Hi Brenda, Glue as in Red River clay. Very sticky. Had to change from rubber duckies to wellies because the glue(clay) was oozing up over rubber duckies.
We have about 350 members of our MRLS lily Society. Not all are active though. Some are overseas and in other parts of the country. 1000 stems is an awful lot to cut. We (active members) have decided that we will try to have 2000 stems. That will really flummox our chairman.
A bulb auger sounds really useful. Don't know how well it would work in clay that hasn't been dug for 20 or 30 years though. What do you think?
What are tiger eye iris?????
Forgot to add this thread to my watch list. That is reason forthe late reply.
Inanda
PS. Pumilum seeds are sprouting. Yippee.
Which Lily division did you plant the most of this Fall?
Ginny - I doubt the auger would do well at all in your "glue". I have the heavy, stiff gray clay here and it did pretty good with it. I have lots of limestone rocks in my soil so I'd hit one of those every so often and be stopped until I either dug it out or moved to another spot if it appeared to be a monster slab of limestone.
2000 stems! Golly.....you must have a very active membership. All I can say, is with Ginny on the team, I'm certain the determination is there to get to 2000. lol
Where did you see "tiger eye iris"? The only iris I know with a similiar name is Eye of the Tiger dutch iris that the large dutch bulb mail-order companies sell.......
http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/55942/
Must have been on some iris thread. I keep forgetting to click on 'watch this thread' so have trouble finding things again. Hate wrongly named things.
Re the 2000 stems. I've been twisting the collective Lily Nook arm. We are going to go cut his areas where he has lost labels. Crows tend to steal labels as do visitors -sadly. So the orphans will get picked by us next year. No orphans in Dr. Ronalds fields unfortunately. Those are the only lily growers near to us.
Ginny
Our house is built on red clay that has never, ever been dug. We cleared virgin forest to build. The bulb auger works just fine, although, bear in mind that I've already worn one out and am on my second. It's pretty cool to watch it shear through the clay. The clay comes up out of the hole in flat curlicues, like you find when you drill through wood.
Heather - that's how my gray clay comes out too! Gray curly-q's!!! Wouldn't dream of putting most of it back in the hole either. I usually backfill with some top soil mixed heavily with peat. I've been thinking of taking up pottery with my excess gray clay!! LOL
I have a SIL that is artsy and throws pottery. My MIL was here this Spring and helping me in my gardens for a week and she about fell over when she saw the stuff in my gardens! She's lived in OH where the soil is to die for and is now in New Mexico where it's nearly 100% sand. She exclaimed, "Oh gosh! Libby would love this stuff for her pottery!" Made me feel very inadequate at the time, but now I realize it's probably a compliment to my gardening skills that I have anything growing at all here. It sure makes me wonder how all these Kansas farmers survived all these years with this soil.
I started with only 6 lily colors this spring , but had a "revelation" when I saw 6 Des Moines area lily beds in bloom in June. WOW! Now, thanks to coop & a little help from my friends, I have 62 colors! Mostly Asiatics, plus Orientals, Orienpets, Trumpets & Tigers.
If I lose my job I am going to start producing bricks at my house. I'll have to make them artsy and cute so I can charge a lot for them. Seriously, you can make bricks with the stuff I garden in.
I also never backfill with the curli-q's. I put some bulb fertilizer in the hole, cover with peat moss, then the bulb, then more peat moss and cover with mulch and sprinkle a little more fertilizer on top, mainly so I can see where I planted. I do worry about drainage, but most of my bulbs are planted on a slope.
My idea of heaven is a place where you garden all day in loamy, rich soil...
I'm re-posting a post I wrote over in Seed Trading for nadi - who has the same kind of red clay I have. Brenda and you other clay types may find this helpful. Because Perma-till is kind of expensive, I only used it in my raised vegetable beds. But I wish I had laid out the cash to have all my beds improved with Perma-till. It really does help with the clay. Here you go:
I have recently moved to a region with heavy red clay, nadi. I researched soil amendments for clay and came up with a substance called Perma-till, which is a volcanic rock and looks like finely-crushed gravel. It is recommended by Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, NC, who is a pretty well-known horticulturist in these parts.
So I bought a truckload of Perma-till blended with compost (30% Permatill) and used it in raised beds in my vegetable garden. It has worked really well. The gravely substance makes the clay much more workable.
