My lilies from a co-op are coming up.This one only 6 inches or so already has the begining of flower buds. Is this normal for first year/ late spring planted lilies?
A couple questions??
Should I feed it to help growth?
Yes. Chance are you have a very immature bulb, so don't expect much from it this year. As the bulb matures, it also grows and will eventually start producing offset bulblets. Each year, the mother stem should start producing more and more buds. You may only see one this year and mayber 3 or 4 next year. The following year may see an explosion in buds or, if the bulb is slow to mature, something a bit more modest like 6 to 10 buds. Just have patience.
As to height, it may also take a year or two to reach mature height.
Did you just plant it this Spring? They're almost always shorter than normal. Looks like you have several buds there, though you may have to get on your knees to enjoy them this year. :)
You can fertalize with an all purpose fertalizer if you haven't done so already. Generally, you should fertalize in the spriing and then sometime after the lilies have stopped blooming. You don't want to fertalize too late in the season as it send the wrong message to plants when they should be shutting down growth and preparing for winter.
Yes ,just planted late April,and I will feed.I use manure tea (organic gardener).Thanks for the help. Cinda
Extra short stems and tightly packed small leaves are indicative of a plant that isn't getting the nutrients and/or water that it predicted it would the year before (when it decided how many leaves and flowers it would produce this season). As long as the plant looks healthy, fertilizer is good, but don't give it extra water just because it is small. If the soil needs water, then water. If it doesn't, then don't.
The constricted growth is more due to the transplanting, especially in the spring, where nutrient uptake is curtailed merely by the lack a sufficient number of functioning roots. It will grow out of it, but you won't see the results until next season. You might want to prune off some of the flower buds to conserve vigor. The inflorescence is usually bunched up with this type of "problem", and to me, isn't that attractive anyway.
Oh yes, I agree with removing the buds. That way, the plant will put more of it's energy into producing more roots. The flowers on these stunted stems usually aren't very attractive either. I'd remove all of them, but don't take any of the stem.