindy Dyer—they looked like some mutant variant of a lily, with octopus-like tendrils coming out of the center of the spotted flowers. Cindy had previously told me that she had planted some tiger lilies that she had bought at a half-price clearance sale, but it is safe to say that these are not like any tiger lilies that I had ever seen.
Yesterday I learned that these are double Tiger Lilies (Lilium Lancifolium ‘Flore Pleno’), a variety that has double the normal number of petals. Wow. It looks like only one set of petals had opened for the lily in the first image, with more to come soon. The flower in the second and third photos is at an ever earlier stage of growth, but I was intrigued by its exotic shape, colors, and patterns. Every time that I look at the middle image, I see a dragon’s head with an open mouth, but perhaps my imagination is simply in overdrive these days.
While taking the photos, I noted the two little gray things on the stem in the second and third images. I did not investigate more closely, but Cindy believes that they are insects of some sort.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
What a stunning shot!
Thanks. It is definitely a strange-looking flower, especially at this stage of development.
Beautiful
Impressive flowers, and of course shots to capture them. Love em !!
Very Cool Mike! Never saw these before! Great shots!
Thanks, Reed. I have been paying attention to lilies a lot this season as I have stayed at home (and visited my neighbor’s garden frequently), but I have never seen ons like these.
Wow, that’s pretty.
Aside from how cool this is, and your shots as well, the profile looks a bit dragonesque. 🙂
The dragon look of the profile caught my attention too, Steve.
Very unique looking flowers!
The lilies are striking flowers aren’t they, and I love the water droplets.
They sure are quite distinctive. The rain was a nice plus, because we went for several weeks without much rain. Then we had several days in a row with thunderstorms and brief downpours.
The lilies are striking flowers aren’t they, and I love the water droplets.
Lilies normally have six petals, so that first one does indeed look like a double.
If I had know that there could be doubles like that, maybe I would have been better prepared mentally when I saw them. Still, I think they look a look weird, at least at that stage of development.
They do look a bit strange. Developed by plant breeders, I’m sure.
Exotic, strange, perhaps bizarre? Thanks.
All of the above and utterly fascinating too.