flame lily growing issues

I started growing the flame lilies from tubers this year and right now two of them are in a pot and have grown to almost 5 feet tall. One has already come out with about 5 or 6 flowers already, while the other still hasnt yet. I just noticed that the one with the flowers has buds that have stopped growing and are turning blackish/brown. the other one has a few of the lower leaves that have started turning born and wilting at the tips, and that one has also produced small buds that are turning the same brownish color. I dont know what is going wrong because I haven't done anything different from when i planted them into the pot. Does anyone know why this is happening?

I know it as Gloriosa Lily: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/699/

I do have the plant but don't have brown tips/buds or lower leaves that are wilting. My first guess would be Botrytis. If that is correct you'd need to use a fungicide for it but any brown or black areas should be removed and NOT composted but destroyed. You do not want to spread the problem.

There is an excellent grower of Gloriosa lilies here at DG. I'll do a search and see if he can help you with your problem.

Is the plant in a very damp area? Does it get very good air circulation?

Hi Pirl,
I posted up one picture of a couple of the buds right below, and I'll upload a picture of the leaves too. I thought it may be a disease because the blackened buds didnt look like they had anything growing off of them - they just looked like a different color, were shriveled up and stopped growing - but I have no experience with this so I'm just guessing and not sure at all. the soild was really damp from the rain so I moved it inside and i suspected it would be alright until i noticed this a couple days ago when i was wondering why more flowers werent blooming or even coming in. I bring the gloriosa lily outside every day when its sunny, put it out in full sunlight and bring it back in every night (i saw that some kind of a bug was eating at a couple of the leaves at night and tried an insecticide that didnt work, so i just avoided all problems and brought it in every night). I think it gets pretty good circulation during the day but maybe the bottom might not - so should i maybe drill a couple holes in the bottom of the pot is addition to what was there? I was afraid that it might be some type of disease. thanks so much :)

here's one of the worst leaves

I can't identify what is wrong, sorry.

Good air circulation means more in the line of no plants competing for air space and nice breezes.

We'll have to wait until the person I referred to above shows up to help you, unless others have ideas they can share with you as to what they think the problem might be.

oh its ok thanks for all the help though - although i dont think good air circulation is an issue then because there's only those 2 in the pot and plenty if access to sunlight, room to grow, good breezes etc... does the pictures look like it would be botrytis? i didnt think it looked like that from the buds but i could be wrong
the leaves on the second one have more wilting down since yesterday :( so i guess we'll have to wait and see if anyone knows what it is?

It does not appear to be botrytis from the photos you posted. We'll have to wait until someone comes along with the answer. In the meantime I wouldn't water too much.

I've never encountered the problem illustrated though occasionally a few buds go black. My first impression from the descriptions is a drainage problem. I use very large pots and really crowd the tubers to achieve the density I like when blooming. Before putting the potting soil in I fill the bottom quarter of the container with styrofoam peanuts to assure excellent drainage (practice also makes the pot's weight more manageable). Mine are usually watered daily.

Thanks, Jack. What a glorious photo of the Gloriosa lilies!

Wow! those look absolutely beautiful! I noticed that all of my buds have been turning black, so do you think i should maybe lift up the pot and drill a few extra holes in since its already growing, or would it be better to remove it from the pot and put maybe some mulch or something at the bottoma dn then put this back in?

I would say the plants are suffering from OVER watering rather than not enough, these plants like to be watered each day in the growing season but, they don't like to sit in wet soil or in a saucer filled with water, I would use a multi purpose compost from the store as this stuff is normally well composted and any bugs killed off by heat, add to the compost either some small grit or add to the bottom of the pot some larger grit, broken croc's etc to help the drainage, make sure the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot is good too, IF the soil dries out it is OK to water the plant and let the water drain into the saucer but, after the soil is wet pour off the excess water after say half hour.

For now I would remove the damaged leaves as they are maybe going to spread some disease to other areas due to pores as the damaged leaf will start to form fungus.

it is best to plant one tuber in maybe a 6-7 inch pot or 3 tubers in a 10 inch pot, most of the tubers will send up 3-4 stems anyway, if you keep them in pots remember to add a trellis as these are climbers, you will need to build an outdoor frame also for climbing.
Give a half strength feed every week to help them continue forming flower buds.
Hope this helps, WeeNel.
PS, I have a wonderfully one of those plants in my bathroom but, it is silk, OH well !!! it is easier to look after, he, he, he.

Thanks everyone :) I listened to all your suggestions and stopped watering them for a couple days. one new bud seems to be growing and i cut off all the dead leaves and threw them away. i'm hoping that it will work and they'll be flowering again :). i have put up a small trellis and now theyre a bit over 4ft tall, but next year i plan to get a nice big arch and have two pots growing on either end of that and put it in front of my doorway.

Good job, Risen_phoenix. Jack has shown he knows what he's doing and knows how to grow them. I would follow what he says. I have a few but they are not in pots but in the ground near a trellis.

Wow Jack, those are gorgeous. What a display.

Hi Pirl... I am gonna have to look into those...such happy flowers...grin

Here's a pic of greenii -

some other pots of gloriosa

You really do an astounding job of growing them, Jack.

You'll have Risen_phoenix and I green with envy!

Those are just beautiful.

Living in UK these beautifulbeautiful plants are not suitable for here, even indostrugglea struggle for them, so yes I am also very envious too, but my silk one in out loo just needs a dust ha, ha, ha. awonderfuly wonderful plants, this is why I like this site, you get to see first hand lots of tropical stuff we can only dream about.
Good luck Risen, go for it, trellis and all.
WeeNel.