Pretty new to lilies-dumb questions

I was wondering-

1-Some lily bulbs I have seen have what almost looks like a yellow dust over them. What is that?

2-I have heard of people "washing" new bulbs to discourage disease, and just wanted to hear opinions.

3-My lilies roze pretty bad last weekend (Stargazers were nearly a foot high-look like someone sprayed roundup on them)-I'm wondering if I should cut back the foliage and not expect flowers, leave them alone, or what?

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

edited to make sense...lol

This message was edited Apr 14, 2007 9:50 PM

Hi Tropicana ~

Never thought about the 'yellow dust' before but I think I know what you mean. I just assumed it was left-over grit from packing medium at some point in their shipping.

As far as washing ~ do you mean to prevent disease rather than bulbs?

The frozen ones.... that's a topic of much discussion today at our lily society meeting. Nobody seemed to have had this many so badly frozen. I'm inclined to cut off anything mushy and hope for some new green growth to get them through to next year. No flowers this year. :(

Thanks, yes I meant disease and edited, I really do crack myself up with my mistakes sometimes.

Thanks for helping me make reality sink in here on the frozen lilies. So glad I had not put too many in the ground yet.

First of all, there are no dumb questions about any kind of plant material. OK, got that.

You really froze in NC. Are you up in the mountains? Oh help. Poor farmers. Think I would cut off the obviously damaged mushy leaves. Check out the stalks. If they are firm, I'd leave them for a bit to see what happens, unless they offend your eye. (Eternal optimist here).

As Moby says, no flowers this year. However, if the plants grow well for the rest of the summer, they will put their strength into bulking up the bulb, instead of the energy that is put into producing flowers. So,,,,, it isn't all bad. Think of it as a half cup full, not a half cup empty.

Keep us posted about what happens. It is so early in the season that am sure your lilies will grow, just no bloom this year.

Re the washing. I always submerge all bulbs and iris rhizomes in 9 parts water to one part chlorox for minimum 30 mins and then rinse well, before planting. Am very scared of iris borer and lily beetle.

Killed all my daylily seeds this year though. Floated them in chlorox & water instead of peroxide and water. Guess I was half asleep when I did that!!!

inanda

Thanks inanda!
We are in Northwestern NC, but not in the mountains. It froze for three straight nights and didn't warm much during the days. Actually our vegetable garden was pretty ok-the asparagus died back, but we only had in cold crops. Many farmers will have a rough year for fruits.

It looks as though one or two of the shoots from one lily might be okay-so as soon as this rain stops, I'm going to cut back the dead stuff. I might try washing the new bulbs I'm getting, too.

Thanks everyone!