Here's an article written by Tony Avent on soil amendments for clay that talks about Perma-till. If you do a search on it, you will come up with quite a few references.
[HYPERLINK@www.plantdelights.com]
Think I'll start a new thread about clay and dealing with it my way.
Ginny
Maybe you all ought to start selling to the local pottery industry. Then you could use the $ for amendments to fill in the holes!
The ever-helpful Moby strikes again!
I'm glad to see there are other lily fanatics out there :-) 42 varieties this fall, multiples of each, though some of them are repeats of things I already have, since I liked them so much the first time. About an even mix of Asiatics, Orienpets, and Orientals, with a few Trumpets thrown in. I am running out of planting holes though. Don't even use a shovel anymore in existing beds....just my fingers, to avoid the catastrophe Ililyfan showed us in another thread (I have done it more than once myself. Even worse then the bud is already sprouted underground, and you chop it off by mistake).
Ouch! And then to have to wait another year for it...
Steve - Welcome to our Lily World!!! It's great to have another gentleman join us here on this forum. We gals we try to be on better behavior. Ron (Iowaron) has gotten use to our antics here. lol
I see you joined DG in 2003. Have you been a subscriber since then and only recently found our forum or have you recently become a subscriber? We are so happy to have you here. Would you call yourself a lily collector/fanatic? Or do you have other garden passions? Many of us are also big daylily fans as well (pun intended). Iris and hosta are other favorites for our lily members. Have you been gardening for while?
I'm Brenda, btw, and lilies are MY FAVORITE!! Followed very closely by daylilies (hems). I've also started collecting Iris and have about a dozen varieties of hosta also. Perennials and annuals fill the gaps.
Since your season is longer than most of us Northerners, we'll look forward to your bloom pics at the tail end of our cold northern winters! lol Our California friends will surely have much to dangle in front of our shivering eyes as well.
WELCOME!!!
Brenda
Hi Brenda,
Thanks for the welcome! I have been an avid gardener for a long time, though I could really only get into it on a large scale since I bought my house here about three and a half years ago. I started off here as a non-paying member of DG, and recently decided to cough up the $15 to access the forums, and because I believe it's a worthy cause. I didn't even realize there was a fee until I tried to get into the forums a couple of weeks ago. Until then, I was just looking at the Garden Watchdog stuff. It was more than worth it - there's a huge amount of info. here, and it is fun interacting with lots of other interesting and nice people - plus I don't feel so alone with some of the weird stuff I do! . It's fun to know I am not the only one who likes getting filthy on weekends and I'm sure the neighbors have busted me more than a couple of times at midnight with a flashlight checking on the progress of something.
I have an interest in all types of bulbs. I mainly started off with spring bulbs, and am into hyacinths and daffodils quite a bit. I have been getting more and more into lilies after planting just a handful three years ago and seeing what they can do. With the right soil and the right conditions, they really put on one heck of a show, and I've been amazed at how they naturalize and perennialize as well as daffodils if you do the right things. I have been ordering more and better bulbs, and reading up on as much as I can, and now I have over 800 lily bulbs in the ground, including what I've planted this fall. I am from IL originally, so the growing conditions here are obviously different here in TX, but I have had really good luck with lilies here. Virtually EVERYTHING I planted last fall and the year before came up or returned, and that impressed the heck out of me. I would say the lily has definitely become my favorite flower. Orienpets seem to be a great fit for my garden.....they have much more heat and sun tolerance than Orientals. I love Orientals, but I have to get the earlier blooming ones for a nice show. Most of mine are pretty much done by early July, though I had some Black Beauty lilies make it almost into August :-) Bloom times here are probably about a month ahead of what you in the north see. You can never go wrong with Asiatics or Trumpets here either. LOTS of bang for your buck! I'm a little jealous that you guys get flowers well into August, but on the other hand, last year I had my first Oriental blooming in April :-)
This has all obviously cost me quite a bit of money having good soil trucked in, building raised beds and installing drains, and countless trips to Home Depot for supplies, etc, but I've found you'll be rewarded for your efforts by doing the right things. I have also found that internet based bulb sellers offer bulbs that are vastly superior to what you can find in local stores. Like you, I am getting into daylilies as well, but I only planted them on a large scale for the first time last year. I just planted more this fall - Oakes is one of my new best friends. I'm eager to see what kind of a show I get this coming spring.
