Lilies: Lilies a year from seed in flower., 0 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
They are tiny Lefty, I wondered if they would be bigger next year, that is if they are around then as I think these can die if they flower well but leave seed. There is actually 5 in one pot and 4 in the other so I may be able to spare a bulb or two, only 4 plants in flower but a couple others made papery buds. I will have to make sure some are pollinated, they are outside now with plenty of bumblebees but I haven't seen any on them, they like the Aquilegias.

I just measured the biggest one, it's 4cm across, that of course to the curved edge. I hadn't tried smelling it until now, it smells like honey and it's night time here, that is cool. The Gerbera is 10cm diameter.

The Gerbera is one I grew about 9 years ago from seed, was supposed to be Californian Giants in bright colours but this was all I got apart from one other pale creamy yellow which was weak and died. It is tall and lives in the greenhouse over winter, has taken much hard (-9C and frozen solid in early years) and prolonged frost and lives. It never makes viable seed though!

The Hosta is Fire & Ice, it's increasing nicely in an old metal babies bath tub where I have the original Alstroemeria plant but it was dwindling so I took some off and keep it in the garage over winter, it's now got to a good size but they take some time. The original of course is getting pushed out by the hosta and a couple of self set aquilegias which are too nice to pull.

I got a few seeds from the Alstro last year, sown but not germinated yet, but I have one growing nicely which must have dropped into a calla pot which is still in the greenhouse. It had the advantage of being winter sown! I don't have a name for it, I got it locally with no name but it looks similar to A. pelegrina.

I have another gorgeous purple Alstro with a name if I can remember it or find the label, last year it didn't do well and is going downhill, but some is growing so I will have to remove it into a large pot, it's again outside in a large babies bath! That one grows it's tubers sideways near the surface so probably got a little frozen, the pelegrina look-alike goes deep.

Aside from that, my Nomocharis pardanthina had 6 lovely fat buds on it in the greenhouse, which has some panes missing and it seems something like a squirrel ate them! The other, N. finlayorum had 2 stems, one with only 2 flowers which were filling, they were dug out of the ground and broken off but the bulb seems to be there apart from a couple of stray scales. It probably wasn't so palatable!

Nomacharis pardanthina before the big nibble! Perhaps it was a squirrel that ate Lilium Dizzy too, I have them around and they must be getting short of food except the birds peanuts!





This message was edited May 30, 2008 10:40 PM