Desperate for a little color!

Okay, call me pathetic. (This is the time of year that I am a catalog's best prey.) So I walked into Trader Joe's last week while picking up a few staple items when I see this bouquet. It had lilies, maybe even a magnolia branch, snapdragons, eucalyptus and I forget what the purple flower is right now. It wasn't too expensive and I have to say, I miss this vase on my wall being full of lilies all summer long. I rarely cut my own lilies, I buy them from the Farmer's Market on the square in Madison on Saturdays, and fill this vase. Last year I even made a cutting garden, well, let the truth be known, they were cut, but not by me, by the local deer herd :0(
So I am sending all of you lily fans a bouquet of flowers to help you get through the winter. Enjoy!

Very nice. :) Thank you!

Diann

Ms. Manners says:

Dear Pathetic,
The only way you could be pathetic is if you think of yourself as such. Flowers, especially in winter, have a mental (and therefore, physical) healing power. Like laughing, they help produce that good feeling that can help sustain you through the day. In fact, buying flowers for yourself is often recommened by Dr. Andrew Weil as a life centering excercise.

Well, Ms. Manners didn't actually write that, but I couldn't resist with a self-imposed nickname like that!




This message was edited Jan 22, 2007 3:06 PM

I actually bought them to share with you all. It is mentally uplifting, this bouquet is in an area of the house I wallk past and the fragrance is wonderful, those little poofs of stargazer smell. Mmmmmmmmmm. Can you smell them? Well, "virtual smells"?
I believe Dr. Weil is correct. Thanks Lefty.

So glad you started this thread ~ I've been jonesing for some lilies! I've purchased flowers for myself since there's no point in waiting around for someone to send them.

Lets drudge up old photos for some winter eye candy (who cares if it's already been posted!)

Thanks Moby! What a nice idea,
Here's "Sumatra"

Ok, here is one of my favorites, but alas, it has no name...

Diann

I am so looking foward to Easter Lily time. I plan on buying at least a half dozen all in the name of experimentation. Those are the ones you're suppose to be able to leaf propagate.

Ticker, the unnamed one looks very nice with the white one.
Experimentation sounds fun, Beak. Hey, Easter Lily time is not too far off at all.

I thought you could cut a significant number of blooms without hurting the long term prospects of the plant. Is this not really true?

Also, I'm a first time lily grower and I went a little overboard and planted about 100 bulbs in a new raised bed. Conditions should be near perfect and it should be a no-brainer but since it's a fairly large investment (more in time than $) I thought I'd ask a few newbie questions.

The bulbs are a real popourri of asiatic, oriental, tiger and even a few orienpets. I planted them about 6 - 8" down according to the instructions and I mixed a little well composted organic matter in the hole with some bulb starter fertilizer. I use drip lines that emit 1/2 Ga per hour per emitter with about 3 emitters per bulb on average. I have been running it for 10 mins twice per week so they should be getting roughly 1/2 Ga per bulb per week when it does not rain. Hopefully this is about right - the soil drains well so it should be hard to overwater in my case.

I assume when I see them poke their heads up I should fertilize with a 10-10-10 or similar?

Also, as a few of you did, I bought too many bulbs in anticipation of creating an additional planting bed which hopefully will occur soon. I put the extra bulbs in the fridge. I assume the sooner I get them in the ground the better but if I can't make it in time can I plant them individually in fairly deep pots and transplant them next fall into a bed? Some of them are fairly unique items from buggycrazy so I would hate to lose them.

Thanks

Alex, you can safely cut 1/3 of the stem and the rest gives the bulb nutrients for the next year's growth. I don't cut them simply because I'd miss seeing them in my wald around the gardens.
Sounds like you've done your reseach on lily care. Oh and Buggy Crazy? You can't lose there. You'll have to post when things start blooming. We'd love to see them.

Yes, you can pot up your bulbs for the summer and plant them in the fall. What do you have the bulbs in the fridge in?