Let's talk here about our successes and challenges growing lilies. Any questions are welcome. Everyone is invited to post, and you may start new threads in this forum.

Dig a hole. Put the bulb in. Cover it up with dirt. Water it in.

WOW Wanda.Do you have anymor lily garden pictures.Thats great.

Gee Wanda, that makes it sound so hard.

Wandanista has lovely lily gardens and tons of lovely lily photos!

I have to plant them in chicken grit "Bowls" full of soil to keep the voles at bay.

Shall I start a picture forum then? Probably a good idea.

I spend all fall planting, spring planting, summer taking photos and all winter drooling over them.

I love this orienpet. it was sold to me as unregistered Amarillo. Very vigorous & a light spicy scent.

Love that Orientpet Wanda. I think you and I must have gone to the same lily growing school. I do just like you do. Of course it helps a little that we both live in the midwest where the soil is good for gardening and "If you plant them, they will grow".

susan

In January of 2009 I started several seeds of NALS lilium candidum Cascade Strain (McRae) 96-119. Four of them germinated by August but were not big enough to go into the ground, so in September I potted them up and popped them into my basement, keeping them lightly watered, and under shop lights 14 hours a day. I seem to remember that Tracey suggested not putting them into the ground in September (and I am sure that's right) and suggesting that I put them in the fridge in February.

You can see what they look like now - I brought them up to photograph them. Can anyone (Tracey, are you there?) tell me what to do now? Do I lift them from their pots, do I remove the foliage or leave it? I have a 40 degree minifridge in the basement, but I'm not sure how to make the transition from these seedlings to the fridge. I understand that they should not go into the ground until September.

Any guidance would be much appreciated. I feel like a lily mom - raised them from seed and they've had their first birthday!

Donna

Wow, those are wonderful seedlings! Did you use a higher pH soil for them, add lime perhaps? What temperature do you think they germinated at? What's the temp of your basement? Details, Details. I want details!

This would really be be best moved to a thread all its own on this, the Growing Lilies Forum, IMO. Call it "Lilium candidum from seed", maybe. People would be able to find it again, if they choose. I would be able to find it again. Would that be okay, Donna? It would be a test for our illustrious leaders. Admins, are you up to the challenge?

Signed:
A presumptuous Leftwood

Donna, and Rick,

I started the new thread, but I don't have a way to move posts. I can move total threads, but not individual posts. Would you mind posting over on the new thread, please.

http://cubits.org/liliesforum/...

Thank you,

Kudos, Donna! Those look fantastic!

Choosing a nice well drained spot for your bulbs helps. Bulbs don't like to soak in wet ground--they will rot. I used to put some loose soil & peat under the bulb. I don't anymore since it seems to encourage my holes to hold water around the bulbs.

Plant your bulbs 2-3 times deep as the height of your bulb. Too shallow seems to be better than too deep for me in my clay ground. Tractor roots pull the bulbs down as the bulbs get older and larger.

Wandasflowers said: Tractor roots pull the bulbs down as the bulbs get older and larger.

Wanda, I have visions of little Oliver's, Farmall's and John Deer's pulling the bulbs deeper in the soil. LOL

Diann

Tractor roots! I love it!

Yes, we all know there are tiny tiny nano-tractors working below the soil surface. John Deere if they are employed by American lilies, Toyota if Japanese. European lilies use Fendt or Husqvarna. Russian, Siberian and Caucasian lilies prefer to dig their way down rather than pull, so they use Chetra machinery.

Kidding aside, what Wanda meant to say was contractile roots, not tractor roots. Some people have 'senior moments"; others have "machinery moments".

(Edited out Moby's name.)

Ahem, it was actually Wanda that called them Tractor roots. See Senor Momento....

My lilies use antique tractors....

Okay. Now I need a smiley of ROTFL about something I am ROTFL about. (I hope my acronym spelling is correct.) I'm over 50 now. I can have senior moment(o)s, but I think I'd rather have machinery moments. (I was going to say something about getting your hands dirty with machinery - adapting it to the mind, but I don't think it translates well!)

Ticker, so you must have heirloom lilies that use antique tractors . . .

I have a few heirloom lilies, but alas, we can only afford an antique tractor...