Frosthardy lilies

I have some lilybulbs in my refrigerator. My plan is to start them early and pollinate them for seedproduction. But some of them have started to grow. My question is; if i pot them up ant take them to my cold greenhouse ( to early to start the oven here in cold Norway). How many degrees minus can they survive? We had -20 degrees Celsius last night.

I would suppose it would depend on how big the sprouts are. Tulips and species glads often begin bulb sprout growth in the fall and seem to have no problem. I've witnessed a few of my lilies doing the same when I did them in the late fall.

My guess is, and it is only a guess, that if your sprouting is still tight, as if the sprout had not reached the soil surface, then it would survive freezing temperatures down to -6C (21F).

If you pot them up and put them out there, I don't think I would water them at all. The slightly moist soil will keep them in good condition. At such cold temperatures, diseases have a big advantage over lilies, since they may attack anytime the temperature is above 0C. Lilies cannot fight back because it is still too cold for them.

This message was edited Feb 8, 2010 9:12 AM

I dont know if this will help but,I potted lilies this November and put them in my garage in boxed stuffed with Newspaper.
It has been down to 10* Ferinheite and not much above 20* all winter. I havnt checked to see if they are sprouting, but I will.
I have never done this and was also told not to water.

It would also depend on the species or the species derivation of a hybrid. Probably the most important thing you can do in your garage is insulate, as you have.

I have a few test lilium bulbs along with many of my seeds stratifying in the garage in thick styrofoam boxes this year. Outside temps have gone down as low as -25F (-32C), but twice during such cold spells I brought the boxes (unopened) inside for a couple days.

When I checked the boxes I realized I must have watered them when I potted them.
One box has two layers,the top pots have no sprouting showing and the one underneath has damp newspapers and damp potting soil.I didnt check the other boxes.
The box with a single row has appearantly drained in the past few months and is barely damp.

There is not anything you can do about the damp soil, except bring them out when temps are -6C to 0C, to dry more. What I would definitely do is replace the damp newspaper with dry pieces.

If you had a thermometer, especial an minimum/maximum thermometer, to put in a box to get an a better idea what real temps are like, you would have a better idea of how to proceed in the future.

A minimum/maximum thermometer is one that records the highest and lowest temperatures it experienced, as well as the present temperature that regular thermometers do. The min/max settings are resettable, so the min/max thermometer can be re used.

thanks for the info. i will change the papers.
i had planned to bring out the pots in April

We had several nights of 10F here in early December, all the potted orientals are dead and many, if not all of the field orientals are dead, no mulch, can't afford that anymore since they have been outlawing logging for many years here.
The Asiatics in pots on the ground survived. I don't know yet how the trumpets and OT's did in the ground but the ones left in the van in bulbs bins are dead. The American species left out in pots are dead. Some of the potted Martagons on a bench in the shade house are dead, the big mother pots on the bench are alive.
The Asiatics have died in the mid teens when potted and on a bench before. It depends on which type of lily you have. The orientals die somewhere between 10 and 20, out in the open. I left some out for the 15F nights last year hoping they would die in the barn, but they didn't oblige. we did get warmer during the day then so that probably kept them from getting too cold.
Keeping them on the dry side does help keep them dormant.
One thin layer of Remay frost cover saved all the seedling flats on the ground in the greenhouse (unheated so did get to 10F) I would have used more but the forecast was wrong for the first night of cold (they said mid teens) and after that why bother.
Because we tend to be very mild here in the winter I often have to plant sprouted lilies, I completely cover the sprouts with soil and they grow through it. I also have some odd hybrids that come up early (Jan) and have thrown mulch over the tops to cover them and they have been fine.
Hope this helps

Thanks Lisa,I have no idea if these are viable bulbs or not.If I see green in April I will know they made it.
I dout it though if your temp information is correct. These were asiatic lilies,Just 6, so I'll replace them in the spring if they are not growing.
I am an amature when it comes to thee things. Lollipops and a red asiatic survived in a 20 inch planter for 3 years until I transplanted them. I had to because they were multiplying so much I couldnt get other plants in to make an arrangement.
I moved to thei house 2 and 1/2 years ago and planted a container with First Crown.
Didnt realize the sun didnt come around to the deck until late spring. 1 bulb out of 5 grew.the rest were mush, the planter stayed frozen and wet for too long.

Thanks all of you. I think i`ll wait a week and hoping for spring.

I have taken out the damp paper and replaced it.
Hope this helps.
I doubt I will buy late season bulbs again.Its a lot of minding.

Well one good thing about our rare bad freezes is I can get useful cold hardiness data out of it! I guess I will find out which orientals are the hardiest this year!

And that it is Lisa. I already copied and pasted your post in my lily notes. It's a rare thing when anyone posts hard data like that. Thank you very much.

Rick

I am surprised at the lilies I have that survive my planting methods.
Either I mindlessly choose varieties that are naturally hardy or lilies can take more abuse than I thought.
Sometimes the holes arent deep enough and sometimes the bulb isnt completely upright. Everything grows great.

Somewhere on the Lily forum we were talking about staking lilies.
I just took pix of the patch where most of my lilies are.
This picture shows the bent stakes where the deer have moved thru the area.
This is a regular highway for them.I simply dont know why I am planting DayLilies and Asiatics here.I will be ordering the three gallon rolling sprayer in a few weeks.
You can see the looped stakes at an angle in back on the left.