I am having some good results from the scales I started last fall!
Scales Revisited
Me too! Yours look fabulous! I think these are all Red Carpet, but am not sure. My documentation skills need work.
sorry to barge in... I am totally new to lilies... just got a few (all gifts from other DG) I am into roses... and so afraid of getting hooked on lilies... you can actually start lillis from seeds??? how do you do it when it is winter? do you plant them this year???
Lilies can be grown from seeds. Or from scales. Seeds will not necessarily give you the exact same plant as they are hybrids and may not have the same genetic makeup as the mother. However, lilies are made up of a bunch of scales. You can remove the outer scales containing a small portion of the basal plate and when kept inside under the proper conditions, they will produce small lily bulbs. The ones in my picture were started in the fall of 2006. They should bloom in two to three years. I keep them in pots for the summer and will plant in the ground later this fall.
This is a picture of a lily bulb so you can see the scales I am talking about.
I dug out one of mine that still has the scale attached to show how they grow from it. Not instant gratification, but they look alot further along than my poor lily seedlings. Here is a great thread on how to grow those. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/673919/
So you dig the bulbs in the Fall and do the scaling. Put the main bulb back in the ground and bring the little ones inside for the winter?
Yes, that's how I do it. Or take some scales when you buy a new one before you plant. There are excellent descriptions of propagationg lilies here:
http://www.lilies.org/propagation.html
I always forget to try this:LOL:
Another thing to watch for is bulblets that may for along the stems/leaf axis of asiatic lilies. I haven't really tried to grow any of mine out, but I'm giving it a shot this year. The variety is a no name but the flowers were bright orange on one and deep red on the other. The stems are loaded with little purple bulblets.
Mainiac, It just occured to me that I have no clue what to do with them when the weather gets cold. That link said "These seedlings are best pampered in a shaded cold frame for a year or two." My little plastic greenhouse is not going to protect them through a Chicago winter, so that's not an option. What have you had sucess with? Thanks, Julie
edited to add, going out to look at my asiatics to see if they have any. That would be cool :D Lilies and daylilies everywhere!
This message was edited Jul 6, 2007 8:15 PM
LIly bulblets that occur naturally from lilies growing in the ground often end up loose on the surface of the soil when stalks are pulled in the fall. They do just fine. I just poke them gently into the soil when I find them in the spring. No harm done. (remember, I live in Maine and we have harse winters too.) After I have grown these in pots for the summer, I plant into the ground. They will generally make it. Unless you can't live without them, then I would unpot them and place in slightly moist sphagnum and put in plastic bags and refrigerate for the winter. Production of lilies by scaling is a hobby for me. So if I loose a few, no problem.
Thanks for the info; I'm encouraged.
Oh good, I will plant them then, thanks for that info! The Spouse will be very glad they won't be decorating the house come winter :)