I live in New York (Long Island) and am going to give my lily bed another try. I was ready to place an order but I am wondering if I should wait untill spring. I think that I have been mulching to heavily and that is why I have been losing so many bulbs. Opinions please! Thanks
when to plant
Lilies could be held until Spring, but it you're ordering they should be planted now. The coming cool weather is needed for root development and will give them more time to settle in before next year's bloom.
Do you know why you've lost so many? Have you dug the bulbs and found them rotten or eaten? Most important for lilies is excellent drainage.
You're closer to the south shore but not all that far from me. They winter well, but I also plant some new lilies every spring as soon as the ground is workable. I'm assuming you've got healthy, hardy bulbs. You might want to work in some dried fall leaves to improve drainage and keep the mulch down. It does not keep the weeds down, but keeps the ground damp. We had so much spring rain that you might not have had good drainoff and raising the beds could be really helpful as well as container gardening.
Most of our ground plants did not do nearly as well as our container gardens. All the container plants that had lilies did well. The container tomato plants did not suffer blight like the in-ground plants. FYI, we used 35 gallon containers and drilled holes for drainage. They were not the fanciest, but the cut flowers were beautiful, and because we mixed varieties, they bloomed for several weeks. They were also inexpensive, so our deck was filled/
