How baby lilies relocate

Pirl,
What I'm talking about are thingies like in your post here. Mine are green. Are these the new "bulbs?" They just seem to appear in the soil. When I dump the pot there may be these all over in the soil. Is this what I plant into separate pots? Should they be attached to something else? If they are attached to something else, do I replant the entire component? Sorry to be so confused!

Regardless of color I'd plant them at the exact height they are right now in the pot. Empty the pot and spread it out on its side so with your fingers you can see the depth of each bulb or "mini bulb" (bulblet, I believe) and then replant. Now I'm hoping that's clear :-) !! Why separate them from the mother bulbs? I don't see any advantage. If they're happy in the pot with the mother bulbs they'll be just as happy with her in the earth - that's my guess.

If they aren't attached now to "something else" (maybe the mother stem is what you're referring to?) then just don't fret.

Must run - will return around 3 PM.

IMHO - These are in a pot, right? I would remove the bulblets and plant them separately from the mother bulb in another pot or out in the garden at the same depth they are right now. That way they won't be taking away nutrients needed by the mother bulb. After all, the mother bulb will continue to put out offset bulbs as long as it has the energy to do so.

The only reason I'm moving them at all is that 1) I wanted them to grow and bloom individually like the Easter lilies you buy for Easter to give them back to the church, and 2) they're getting pretty crowded in the pots they're in. I never even throught to put them in the ground, as I have most things growing in containers. I imagine I could develop a "stand" of just Easter lilies.

Thanks for all ya'lls input! I'll post pics of what develops.

Well, you have the zone for them and with the Easter LIlies, they should rebloom for you too. Just remember to put them in a spot where they can get some afternoon shade. I imagine it gets pretty hot where you are and zone 9 is on the outside edge of having lilies in the garden.

Well I know I might get pummeled, but I have never had much interest in Easter lilies. Consequently, I don't know that I have ever looked at that species bulb. However, it is closely related to phillipinense and formosanum, pictured below. Notice how the one on the left has two new sprouts to the right of the stem - the small sprout directly in front of the larger one. And notice how they still seem to be the same bulb. Unless bulbs are clearly divisible, don't try to separate them. A dividable bulb is like the one here:
http://www.lilies.org/propagation.html

(Okay, that second sprout in my pic may actually be a funny bulb scale(don't remember for sure), but for teaching purposes, let's assume it's a second sprout. )

Since I reorganzied my photos I can't find the stand of Easter lilies I have - actually two stands of them. I always just gave the baby bulbs a spot next to the mother bulb but, then, I wasn't looking to dig them up again.

Thanks Beak!

leftwood,
Thanks for the link! I think I've got it! And what I've got are clumps of green BULBS, crowding out the pot!.

Finally found the photo!

I have found some with a greenish cast to them but not a whole pot of them. They still grew the exact same way, planted next to the mother bulb.

PIRL! That is one OUTSTANDING pic! That is an Easter scene if ever I saw one! Thanks for that beautiful, serene moment.

What're the little flower with the lilies?

This message was edited Mar 2, 2007 12:16 PM

Thank you! They're plain old yarrow. My DH, Jack, grew them from seed (mixed colors) and we have them in all colors. They're nice in that when the flower is spent and then cut down the foliage remains lovely and ferny.

I think its cool how bulbs are self adjusting. You know if we were in school there would be a filmstrip with the cutaway view of a bulb in the ground and time lapse photography showing us how it pulls itself deeper:LOL:

That would have been more useful to me than Algebra.

what a great thread!

Never!! I sympathize with Pirl because I hate, hate, hated Algebra. But on the other hand, I did ace Geometry. Geez...we didn't get to use calculators until I was in Chemistry math.

This message was edited Mar 4, 2007 4:24 PM

I may be blonde but I can figure out cubic footage and can balance my checkbook without a problem. Unlike the student who won top math awards but couldn't figure out the boarding charges for our dogs because he didn't have a calculator. I find nature much more interesting than math.

I like the kids who can't use an analog clock to tell time.....

I know one of those and she's no kid ~ over 30.

These are the lilies from last year, coming back again. Did I need to repot them? I'm sure if I move them now, they won't bloom this year, so I kinda think I'm gonna leave them alone and repot the individually after they bloom. Please advise. Thanks!

One more FROM eASTER 2005!

Please don't dig them up or try anything at all until after they bloom. It looks like you'll have an amazing display. I'm sure it will be fantastic and you'll love it.

Thanks, Pirl!

Don't worry, I'll leave them in blissful peace until after they bloom. My bedridden MIL will have Easter Blooms in her room for many many weeks!

Please take photos so we can all enjoy them, along with your MIL.

Sure Will.

And HAPPY EASTER!

Per Leftwood's request,

OK Kooger,
back to computerese. You can preview what you have copied but.... big BUT... how do you get what you've copied into a DG thread?? Even pictures from picasa. Picasa will not go into http: anything. It will only go into an email addy so.... what now.

inanda. who has been moving lilies around and planting iris like mad.

