Re: Arum lilles

Pamela Steele wrote:
Would somebody be able to advise me how I should treat my potted white Arum lillies after summer in my London garden. Should I cut off the stems and if so when? I had a huge plants and flowers last summer - I left the leaves on and they were poor specimens this year. The leaves/stems got very slimy over the winter. Also what sort of feed should I give them and when?.

Hi Pamela
I found it strange to be thinking about this plant as something needing pampering as where I live it is so common and vigorous outdoors, especially in old neglected gardens, it is almost a weed. However I do have an old book of English origin which says that though this is an evergreen species it is best dried off for the winter by withholding water from the start of August, bringing the pots inside in late September and keeping the rhizomes dry until October or November, when they should be repotted in fresh mix. When growth starts water moderately, increasing to copiously once they are in full leaf.

The account then becomes a bit confusing, but I guess you would best keep them growing indoors, or at least with overhead shelter, till spring. Between May and August they recommend feeding with a liquid fertilizer at weekly intervals, which should ensure you get good vigorous growth I think.

Drying them off should take care of that slimy topgrowth, which I guess could be cut down once completely dry.

All this advice is a bit late for this year I fear, but I would be inclined myself to bring the pots under cover anyhow, cut down the green growth now and probably repot immediately. This is an emergency measure and to hedge your bets, if you have more than one pot you might try repotting one with the shoots cut as I have suggested and another leaving the shoots on. I think it is important to get the plants into fresh soil anyhow following the poor growth in the second season. Plants which grow as vigorously as these are very heavy feeders, so this almost certainly meant they were starving by the second round if you had neither repotted or fed them after the first summer's growth. Repotting yearly and feeding during growth should take care of this problem I think.

Moira

--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.     Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
NEW PICTURES ADDED 4/Feb/2004

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