Re: LILIES: Oriental

Claire has give some good advise, I can only speak about my own experiences
growing lilies here in Minnesota plus what is generally now about them.

Orientals lilies for me tend to do well for a number of years and them just
disappear.
Some times after they disappear they come back after a year or two but many
times not.

Wet soil seems to be the culprit most of the time and I am sure that the
voles have grabbed a few that were shallowly planted.

Three years ago I plant some large white Orientals-they may have been the
Casablanca types- I think there were ten bulbs put in the bed-the first year
they each had 5 or so flowers, the next year they had 7-12 flowers each.
Last year only 6 came up and had around 8 flowers each on 4.5 to 5.5 foot
tall stems.  The area is in part shade so they grow a bit taller than in full
sun.  The soil is heavy sandy loam with some clay and the location is on the
top of a slight slope.

Last June we put in a flag pole were the lilies were planted and I found the
bulbs for the 4 plants that did not come out of the ground-the bulbs were
three times the size they were when planted-looked about the size of a small
grapefruit, but not a single small bulb.  If this was an Asiatic Lilly, there
would have been 10-30 small bulbs.

I have never had much increase in Orientals-they grow-get large and disappear.
I like to plant deep and give them a few shots of "miracle grow" during the
year-( I spray the leaves)

Why the bulbs might "fall apart" and produce smaller bulbs each year could
have a number of causes-none which I will claim as certain.

Lilly bulbs have a ring of tissue around the bottom of the bulb that is the
life of the plant-it is the stem so to speak with the scales being modified
leaves.  If this layer of tissue is damaged by voles, slugs, wetness, viral
or fungal diseases the bulb will stop working as a single plant and each
section will grow into its own plant with the production of many smaller
bulbs.

The life of a bulb is not complicated-in the spring the plant grows a stem
and in the summer flowers are produced, during this stage of the plants life
the bulb is being consumed by the plant. So if the top of the plant is broken
off or picked -- the bulb has little chance of storing energy for next year
and the bulb will be much smaller.
Since Orientals bloom late in the year I wonder if the weather in parts of
the country might effect the ability of the plant to grow the new bulb late
in the season-what this might be I do not now. They like a rich soil and my
guess is that the virus probably kills off a lot of leaves before the plants
start growing their new bulbs for next year.

If we remember that lilies grow a completely new bulb each year then we can
tailor our cultural practice to best promote the growth of that new bulb.

Plenty of light after mid summer
some light fertilizer if the soil is nutrianial poor.
If its real dry-some watering always helps
But if its wet-then the location needs to be well drained.
Avoid wet soil in the fall, winter and early spring.
When taking cutting material leave as much of the stem and leaves as you
can-take no more than 1/3 of the plant.
And let the plant die back of it's own accord in the fall, I do not remove
the old stems until they are brown and dry.

This is the best I can do - The Asiatic are much more friendly, but they do
not have the scent that the Orientals do.

I love the trumpet types too-but the scent kills me.

I have planted lilies in the fall and the spring both have had there problems
-- this mainly do to the quality of the bulb.

Some suppliers send overly dry bulbs in fall.
Other send soft bulbs in the spring.

In the fall I do not have the time to plant them, so they go into a temporary
bed.
And in the spring they get moved to were they belong.
This has worked well.

Paul
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