Foxtail lily
Eremurus x isabellinus ·
Towering, tapering spires packed with hundreds of small flowers in orange, yellow, pink or white, on bare stems far above a tuft of strap-shaped leaves, in early summer.
- Size
- 6 ft tall, 24 in wide
- Zones
- 5 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Flowers
- Early June to early July
- Pets
- Not checked
- Job in a bed
- Accent
A bed built around foxtail lily
The planner designed this bed around foxtail lily when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) English border in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 715 that suit those conditions and its dry soil, and says below why foxtail lily stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Cheddar pinks 'Tiny Rubies' × 16, pink
- 2 Leadwort × 9, blue
- 3 Wild quinine × 3, white
- 4 Stiff goldenrod × 3, yellow
- 5 Dwarf English boxwood × 1, dark green leaves
- 6 Coneflower 'Kim's Knee High' × 5, pink
- 7 Foxtail lily × 3, yellow
- 8 Grecian windflower × 8, blue
Why this plant
- The only spires. The others are open bowls, dense clusters, flat plates and others. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 6 ft it is the tallest plant here, and the tallest close the ends of the bed, where they stand in front of nothing.
- A step in the back row. Next to wild quinine (3½ ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- 3 plants in one clump. A single spire is too slight to hold a place alone, so here the accent is a clump.
Why now
- In flower for five weeks. From early June to early July.
- In company. With Cheddar pinks 'Tiny Rubies' and wild quinine in late June: 3 kinds at once.
- Leaves gone by midsummer. They die back and leave bare ground. A perennial that comes up late stands beside it, and grows over the gap.
Planned as an English border: 7 of the 8 groups (88%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. The bed is tied together by its repeats: two kinds come round again along it, Cheddar pinks 'Tiny Rubies' and leadwort. Leadwort and Cheddar pinks 'Tiny Rubies' finish the front edge.
The planner's own design check: 11 Excellent, 5 Good, 1 Satisfactory. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where foxtail lily goes in a border
At 6 ft it belongs at the back of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is very tall (5 to 6½ ft). It is airy enough to see through, so it can also come forward and veil what is behind it.
Its job: accent. An upright plant used singly, like a punctuation mark, and repeated at intervals to give the bed rhythm.
The tallest spire of early summer. Plant the starfish-shaped roots shallowly on a mound of grit, in full sun, and do not let neighbours shade the crown. The leaves die as it flowers.
- Spectacular vertical accents
- Dry, sunny borders
- Cut flowers
What to plant with foxtail lily
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Catmint 'Six Hills Giant': in flower together for five weeks, from early June; grows up in time to hide its dying leaves; a low mound at the foot of its spires.
- Bearded iris: purple against yellow, opposite each other on the colour wheel, if you choose those colours, in flower together for two weeks; low enough (2½ ft) to stand in front of it; happy in the same dry soil.
- Russian sage: takes over when it finishes, flowering from mid July; happy in the same dry soil.
Questions about foxtail lily
Does foxtail lily need sun or shade?
Foxtail lily grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day).
It wants dry, sharply drained soil, of average fertility, and little watering once settled.
What zones does foxtail lily grow in?
USDA zones 5 to 8. It is hardy to zone 5, which means it survives winter nights down to about −10 °F (−23 °C).
Above zone 8 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does foxtail lily flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers early June to early July. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 5 | Early June to early July |
|---|---|
| Zone 6 | Early June to early July |
| Zone 7 | Late May to late June |
| Zone 8 | Late May to late June |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should foxtail lily be planted?
18 in (45 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 24 in (60 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 6 ft (180 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many foxtail lily plants do I need?
At 18 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 5 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 7 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 17 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as one at a time, repeated along the bed at intervals; a slender one reads better as a clump of three.
In the bed above, the planner used three in one group.
What can I plant to hide foxtail lily's leaves after it flowers?
A bulb's leaves have to be left to yellow for about six weeks after flowering, to feed next year's flowers. Plant it among perennials that come up late and spread wide, and they grow over the leaves as they fade:
- Blue false indigo: 4 ft tall and 4 ft wide, in flower late May to mid June.
- Ornamental rhubarb: 6 ft tall and 5 ft wide, in flower late May to late June.
- Mountain fleece 'Firetail': 3½ ft tall and 3½ ft wide, in flower early July to early October.
What does foxtail lily look like in winter?
Foxtail lily is underground: it dies back after flowering and waits as a bulb until spring. Mark where it is, so a fork does not find it first.
More Eremurus
- Narrow-leaved foxtail lily Eremurus stenophyllus
In these guides
Every fact on record
- Type
- Bulb
- Size
- 6 ft (180 cm) tall, 24 in (60 cm) wide
- Plant
- 18 in (45 cm) apart
- Height class
- Very tall (5 to 6½ ft)
- Place in the bed
- Back, or further forward: it is airy enough to see through
- Flowers
- Early June to early July; upright spires; orange, yellow, pink, white
- Leaves
- Medium texture, summer-dormant; green
- Shape
- Upright, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 5 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil
- Average, dry and sharply drained
- Water
- Low
- Feeding
- None needed
Not yet checked against an outside reference: its figures rest on general horticultural knowledge. Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.