Ginny, here:

https://garden.org/thread/view...

It is a fasciated lily stem!

Ginny, I was referring to Joe's fascinated lily. I haven't seen any in my gardens yet.

Got it. I added Whistler this year so anxious to see both of our blooms! What is fascinated?

It's called fasciation not fascination and it is when the lily puts up a flattened or multi headed stem. It often has an excess amount of flowers as well. There doesn't seem to be any definite reason why it happens but I believe that it is when the bulb is in a process of division and hasn't quite gotten there before the stem goes up.

Joe, I can't recall, but have you had any fasciated stems before?

Yes a few Dave. I had a slightly fasciated 'Big Bang' and very fasciated 'Cadense' martagon and probably a few others.




Here is the martagon.

Wow Joe. Curious, how well did the fasciated plants do the following year? Grow like normal, or stunted a bit? I'm actually intrigued by this, and yet to experience it myself.

I saw a couple stems at Jeff's house. But the foliage and everything had died off since it was October.

I find that the fasciation does nothing to deplete the bulb more than normal but like I suspect there are more normal stems next year, as in they were in the process of division.

Bringing my seedlings outside I noticed that this pot has a few variegated seedlings. It is Henryi var citrinum x Della yellow (rosthornii and citrinum in its background).

Very interesting... I wonder if the effect will return next year.

I like those colors better than the white and green.

Nearly a 5 foot stem of Summer Palace. I didn't think this one would make it through the frost we had.

I lost my Summer Palace (2) and Golden Sceptre (2) over the winter/spring. Guess they didn't like sitting in water for days. But Tiger Babies right next to them didn't seem to mind the soak at all.

One thing that I love about growing Lilies is that every year it seems there are random stems that are exemplary. This year Timezone is nothing short of outstanding. It is 5.5 ft tall and shows 21 buds with secondaries! Can't wait for the show. Only problem is it came up a little too close to the house.

Joe, it's a smart lily, it thought, maybe if I come up closer to the house I'll have ready made support if I need it, carrying that many flowers.

Looks good!

Well, I have my first fasciated stem. This is on Citronelle.

Poor thing! That is one I would prefer not to fasciate because it usually has a nice inflorescence.

It is a little odd though, the stem next to it, same cultivar, is showing signs of it as well. Just not as bad yet

In all my years of lily growing, I've only had one lily fasciate (twice), until this season. Now I am at four, so far! And all of these have been in the ground, untouched for at least five years.