This is your baggie containing scales. This is a book.

This is a book on your baggie.

Any questions?


sorry, I couldn't resist

Perfect Moby! Thank you! I don't have any scales going right now, just seeds.

Anybody else find this method more productive? I'm all for feedback here :0)

I don't have any scales going either, just an empty bag of peat that a bulb had come in.

Ditchlily, Mags mentioned using a soil-less mix for this method ~ you can use peat or vermiculite.

Lately I've been doing mine like this in vermiculite. A couple of light spritzes of water mixed in before adding scales.

I, for one, am glad for you pictures. I was going to put them in pots! So a couple of months of this and you check them for forming roots? Then into a pot? And by May we have little lily plants to share?

You can usually see roots forming in the baggie without getting too snoopy. What I have to watch out for is leaves forming, then I have to release the pressure and open the baggie up. I leave the bulblets on the scales until they are at least pea sized or so or they easily drop off. Then yes, I pot them up. My luck hasn't been all that good planting them right out in the garden until they get a bit bigger.

In most cases all you get the first year is a few basal leaves, no stem.

Here is a bulb I scaled today. You don't want to do this unless you are giving up the mother bulb!

Note that you can see where the stem stub is attached to the basal plate.

TwinLakesChef said:Yup . . . I pulled off a couple and "after the fact" figured they wouldn't work because I didn't get any of the "basal plate". It's big enough, I can try again. What does the book do? Keep them from crawling out?

It's not mandatory that you get part of the basal plate; in fact, you almost never do. The object is to cut or break the scale as close to the basal plate as possible. Even so, most hybrid lilies are quite forgiving regarding this, and scales will still produce bulblets, even though a scale break might not be near the basal plate. You just won't have as great a success as if your scale breaks were closer to the basal plate.

I think most of us experienced people will say that the first time we scaled a lily we didn't even know that proximity to the basal plate was even a factor in scaling. (I didn't even know what a basal plate was.) But we were still successful.

Moby said:you can use peat or vermiculite.

My first attempt at scaling (circa 1976) was with vermiculite, and even with the little knowledge I had I was successful. For the medium, what you want is something that will not support fungal growth, yet hold enough moisture to keep the scales from desiccating. It will be barely moist. Perlite alone holds either too much or to little moisture. Since perlite does not absorb water, and only holds water on the outside of the aggregate, free water in the liquid state is bound to be in contact with the scales. This will encourage rot. But I have used perlite and peat with good success. If I am very wary of rot with a particular scale(s), I will be sure to use perlite and raw sphagnum moss. Raw sphagnum has better anti fungal properties, yet regulates the proper moisture content well.

It took nine months for a couple of accidentally broken off, tiny Lilium distichum scales to produce bulblets. These were very special, and considering the long shot I had for success, I used the perlite/raw sphagnum mix.

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An added note:
1) once bulblets appear, excess moisture is tolerated better.
2) to discourage leaf growth, keep the medium drier.
3) to encourage leaf growth, give the scales a little extra water. However, scale bulblets of certain types of lilies may not ever produce leaves until going through a cold period.

76!,leftwood,you're making me feel young[did they have lilies back then?in the olden days]-the scaling bit is something ive ignored,but often done'accidently' at times and works very well here under natural potting conditions[[in our climate]],.,.some of the older growers here deprive the bulbs of light and water towards the end of winter,but also some have had bad results,.,.i just stick to the natural 'backyard'procedure''and yes i do lose a few every year'' but i believe that happens to everyone.-its great to read of others choosing an alternative procedure of multiplication-often overlooked-anthony

This is an interesting and informative thread. Thanks for the images too.

Thanks for all the wonderful information!

gwhizz said:some of the older growers here deprive the bulbs of light and water towards the end of winter

Confused here: what does this supposedly do? I can't make ANY sense of it. Withholding water in the summer may cause a bulb to divide, but you say winter...
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Yes, I think I was 17 years old when I tried my first scaling. A whopping success, I might add. All I had to go by was the information in the Let's Grow Lilies booklet, which wasn't that much, but, obviously enough. No internet back then. Teletypes and punch tape were big then.

LOL You cant be older than me Rick.

i'll find out some more info about it ,rick,.,.,.yes,i remember the 10 or so computers they had back at high school[about the size of a large refrigerator],.,.i used to look and laugh and think''they will never catch on'',..,hmmmmmmm

Thanks for the visuals everyone. A picture is definitely worth a boat load of words in this case.


One I may want to treat that way soon.



Another way to propagate them, but does not happen every year. This plant grows these occasionally.

Wow, those are some eager bulbils!

leftwood-in answer to deprivation of water and light,.,.i asked the big question on the weekend!!!-answer was,;'to make them stronger'',.,.they didnt look much stronger than anything i had produced,but the answer lies underground!-hmmmmm

Thanks for remembering, Anthony!
Hmmm, I guess I still can't make sense out of the answer, but I'm not knocking it until I prove it wrong...

tasmanian weather proving bad for lily growers,.,.32-35 degrees one day,steamy rain for the next two days,..,blotchy leaves ,burnt petals,deformities,..,you cant win!,.at least the shows out of the way,.,.if it wasnt,then id really have something to crow about!

Got seeds from a lily lover. (Haven't looked it up yet) Today, I decided to repot a 1 gallon group of seeds that I got, Labelled: Mrs. RO Backhouse Open Poll. Seeds M planted 10-30-09. Because I haven't seen anything growing I wanted to find out if anything was in the container. I did not plant them with the 3 mo. heater, then 3 mo. refreg. which I think these need to germinate. Anyway, when I took the soil out this is what I found. They look like long roots with upright leaves?? (Really don't know what to call them). Here are some photos I took before repotting into 5 1 gal containers.
Thanks
P.S. Can you tell me also what size to resize photos? I don't know if these are too large.