Look what I found blooming this morning!

Salmon Classic - Here's the story. I bought these as potted lilies last summer and they bloomed in the pot. I had three of them. The plan was to get them in the garden in the fall and I set them aside and forgot about them. Then the plan was to unpot them and pack in peat moss and into the fridge for the winter. I brought them into the house, set them in a corner where they wouldn't come to harm and once again forgot about them. I ran into them again a number of weeks ago; maybe sometime in November and all three of them were growing stems. Mind you, no water in probably 6 or more weeks. At that time, I wrestled with deciding to repot and see what happens and putting in the fridge as is. I decided to repot and put them in an east facing window. The stems are a little spindly and the cats have been grazing on the leaves they can reach. All three were setting blooms and there is also lily grass growing (as Inanda likes to call the lily seedlings). I'm pretty amazed by these blooms, but it sure is a cherry sight when it's so cold out. I can only think that the stems are coming from immature bulblets that did not grow or bloom last summer. Any thoughts??? Do I have a reblooming lily here??? Wouldn't that be something if it were!

Another view - I think maybe I might buy some lilies just to grow in the winter this spring. Pot them up in the fall and have them for the midwinter blues. Maybe I can figure out a schedule that I could have them all year round. Wouldn't that be great?

I'll plant these bulbs out in the garden this spring, but I wouldn't expect much from them this year. Hopefully after next winter they will reset their clocks and bloom normally in the garden. What forgiving plants. Aren't lilies just great!

Wow! My first thought was ya gotta be kidding! I sense some scientific research coming on... Maybe I will buy some cheap asiatics in the fall, chill them a bit then bring them out on a south facing sill.

Super! Were they in a chilly corner or at room temp? What was in the pots when you re-potted them, mutiple bulbs or perhaps bulbs that were splitting?

I tried forcing hyacinths with some success, kinda short but smelled great!

I inquired about trumpet hardiness to Thelilygarden and I was told that the only concern is that they don't need a long cold period to sprout again. So perhaps LA Hybrids have the same qualities?

Andrew

Well, I've always been told they need a minimum of 12 weeks cold to bloom. They didn't get that unless that corner was unusually cold. I think I would of noticed. I keep the house between 70 and 72 depending on what I am doing. I have to think the stems are coming from offset bulbs that must be at least 2 years old. When I repotted them, I didn't want to mess with baring the bulbs because of the stems, so basically, I took the soil they were in and placed those three pots in a 12 inch pot with additional potting mix. I don't know what the bulbs look like. I'll take a look after these die down.

Yuppers, opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Who would want amarylis when you could have lilies? Well, at least not me. Yes, Pard, there will be a lot of experimenting this year.

Forgot to mention that the Salmon Classic has a slight fragrance that I never would have noticed out in the garden. I'm going to try some of the shorter orientals and see what happens. Wouldn't that be delightful having fragrant lilies in January!

Beak, I'm jealous! What a fun experiment to have going? Bye, bye Amarylis, hello lily!
Well, I've begun to get mild grief from taking up too much room in the fridge for my lily seeds. Random pots with dirt around? I'll have to tell DH I'm growing airplanes, only then will I be able to pull it off ;)
Make sure to keep your kitties away from lilies. Any part of a lily can harm a kitty.
Ps. Beak, Congrats on your puppy! Ollie? Right? Cute pix in the pet forum

Yes, Ollie, the Westie Terrorist! He was 10 weeks old last Thursday and I've had him for two weeks. Big change having a puppy in the house.

I always thought lilies were edible even by humans. Haven't seemed to hurt the cats yet and the foliage they can reach is all gone. Hum....

Another excuse to post cute Westie pics!

He is so totally adorable. With that innocent look that says: "who, me? chew on Mom's shoes, pee on the carpet, bark for absolutely no reason? NEVER!"

HAH! He does it all! Yesterday he got the passenger seat in the car. Glad my sister is the only one who sits there, but I may forget to mention it to her.

Hey I may have a partial answer, and right from some of the experts!

Quote from paragraph #5
"They love mild winter areas, as the bulbs do not need the cold winter reset time (veneralization) for blooming the next season."
http://www.lilybulb.com/lainfo.html

So I wonder what sets them growing again?

What a winter gift! I think that must come from the Easter lily genes. I've planted them after the holiday and had occasional rebloom in the summer.

Love your flowers and the puppy is adorable!

Of course, just as with chocolate and dogs, just because people eat something doesn't mean its ok for pets. So lilies - I don't know.

Congratulations on a very well grown specimen for inside a warm house. Mucho kudos! Maybe I will be trying that with my excess next year too.