You seem very knowledgable and devoted to lilies yourself, and I see there are many others like us here. I'm glad to have found an outlet like this. Thanks for all your nice comments and helpful advice! :-)
This message was edited Nov 9, 2004 6:09 AM
Steve - and we're very happy to have you! It seems you have a lot of experience and will have much to offer us too. Always happy to have another join the gang. Welcome! Mary
Yes Steve,
Welcome to the Garden and especially our own little lily corner. It is really great to have you join us.
Steve, Welcome Aboard! We are glad you joined us. :) Everyone here is very nice and helpful. I am just getting started, and have learned alot reading these threads. We have a lot of fun and the folks here share a lot of good information.
Since you recently subscribed, I just want to mention that there are several 'round ups' planned for next year, so you might want to vist the the round up forum. I know that it sometimes takes advance plannning to make trips (it sure does for me), so I just thought I would mention it. I haven't been to one yet, (I am newby to DG) but I look forward to them next year.
Starr
Wow, Steve! 800 bulbs!!! I am impressed. I'd say that probably skyrockets to near the top of our "collectors" here. (Which brings to mind.....I don't think we've all ever stated/admitted how many bulbs we actually have ...hmmmmm? Although I suppose it's really just a guess if you don't dig every year and count them! lol)
I really look forward to your contributions in this and other forums. I've expanded my daffodil/narcissus varieties this year (and hate to admit I'm still looking at more to buy! eegads!). I've found myself suddenly in another 'collection' mode on those.
I had somewhat ulterior motives asking all the questions. A number of us are on a Lily project team to start working on cleaning up and significantly adding to our Lilium PDB (Plants Database) entries here on DG. We've been in some discussions this past week on what the actual USDA hardiness ratings are/should be for the different lilium divisions. We only have one team member in a zone higher than 6 and are looking for some real-word, first hand experience with survivability in the warmer zones in the South and West. Official Lilium societies, orgs, and growers seem to hesitate on stating hardiness ranges of the different divisions, so we've gone on a search for the answers ourselves. If you don't mind I'd like to email you about your experiences in the different divisions - you've already provided some valuable info in your reply above.
I for one, would be THRILLED (if you're garden photographer as so many of us are) if you would find the desire to post some pics of your plants this past season. My guess is that we've all pretty much posted all we had and we Northerners have a long few months of bloom-less gray ahead of us!
Welcome again and jump in to the fray! Oh....and before I forget - come early Spring start watching the Co-Op Forum for great purchase opportunities on plants, shrubs, bulbs and all things garden-related. Heck even spend some winter nights browsing what we've offered in the last year or two.
Orientals grow in Florida and LA. Zone 8+ Will have to wait for photos next year to be sure.
Inanda
Thanks everyone for the welcome :-) This is a lot of fun!
Branda - sure you can e-mail me, and I'll be happy to relate my experiences. E-mail address is stv1163@earthlink.net
I posted a few of my pictures from this past season on one of your previous threads (then one about which lily we're awaiting bloom next year), and I will be happy to post more. I took a few pictures two years ago, and a LOT this past year, to document what happened. I enjoy seeing all of everyone else's, too, and would love to see yours :-)
Here is Le Reve, May 16, this year :-)
Muscadets and Stargazers in back yard corner, June 27, 2004
Tom Pouce I think, July 12, 2004. I got these in 2003 at an end of season bulb sale from Brent and Becky's...planted in May and of course they didn't flower, that being wayyy too late for TX (another learning for me). Stems grew to about 6" and died. This year, they returned and most of them produced a couple of HUGE blooms each.
Since you like Asiatics, here is Sacramento (I think) May 16, 2004
Silk Roads in front of the front door. The Quo Vidas stem on the left didn't look too healthy...maybe too much moisture. Flower was perfect, though. June 20, 2004
Philos in front, Stones in back (both Asiatic), and one of shorter OT Futuras in middle. Most were taller and more floriferous than that one. May 16.
This message was edited Nov 11, 2004 7:27 PM
This message was edited Nov 11, 2004 7:28 PM
My fav. Futura from another angle June 12
That's a nice bunch of lilies!
Thanks Moby :-) OK off to work!
Very nice pictues, Steve. Thanks for sharing them with us.
