Donna here. With some help from Tracey (Magnolialover) and Lisa (Buggy) I I am in the process of growing lilium candidum from seed. I would be happy to share the process.
My lilium candidum was obtained from the North American Lily Society in 2003, the result of its annual seed sale. It was labeled L. candidum ‘Cascade Strain’ - 96-119 McRae. I put it in my minifridge in the basement, and did not even attempt to germinate it until January of 2009. It was unopened until then. NALS seed is prepared by those who grow the lilies. It is somewhat intensive work and the members do an outstanding job. Ed McRae, who passed away recently, was a giant in the field. Cascade Strain is a more disease resistant type of lilium candidum, which has been said to be a bit fragile and disease prone.
January 19, 2009
Using Garden Supply Company’s accelerated propagation units, I put two seeds in each of two cells. The instructions were to lightly cover, so I inserted the seeds at a 45 degree angle to insure good contact. If you are familiar with lily seeds you will know that there is what appears to be an embryo inside a somewhat transparent shell. In the manner I inserted them in the soil, I could see the shell, but not the embryo – my interpretation of lightly cover.
January 31, 2009
The first of the four seeds germinated (12 days). The rest followed over the next few days. So despite the fact that the seeds were six years old, I achieved 100% germination. They were quite tiny, so despite the fact that I had placed two in each cell I was able to allow them to develop without separating them.
September 6, 2009
The seedlings looked large enough to handle, so I separated them and I potted each in potting mix, the type that provides some fertilization, and returned them to basement. The pots I used are the kind of green plastic pots that garden centers use to hold plants for sale. I put one in each pot. I put them on a tray, and started watering them from the bottom. Whenever they started to look a little tired (edges of leaves turning brown) I give them so extremely diluted 10-10-10 fertilizer, probably 1 part fertilizer to ten parts water.
The picture shows how they look on February 10.
Next step:
I was considering popping them into my mini refrigerator in the basement, but got this guidance from Tracey (Magnolialover) who is an expert in the lily area.
My questions:
Do my various lily experts think that this is a good time to chill them? I have a minifridge in my basement.
Do I remove the foliage, and how should I wrap or prepare them to be chilled? I want to install them on the normal schedule for candidums, which is September.
Tracey’s response was that she would recommend keeping them going or, alternately I could experiment by chilling some and planting out others. I would have done the latter if I had had more seeds. If I chose to plant them out, I would need to keep in mind Tracey’s advice that I plant them shallowly, and her reminder that they do well in alkaline soil.
Then Buggy (Lisa) added this:
Madonna Lily seedlings often skip the dormant season and stay green until they are 2 years old (some of our native deciduous trees do this too) so as long as they are staying green keep them growing!
So I am going to keep them going and plant them in late summer. I will keep everyone up to date on their progress.