Moving/thinning iris & ordering lilies here....

Ginny - I'm so glad you resurrected this thread - I finally know what's in those three pots!! I guessed they were lilies but I have such trouble with short term memory loss after surgery and having 2 surgeries 9 days apart last fall totally wiped out what I was doing with those pots. I didn't even remember that they were lilies I scaled. sheesh! I'm tickled to know what they are. :D (quit snickering, you people, lol, you have no idea how difficult this is to deal with for a person who used to know the majority of phone numbers in a town of 800 by heart!)

Ok, back to the quote boxes. Let's go here to try a couple of things since I'm not a computer geek at all. I have 4 kids to help me out. :) http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/766309/
Laura

Me, too, Janet. I'd love some photos.

Here is some info http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/TRA/PLANTS/index.html#http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/TRA/PLANTS/bulbprop.html
More can be found by simply googling "bulb propagation".

Thanks, Moby. It is an interesting article.

llilyfan told me she had some baby lilies that grew & STAYED at the top of the ground & were peeking out from under her mulch this week.
Defective tactile roots?

I have some that look the same way (*as llilyfan has noticed), it's on my oriental lily 'San Souci'. I have many of them attached to the stem, above ground. Maybe it is me being more curious and observant in noticing such things. In fact, I have never seen my orientals do much of anything. Interesting....
Perhaps as they mature the roots pull them down. I recall a blurb from B&D Lilies about the 'Superbum' pulling itself way, way down deep, much deeper than it was planted.

Contractile (not tractile) roots don't contract until they begin to naturally dry. This, I've always assumed, happens in the fall, or at least after the stem dies back. (Really, how is a bulb supposed to be pulled down if it has live stem roots holding itself up?) Hmmmmmmmm, as George Carlin might say.

So, if this is lilyfan's first season for those bulblets, growing & STAYING at the top of the ground is normal. They should pull down this fall. And of course, this phenomenon would include all bulblets attached to the mother stems as well.

Regarding the possibility of defective contractile roots, there are always anomalies in nature. But I suspect that what commonly happens is that the contractile roots are not mature to do the job well. The best C roots will grow straight down (a single thick, rippled strand) and fan out with finer roots all at the bottom end of the vertical strand. Think of a very long handled unpside-down open umbrella, or a long, larged headed, upside-down nail. The C root has to have something to grab hold of to forcefully pull the bulb down, and that is what the finer roots are for. A simple big fat root going straight down has no pulling force (although it might have another purpose), and this is what I would call an immature contractile root. Think of how a worm gets around in the soil, and how it resists you pulling it out of its hole. How a worm holds on in the soil is the same principle as how a C root anchors itself at its lower end.

As for Lilium superbum, everyone raise their hand who has seen a Lilium superbum bulb. I see not many have. (I borrowed Romper Room's magic mirror.) Actually, I have not either (Surprise!). But I am extremely familiar with Lilium michiganense, which is the spirit and image of superbum. As I submit my proposal, anyone correct me with more factual data on superbum please, if I am wrong with my analogy.

Lilium michiganense (and superbum) have rhizomatous bulbs. As they grow, new rhizome bulbs ventured from the mother bulb, a few inches to 12 inches or more. Michiganense bulbs are not like other lily bulbs at all. Rather, scales are nearly round and pearly, and break of very easily. If contractile roots pull these bulbs down, the scales would surely separate from the rhizome. (Not a good thing, wouldn't you say?) Not to mention, how would you accomplish pulling down a horizontal, thick rhizome anyway?

Well, in my experiences with seed grown L. michiganense, this is not what happens. I have yet to see a contractile root on them. But they still find their preferred depth, all by themselves. While "mother" bulb stays put, the new offshoot dives down in the soil (but not vertically) to a desired depth, and the whole plant moves its residence deeper. With my seedlings, the "mother" bulb, better termed as last seasons growing point, does not continue to produce an above ground stem the following year. Rather, it is a food storage organ for the plant's new, deeper home, and I assume withers in time. With older plants, when mother is already at the correct depth, I'm not sure what happens with the "mother" bulb. By above ground observation, it would seem that the mother bulb stays active.

Anyone still awake? You get three gold stars, four stars if you understand my drivel. I try to be as clear as possible, but you know how that goes.

Hand waving wildly! Seen it, planted it, got the stem. (but no bloom this year)

WOW am I confused I think I'll just plant them and leave the rest to mother nature but this is so very interesting I'm now very fasinated so keep talking I'm listening!!!!!!!!
Gloria

Well, for some reason I decided to skim over the past posts in this thread, and found I had already conveyed my experience with L. michiganense seedlings and then some, in an October 5 entry. Sorry for the redundancy. In my defense, that was October of last year.