oriental lily bulbs

I just had to take a picture ...I guess its true sometimes , you get what you pay for.

I ordered 100 oriental lily bulbs in the co-op,when they got to the house my DH(who the bulbs were for) said,they're too small.I thought they were good sized ,especially for the price.
So he made me order more bulbs from White Flower Farms.

There was a very large price difference but the bulbs from White Flower were WAY bigger.The ones shown are not the biggest or smallest,There were some that were huge from white flower and some that were pretty small from the co-op.
Personally,I was very impressed with the co-op bulbs,like I said,you can't beat the price we got on them.

And your little ones will grow and get stronger.

i had some HUGE bulbs in my order of 166 bulbs-i didnt think that there were very many small ones at all!

Don't get me wrong,I'm not complaining that they were small,I thought some were really big too....till I got the WF Farms bulbs........

all of mine came from wff, and only 1/2 of them ever surfaced...but they are gorgeous!! let us know how they grow, k? i may have dug a few up accidentally, cuz they took so darn long to start sprouting up i forgot where they were...i have had some bloom, and am getting ready to get some big ones any day now...i looooove asiatic lilies!!!

Well the bad part about WFF is that i ordered the orientals,and the asiatics "summer fireworks collection" and "Early Autumn" collection,they were asiatics.
well,to make a long story short,I got notice that they were being shipped,they arrived right on time,and the orientals were in the box....and the hosta "Emerald Atoll" collection (which goes for 49 bucks)....which I didn't order.....,who ever did has my lilies,and now the Fireworks collection is now sold out.So they were suppose to ship the pastel collection and the Autumn collections right out.That was 2 weeks ago...... still waiting patiently......NOT

CC, so now you have lots of free hostas?

Yeah,but my DH is all into hostas so I planted them around my Lilac...never even thought of trading them....DUH!!!

Got an e-mail today that my bulbs have been shipped.....wonder what I'll get this time????

maybe they will send you lots of free roses. LOL

Before I ever heard of Dave's Garden and met all the experienced gardeners here (if you all knew how much you've taught me you'd be sending invoices), my very first outdoor plant purchase was 24 Casablanca lily bulbs from WWF. They were expensive.

I dug the bed deeply and ammended the soil exactly as WWF instructed in their cultural instructions (thus learning that gardening can be very hard work, indeed).

All 24 WFF lily bulbs began to show about three weeks ago and all of them now are 18 ~ 24 inches tall. Of course, the proof will be in the blooms.

As I've learned more about gardening, and plant suppliers in general, I've found out that you don't always get what you pay for and sometimes are happily surpised that an inexpensive source is equal to or better than the expensive one.

I've now had both positive and negative experiences with both.

What I'm really looking forward to (aside from all my stuff coming up and blooming), is having some mature plants in my plot to trade with folks.

Adam.

PS: Let's all be sure to put our vendor experiences into the Watchdog so that we can be guided by each other's observations.

hey adam, i hope you have better luck that me. my casa blancas were a big disappointment, but then i didn't read the instructions...

CC, basing from personal experiences in growing bulbs, it is not the size of the bulb that matters, but the tlc given to the bulb in previous growing season. plus the tlc u will give to help it grow nicely for u this season.

so far, i have alway bought bulbs on sale either at Home Depot or Walmart. i get both small and large ones. either sizes alway produced flowers for me the same year of planting. as the years progresses, u will be able to increase the bulbs and the blooms in your yard. just my 2 cents thought.

Well, Meiyu, when I got my lily bulbs I had never so much as planted a seed, so I had to read the instructions. I didn't know which end of the bulb was the top. Thus, I did a lot of digging, including adding 400 pounds of composted cow manure to the plot.

Gardening in the city, as I am, my single biggest challenge is soil condition. There are always glass shards, broken bricks and concrete chunks to remove each time the shovel or fork goes into the ground.

I've come to accept that this is going to be a long uphill climb..., uphill in both directions, it seems.

;~)

Adam.

you mean you don't just dig a hole and toss the bulbs in the ground? hahaha! maybe that's what i did wrong!?