Well, I guess I am not so embarrassed now to say that I, too, accidentally broke off a VIP...
I have never worried about allowing too many pods growing on a single stock (within reason). Last season I made a dozen crosses on one martagon stalk(knowing some would not work). Six took, and were nice and plump. (The others were far out possibilities, and I would have been very surprised if they produced. If any of these would have been successful, I would have sacrificed the same number of "easy" crosses.) This next year (this season), that same martagon increased by 50%.
But this year is a different story, and the season has been quite stressful: starting with a 3 week jump on the normal spring, with 3 inches below normal rainfall by mid June, and 4 inches above normal by the end of July! Visibly, you didn't see how stressful it really was for the lilies, but when you do the same two crosses on the same lily stalk, and the early one takes easily and the second produces a small misshapen pod, and this happens multiple times, there must be something up. I am sure the weather itself wasn't helping with the actual pollination either.
P.S. Regarding the attacking lilies outside your door: I wouldn't mind a few pincers nipping at me either...
