Hey guys! I have never had an asiatic lily in my life so I'm dumb as a stump on the subject. I got these at the store on sale for $2.50 for 3 bulbs. I know they were left over from spring b/c they had them then. this package must have been stuck back in the storeroom & someone discovered it & put them out for sale. I knew going in that I might have mush instead of bulbs. So, here are photos & I need to know exactly what to do. I thought I would plant them in a big pot to hold them over until spring when I will put them in the garden unless you say otherwise. It's hot as he double hockey sticks here now & the sun wants to burn everything to a crisp with no rain.

Here's bulb #1


Yep, there's some green mold stuff there. The bulb feels pretty firm though.

Bulb #2 feels fairly mushy:



But I looked down into the inside & see a little pale, pale, light green.

Bulb # 3 is firmer than #2 but not as firm as#1. It looks like the flower stalk has tried to grow but died.





The box they came in





Do I soak or dip these in some kind of bleach solution before planting? How deep do I plant #1? What about #2 & #3?

Thanks!

I think your best bet would be to plant these directly in the ground now--about 5 inches deep and 6 to 8 inches apart and in the shape of a triangle. Plant on the north side of a building where they would get morning and evening sun or a pretty well shaded cooler spot (if there is such a thing) where the hot sun will not heat up the soil. Your soil type in the Lake City, Florida is usually quite sandy with excellent drainage so no extra soil preparation is necessary, just water in well immediately after planting and keep barely moist until they come up. Do not fertilize until growing and then very sparingly with rose fertilizer. The blue/green mold you see is most often harmless and need not be removed unless you want to.

Lilies are generally easy to grow and for the most part maintainance free. However, some lilies do better in Florida than others. Most all lilies require cool temperatures during their seasonal resting period over the winter months. And during this time the bulb is setting it's flower buds internally. Asiatic lilies require a pretty good chill in order to flower properly the next year. I think at Lake City, you're still cool enough during the winter months to grow them successfully. Other lily types that would probably be a better choice for your area would be Longiflorum/Asiatic hybrid abbreviated LA , Oriental/Trumpet hybrid, abbreviated OT or Trumpets. Those do well anywhere north of a Tampa--Orlando line.

Others may have more suggestions as well so follow this thread a while--be careful though--lilies are habit forming. Ha Ha!

Edit Added: I forgot to mention something very important: Lilies (lilium) of this type do not like wet, soggy soil. These are not water lilies, and, contrary to popular belief--true lilies do not like a lot of water.

Thank you Lorn! Wow, you did some research on my area. I'm impressed. We moved up here from zone 10a south, south Fl. where I never saw a lily (a proper lily, not counting daylilys which I grew there) grow. It was just too hot year round for lilies. I've always loved them though & was excited being up here where I can have some. We bought this house in March & are still sort of getting settled in & there hasn't been much time to make changes to the landscape/gardens yet & certainly not before it got just TOO hot to deal with. Yes, we have sand here but there are also pockets of grey, sticky clay which, in the course of planting daylilys, I found darn near impossible to dig the smallest hole in. I do believe we get enough winter chill for Asiatics to grow well here.

The biggest problem at this point is that "the garden" & anywhere remotely near the house gets blistering sun all day long. That is why I had thought to pot them up until winter is over & hopefully by then I can provide some shade to the garden area in the way of planted trees. In pots, I can move them to the carport or under shade of the roofed over patio.

Thank you so much for the info. on LA & OT lilies!!!!

I have meant to get on this forum & learn about lilies but thus far time has not permitted. I have been learning about pecan orchards instead as the property we bought has 80 pecan trees & harvesting time will be upon us come Oct. Thus far, all I knew about lilies was that they like sun & require very little water which is right up my alley as we had a xeriscape yard down south. Oh! And that hummingbirds like to sip from them. As far as lilies being habit forming --- suits me just fine as I'm already addicted to dl's so may as well add lilies to my addiction list.

I wonder how long the bloom season for lilies is down here?

Again Lorn, thanks for you input!

You're welcome, Ann. And by the way-- to this forum. Stick with us here and you'll learn all about the lilies for sure. Each regular member here has a little different, unique area of interest when it comes to growing lilies. Some of us grow lilies in beautiful mixed garden settings. Some grow Species lilies. Some cross pollenate and seed for new hybrids. Some even like to clone, and some grow lilies just for the enjoyment of their sheer beauty, All together, there is a fantastic pool of common sense lily knowledge here that we share and build on.

So, if you enjoy lilies--for starters, here is a list of some of North America's best lily bulb sources. Each has their own website where you can view the various lily types and cultivar names they offer. For the most part, these sources grow what they sell so you're always assured of getting the very best and freshest stock available. Enjoy!

www.thelilygarden.com
www.bdlilies.com
www.farawayflowers.com
www.lilynook.mb.ca/
www.perennialnursery.com (Halson Gardens)

Valley K Ranch in Canada is another good source. (If someone has the correct web address, please add.)

Here's Valley K http://plantlilies.com/catalog...

I see you lily lovers are just as much enablers as the daylily lovers are.