Lilium longiflorum crossed with L. formosanum is known to be (usually) continuously flowering. But my guess is that Andrew's explanation is more likely. How many times have people replanted their Easter lily outside, and found it sent up another stem to bloom again that same season? I'd say most times.

So Beaker, I would be surprised if a bulblet grew large enough in one season to bloom with two large buds. My bet is that those are the original bulbs that grew. And if there are more stems than bulbs that you originally planted, then they(it) split to be multiple nosed.

Thanks for posting!

Beak, Ollie's a cutie. Those puppy days are both fun and exhausting, if my memory serves me correctly.
Here's a link to the plants that are poisonous to cats page. I have plant eaters here, a fern lover for sure and another one that like orchids. I do adore my kitties though.
http://www.cfainc.org/articles/plants.html

Oh my! I never would of thought that about lilies and cats. I just went to go looking for Miki who has not shown up for his breakfat yet and he was sitting on the upstairs steps playing with Ollie. I suspect Ollie interrupeted Miki's trip. He looks fine. Eyes nice and bright, so I'm not going to panic yet. I did move the plant to a location a bit harder to get at. Just now he jumped up on a shelf to look at the birds, so it's business as usual.

The second bloom was opening this morning.

I really need to get a good lily book. These longiflorum crosses are sounding better and better to me. The LAs are the ones I want to experiment on with leaf heel propagation and I want to start that experiment on an actual longiflorum when the Easter Lilies come out.

The other side.

The first bloom looks really faded compared to the one that opened this morning. I'm wondering if I was just too busy to notice it when it actually bloomed. I may have missed it by a day or so. Paying attention hasn't always been my best.

Can anyone recommend a good lily book? I'm really interested in learning more about the specific species and their culture; not so much pictures.

I still think it might be worth experimenting with a few different bulbs next fall as long as they have had the prescribed 12 weeks of cold. It's really too bad Buggy doesn't sell those huge honkers in the spring. I want some fairly large, dwarf orientals. Maybe B&D. I've gotten some very nice sized bulbs from them in the past.

This is the prettiest view of the new bloom.

Very pretty! You got your lily fix in early this season:LOL: I've got 2 tall bearded iris outside with nice thick stems and fat buds, however we're expecting it to get down to 16 in a couple days so I don't count on them making it.

You're puppy looks like he's ready for trouble and I suspect he will not be apologetic about it:LOL: So cute!

Beak, I think Ed McRae's book, if you haven't read it, may be the one you are looking for. There is a whole lot of detail in there about most lilies. I particularly enjoyed reading about crosses and who did what when and what it led to. It doesn't have a ton of pictures, but I will say, when they pop up after reading pages you just say ,"ahhhhhh". First I borrowed it from the library, then I bought it used off of Amazon, for like $7 or something. It's one of those books that you'll return to time and again; a wealth of knowledge. It's been great reading on the off-lily season. I've learned so much!
Hey, Faraway Flowers has quite a few dwarf orientals and some newer LOs
http://farawayflowers.vstore.ca/index.php/cName/dwarf-oriental-lilies
B&D does too. Velvet Gown looks like a nice one. (I do have to say I miss the Spring catalog vs. the brochures)
http://lilybulb.stores.yahoo.net/l7019.html

Perhaps it is the longiflorum genes of Salmon Classic that has brought it back to bloom for the second time. It is an LA lily...

Most (if not all, I'm not sure) of the US commercial Easter lilies are grown here in southern coastal Oregon, an area we call the "banana belt" of Oregon. So I am thinking they prefer the warmer winter temperatures.

LA's have been doing great in my garden. I got hooked on them a few years ago and love the large blooms. The flowers themselves seem much more substantial than the asiatics and they add a "4th" lily season to the garden blooming between the asiatics and the trumpets. I've been trying to add as many as I can afford each year.

As I understand it, the Easter Lilies are hardy to zone 5, but I think if I treat them as I do my orientals they would do fine here. We'll have to see and, yes, now I remember many people reporting of a second bloom season for the Easter Lilies planted in their gardens.

Going back to a conversation I had a number of months ago with a friend, he told me that the Northstar Lily Society was granting some funds to an individual who was working on creating reblooming lilies. I bet this person is using longiflorums in his crosses. It will be interesting to see what comes of this. Hopefully I'll live long enough to see it become a reality.

That would be Neil Anderson at the U of Minn. He wrote a very informative article in the June 2006 North Star Lily Society newsletter on breeding with longiflorum and formosanum. He is the speaker for our March 10, 2007 education seminar. Don't forget, March 10.

I may have to go to that one. Thanks for the reminder.

BTW, Rick, 3 nice bulblets on EL Flame.