Love that Futura Steve! Philos is one I put in this Fall. I thought it had more of a purplish cast mixed with the peachy-orange. Was that a first time/year bloom?
Thanks Starr :-)
Brenda - Yes the Philos was a first year bloom. Sometimes warmer climates produce less deep colors, so it could be the case yours would have more purple in it. The Le Reve and Futura were second year, and the others were first year. I posted Chianti (Asiatic) on your other thread, and it was second year. Some of the Muscadets and Stargazers were first year and some were second.....can't remember which ones these were. I was out of town for work during the week virtually all summer, so what upkeep I did had to be done on weekends :-) I did deadhead the ugly looking rose bush though!
I was very happy to see your pic of Chianti as I've had a pink unknown for a couple of years and after researching most of this Spring/Summer my strongest hunch was Chianti. That's what I've been calling it since July and your pic was more evidence for that ID.
I'm going to try and get an email together for you tonight about your lily experiences for our project work.
BTW...I meant to comment on your Silk Roads also......drop dead gorgeous! They could be catalog shots and in fact your pic is better than some catalog pics I've seen of them.
Thanks Brenda :-)
Yeah the Chiantis are awesome. Very high bud count, and pretty tall. Mine were over 3 ft, and they bloom late for here.....in early to mid-June both first and second year for me, but seem to be unbothered by heat. I ordered a bunch more of them this year as well as a couple dozen Silk Roads. I like Orientals and have had good luck with several of them like Dubonette and Muscadet, but the Orienpets like Futura and Silk Road just seem much tougher than Orientals overall, especially in harsh summer climates like mine. They seem to offer the best of all lily worlds in one plant in terms of both display and fragrance. Most of my Orienpet stems are still green after 5 months since flowering....maybe I'll get a great show next year :-)
You need to take some pictures of your stuff and show us! Sounds like you're as into it as I am :-)
The majority of my cultivars were acquired this year, so I've not got a lot of pics. Lilies have been my favorite flower since I was a little girl though. Gardening bit me a few years ago and it wasn't until late last year I realized there's a whole 'nother world of choices beyond Home Depot and Lowe's! LOL
You mention your stems are still green there. That was one of things I wanted to ask you about in the email I've still NOT gotten composed to you. Do your lilies stay green year-round or do they eventually die back?
I think the Orienpets get all their ruggedness from the Trumpet portion of their heritage. At least that's what the reading I've been doing suggests. Trumpets are pretty hardy fellas.
I had my Chianti is a somewhat shady spot and moved them this Fall. They were really leaning to get the sun they needed, but they are VERY floriferous.
Geez...every time I see that Chanti, it makes me think of fava beans!
Ha ha ha. I get the Hannibal Lechter reference.
Branda,
I learned the Home Depot lesson early on, too. I got all my bulbs from them 3 years ago. I found out the next year that the online sources offered MUCH better bulbs, both in size and freshness. I especially like the online lily sources because we have some great growers right here in the US in the Pacific Northwest. Their bulbs are not cheap, but you get what you pay for, and I like supporting devoted US growers over bulb mills in Europe.
I think you're absolutely right about the trumpet heritage reference.
The lilies die back here like everywhere else, and the bulbs send up new stems in spring and summer, just as with you. They seemed to stay green much longer this year, which is a great thing. I think it's because of better quality bulbs and more appropriate bulbs, and I am understanding how to take better care of them.We also had a somewhat milder summer than usual, and I am sure that had a lot to do with it.
Steve - stick around! I did two co-op purchases with The Lily Garden in WA this year for the DG members. One in Spring and the other in Sept/Oct. They are GREAT to work with and have an amazing selection. Judith Freeman the owner of TLG is a world-renowned expert in embryo cloning techniques for propagation of new hybrids. I'm always so thrilled when I get to "talk" to her via email.
I also coordinated an order pool for some bulbs from The Lily Nook in Canada. I was just astounded by their selection! Their bulbs were very nice and the exchange rate was favorable for us to make the buy despite the Phytosanitary Cert. we had to pay for importation into the US.
Many thanks for that confirmation of foliage die-back in your Zone 8. I'll report it back to our project team (many I'm sure are reading).
Brenda
Judith Freeman & Eddie McRae (longtime divorced) became grandparents yesterday yet again, just like me. So if your lily orders are late from Judith & Catherine Van der Salm, have patience.
Ginny