Hi kidfishing!
Take a look at this recent post from Lorn;
http://garden.org/thread/view_... it shows lots of ripe pods being held by European hybridiser Guntis Grants.
It's hard to say how long you'll be waiting for your own pods to ripen. Your environment and weather will determine how they progress. For me, some years the sun never seems to come out enough, temperatures are low and it seems to take forever! But the pods will become softer and begin to split when they are ready. Everyone has their favourite way of doing things, but when I see a pod begin to split, I put in in a paper envelope and bring inside to dry. Pods become crunchy dry and then it is much easier to shake out the seed. Seed dried this way can be stored somewhere cool (or in the fridge or freezer) until late winter/spring sowing.
Unless you have been playing with oriental lilies your seed is probably immediate epigeal, meaning it will produce a cotyledon above ground around 3-4 weeks after sowing. No stratification. I know lots of north american growers start their seeds under lights before the end of winter, to lengthen the duration of that first year's growth. The more growth the young bulbs can put on the more likely they are to be big enough to produce a first flower or two in their second summer. I find asiatics flower from smaller bulbs than most, but stragglers can still take another year or two to first flower.
Which lilies - types or cultivar names if you know them - have you been playing with?
