Stem count vs. Bulb number

Undivided multiple nose lily bulbs will always produce multiple stems. The quantity of stems corresponds with the number of noses the bulb possesses. All stems emerge similtaneousely in early spring. One bulb nose = One stem.

For those who are a little perplexed about noses, I wish I would have photographed a multiple nose bulb, but this http://www.lilies.org/propagation.html will have to suffice. The drawing shows a four nose bulb.

Pictured on the right is a L. formosanum I received from a fellow gardener. (Verification of its identity may be up for debate.) Notice it has two stems, and one bulb nose, even after the production of the second stem.

Indeed, single nose bulbs of L. xformolongi, and perhaps L. formosanum, have the propensity to produce more than one lily stem per season. (xformolongi is a cross of L. longiflorum and L. formosanum.) However, growth of these multiple stems are not initiated similtaneous. Additional stems begin growth later, and at varying times. Consequently, growth in the first part of the season is identical to any other lily's seasonal pattern :

That is, one bulb nose = one stem.

Or is it? Is this phenomenon of multiple stems per single bulb nose more common than I realize? In another thread, there was an inkling of just that. So . . .

Have you experience said multiple growth from one bulb with one nose? And on what lily?

Here's some information...

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/gardening1/

I received a bulb just a couple days ago, from Mainiac, with 2 "noses". It was cool. I hadn't ever really noticed that phenomenon before. But then again, I am a much more aware lily gardener since learning on this forum. They are cute little guys , aren't they, those double noses?

I have to ask: how do you know the later stem isn't coming from a bulb or nose inside the original bulb? I guess you would have to dissect it to find out. This reminds me of my melon colored trumpet on my trumpet seedling thread. It threw up 4 or 5 fledgling stalks around the base (one or two even bloomed). Of coarse I thought... stem bulblets. When I went to dig them out I couldn't find the "bulblets". Turns out I had to lift the whole "clump" to find that the extra stalks were coming from between the scales where "scale bulblets" were forming within the bulb! I think this one is going to self propagate quite well for me!

The bulb that I planted last fall, that produced multiple stems this year, came from Buggycrazy. This pic was taken right after I received it. I didn't examine it closely, but I noticed only one large stem hole.

Give me a day or 2 and we'll see what it looks like now with the stems, since I have to dig it up anyway.

Good Lord, what does BuggyCrazy grow those things in? They are huge. I found the site AFTER I had already blown my gardening budget for the year, but there's always next year!

I told a friend, DG's Lundy, about Buggy Crazy and now she's ordered while I sit here, having planted OL's and AL's this past weekend. Now I have to go look at Buggy Crazy and just might give in to temptation: Moby would give me her blessings, I'm sure.

I should have been a bit more specific: what I mean by single or multiple nose bulbs is as seen by the naked eye, and observed/discerned to be as such without breaking it apart or any dissection.

To answer the question "how do you know the later stem isn't coming from a bulb or nose inside the original bulb?" My answer is: I don't know, but agree it most likely is. But also as likely is that that later bulb was non-existant, or at least not mature enough at the end of the prior season to send up growth early the following spring.

Pard, I guess I missed your anecdote about your melon colored trumpet in a previous thread. That is exactly a kind of experience I am asking for. Apparently said stems were not attached to individual bulbs, rather, only the main bulb. Otherwise, I would think individual bulbs(with attached stems) would have been relatively large by fall.

Moby, that is surely a grand bulb! While I see a few possibilities of multiple noses, I can't be sure. I (we) look forward to your upcoming dig.

How about you Lilium formosanum growers: have you had multiple and varied growths from the same bulb?

My last Lilium philipinnense (or whatever) to flower has multiple stems, I believe there are 3 besides the flowering one but one smaller stem can't be seen in the pic.

This was only started from seed in spring last year, planted in the ground in June this year and it was a very small young bulb.

I checked the plant, there are 3 stems as can be seen, there is another one that also has 3 stems and hasn't flowered. These were only small single bulbs hardly more the 1/2" in diameter when planted in early June.

I would have to dig one up to see what it looks like now, I don't think I want to do that.

Well, I was also going to use my same pic for discussing L. formosanum and L. phillipinense on the other said thread, but heck, you beat me to it Wallaby.

On that photo, the one on the left is L. phillipinense, the one on the right is L. formosanum - reportedly.

Notice that phillipinense also has a start of a new secondary stem emerging from the bulb. At first I wondered if it might be meant for next season, since, as many bulbs do, they send out such a start that remains underground through the winter to emerge in spring. But foliage was not dying back, turning color, seed production was still in full swing, secondary stems on formosanum were in active growth . . . there was simply no indication of shutting down for winter. So this could not be the case. The little sprout on the phillipinense bulb had to be meant for same season growth.

While all my formosanum bulbs had multiple stems at varying ages, all my phillipinense had single stems, and only a couple had the littles starts as in the pic. All bulbs are the same age. Phillipinense bulbs were consistently larger than formosanum. We will see if that will have a bearing on comparative size of initial stems next season. Considering that formosanum plants were slightly larger this season and still produced smaller bulbs, my guess is that there will be no direct correlation.

I finally dug that big Rosario bulb to find it had split many times over.

This is one side ~

I can't help but wonder that if the bulb hadn't been interupted in it's cycle, by being dug up and shipped to me, if it would have continued it's process and not put up the 5 stems plus 2 grossly fasciated stems.

This is the other side of the clump ~

Moby, how old is that Rosario bulb? I bought some from Buggy and by the looks of that, it has a fabulous future! :0)

Who knows?? It's only a year old for me.

One year? Whoa! Let's hope I can be so lucky! Oh, the potential of a Buggy bulb. It was from Buggy Crazy wasn't it?

Of course! Who else would send you a melon size bulb??

Moby, perhaps we should be Buggy Crazy's spokespeople. How can you deny her business with a bulb that does that after 1 year at your house? Customers for life.

And I was a witness to the HUGE bulb and all of it's babies! Moby has some awesome lilies!