ge1836 said:
Most of my lilies only last 3 or 4 years and they just peter out.
They're getting too old, literally. Some more I want to say about the life expectancy/life span of a lily. No lily bulb lives forever. Even in a perfect setting of all the best conditions it will die of old age eventually. It was explained to me once about what happens to the various cell structures of the bulb as it ages through each succeeding season and I grasped what I could. To make a long story short, essentially what happens is cell division becomes more irregular and new cells also become irregular shaped in increasing numbers making it less efficient and more difficult for the bulb to conduct essential functions at optimum. The plant languishes in a downward spiral.
How is this relevant to the backyard garden OT's of today? Because most OT's out there in the 'dry goods', bare root, pack of 3, market segment are outgrowths of the cut flower sector--where slow growth and maturity are not a benefit. They could care less about longevity because once the flower is cut, the bulbs are destroyed. They do every thing they can to breed, select and grow short lived plants that artificially age before their time just to beat that 30 month number. If the pedicels are a little too long to fit in a shipping container, but appears to be good for a backyard garden, package it and ship it for that purpose--then depend on customer feedback on garden hardiness and longevity.