Thank you both for the links; it's nice to know where I can get good bulbs. I will be looking them over.

Hi flaflwrgrl

Wow - I'd love to be able to grow lilies and pecans. Yum

The picture on that bulb packet looks more like a bunch of LAs than it does asiatics. Hmmm... who knows what your bulbs may be? If you want to try a warm climate species that doesn't need cold dormancy, Lilium philippinense reportedly does well. Apparently will flower in as little as 8 months from seed. (I'm giving it a go this year - the question for me will be whether it copes with winter here.)

Welcome Ann.
Lorn is right.This is the place for lily info.There are many lily oldies and newbies like youself.
We all swim together.

all of you!

I see a lot of places now have their 2014 lists up & are taking orders. I have 2 questions.....

1) I'm seeing ones that say Asiatic but do not state LA --- will they all unequivocally they are LA's if they are that?

2) Are there any shorter LA's? I'm wondering how well these 36" to 48" ones will stand up for me or do you always have to stake lilys?

If we refer back to the list of sources I posted on August 15th, 2013 above, they all categorize them nicely as Asiatic, Longiflorum Asiatic and so on. So if you order from them and baring any human error, you'll get what's described. However, when it comes to pre-packaged lily bulbs such as ones sold in big box stores and some others, this may not be the case. They (the wholesale distributors they buy from) have a tendency of lumping everything together, so to speak, so that anything Asiatic is called Asiatic, so it could be either. If the package has a lily name, that's good; then you can look it up in the lily registry at the above sticky thread or ask the question here whether it's an LA or not. In general, the best practice is to order from good reputable sources that differentiate between the two.

Longiflorum Asiatics are very sturdy and don't require staking generally. If you plant them in real sandy soil, you might want to plant them an inch or two deeper, that's all. Trumpets and most Oriental Trumpets would likely require staking in sandier type soil, however.

If you need a quick answer along the way, you can always ask it here.

Edit Added: There are no shorter LAs that I'm aware of.

Thank you Lorn! I couldn't find any on the lily garden link that say LA ~~~ they all just seem to be Asiatic. So that's why I was asking. I liked some of the colors there better than most of the offerings from the others.
Also, I was looking at the lily co-op from Bert
The thread "Lily Co-op" in Classifieds and Group Buys forum
and I didn't see any there that were listed as LA. I did see some small (short) ones that I was interested in & thus the question about height. I DO have sand so I suppose staking is what I will have to do.
Thank you so much for helping me learn.

Here's a clue: B&D Lilies list their LAs as "Scented Asiatics". They carry quite a few LAs.

http://www.bdlilies.com/long.h...

Thanks for that Connie. I did notice some sites listing some as scented Asiatics & that gave me a clue they *may* be LA's but being new in the lily game; I couldn't be sure that there aren't many Asiatics that are scented. So I've just learned another new thing about lilys.

Also, The Lily Garden, as a general rule, does not grow and sell many LAs. When I went through their Asiatic listing, I did find two noted as being LA: Bight Diamond and Royal Sunset. Royal Sunset has a well established history of good and long garden hardiness and one that holds it's color very well in a higher temp. environment.

Concerning staking LAs, I still don't think it's necessary. I never have had to stake any of mine and they've survived 70 and 80 mile per hour winds without a problem except for some leaf damage. The purpose of planting the bulb a little deeper provides a little better anchoring--and in your climate zone it would also keep the roots cooler, especially during the first year. All lily bulbs (I think) will, over time, establish their own 'comfort' depth level which they prefer.

As for the LA 'scent' ~ it's minimal. You have to have your nose pretty close.

Thanks Lorn, I will look at those 2 on the Lily Garden. I didn't really realize until I began looking at the stats on these lilys how tall they actually get. I haven't ever seen a garden in person with blooming lilys in it. The height was a bit daunting to me. I know you get some pretty fierce winds in your part of the country so if they make it not staked for you then I have hope they will for me. about planting them deeper although I'm not sure any depth here is truly cooler when that ol' summer hits unless you dig down 3 feet!

Moby, not a problem as I am bowled over by the blooms all by themselves but I do have a surprisingly excellent sniffer. Perhaps I won't have to get pollen on my nose to enjoy the scent.

Ann- nobody starts at the top.. but take a while and listen to all these knowledgable people..and you'll be cruising

The fragrance seems to be more concentrated at the petal tips anyway; kind of mother natures way of attracting bees, etc.--so you don't have to get your nose near the pollen. LAs are supposed to have a very light spicy scent but with some I can't detect any fragrance at all. Perhaps my nose has been desensitized from years of being around highly fragrant Trumpets, etc.

And don't let numbers like 36 to 44 inches scare you--that's not really that tall when well placed in an actual garden setting. And when it comes to keeping the soil cooler a scant couple inches of coarse wood chips or mulch works just fine. It also keeps moisture in the soil very well.

I'm a big believer in mulching.

And I realize that growing conditions have an effect on things like height. I imagine that down here even the tallest will not attain it's stated height. But there's nothing like growing it to find out. And I'm about to get my feet wet in lilys.

Now, choices, choices....... decisions, decisions.....