My First Flower!!

Yeah! I woke up yesterday and found that I have my first flowers! A pink lily!

I was so happy to see it! Between my 'weeding' and the bunnies feasting, I didn't know that I'd ever see one in bloom!

Christy

And when I went to take it's pretty picture this morning I noticed that my very very tall lily produced a beautiful white flower today!

Congrats. What a beautiful flower to be your first. It is always so exciting when plants first pop up out of the ground or bloom for the first time. Makes all the time we spend on them worthwhile.

Leslie

Stressed: I grow lots of lilies as well so I know how you feel. I get excited seeing blooms appear and can hardly wait for them to open up. Congrats & keep up the good work!

Don't they smell nice, too? Another smile maker! All that hard work and you get a flower and it is fragrant too!

Thank you so much! It feels good to know that the work I did paid off. I bought the lilies in bulk so I had no idea what colors they'd be. I'm anxious to see the last one bloom and find out what color it will be..... maybe yellow? or red? or....

My mom is a gardener (veggies & flowers) and she gets a kick out of this. When I was a kid I had absolutely NO interest in gardening. Now as an adult with my first home, I'm sending pictures of my first flowers as if they were children... I guess they kind of are if you think about it. But I draw the line at talking to them! lol

Momo125...smell? I hadn't even thought about that? Oh Good Gravy! Now I wanna go home and smell my flowers... how could I have not thought of that? Sheesh!

Christy

I don't know about the asiatic Lilies, but the Oriental Lilies do. I have a few stargazer, and they are SOOoo fragrant. Here's a pic from last year, as they haven't opened yet this year.

Congratulations StressedTek! First flowers are always exciting and as wonderful as they are this year they will be even more gorgeous next year. It feeds the gardening addiction:-) Then it becomes just a few more plants, just a few more varieties, just a little more color-well you get the picture. I wasn't interested in gardening as a child either. Now once I started I can't get enough of it. It really lowers the stress too. You may find evenyourself changing your thread name:-)

momo123-Beautiful Stargazers! I love them too along with my ever increasing assortment of Orientals and Asiatics.

Happy Gardening Everyone!

I really like the stargazers as well. Every once in a while, the breeze will carry the scent inside from my balcony. Here are my pink stargazers. I have others that haven't opened up yet.

Beautiful flowers StressedTek. You obviously gave them lot's of TLC. They are sort of like kids too except they will never talk back and won't bug you for the keys to your car, ROFLOL!!! (I can laugh about it now--mine are both grown and out on their own.)

Well my lilies don't appear to have a scent but that's okay, they're still so pretty! Several flower buds have opened on the one now and I expect the remaining lily to bloom any minute now! I can't wait!

Len and Momo your Stargazers are beautiful! They're my sisters favorite and whenever she has to spend time in the hospital (she has MS) I have the florist send her stargazers..... I think I'll have to grow my own, it would definitely be cheaper! Do stargazers and oriental lilies have the same zone and sun/shade requirements as the asiatic? I enjoy lilies and I can see having 'a few' more of them in the garden!

aahhhhh... gardening as a stress reliever that's an excellent perk!

NatureLover if my flowers start talking to me I'm going back to my therapist and having him increase my medication! LOL! I remember my mom telling me about a time she was standing in a store looking at a house plant and she began talking to it... asking it if she wanted it to come home with her. (mom's not crazy.... I swear!) She turned around with the plant and there was a woman standing behind her thinking she had lost her mind!

Christy

Christy: You don't have to draw the line. Talking to your plants is a natural result of the time you spend with them. I bet most of us DGers talk to them regularly. I like to think the little growing things can sense my encouraging cooing. ;->

Congrats on your flowers!
Deb

ROFL! I would have to use the old saying here: I talked to my plants but the weeds listened in! Your mom could have had some real fun with that woman. She should have looked at the plant very sincerely and said, "Look at this nice lady, she looks like she'd like to join our conversation." Bet the lady would have cleared out of the store in a hurry, lol.

The requirements for lilies in general are pretty similar. Zones may be slightly different for different cultivars but most grow in our zones. You definitely can grow Stargazers in your zone.
It is so great that you get the Stargazers for your sister and on top of being cheaper they will be extra special because you grew them .
Happy Gardening.

StressedTek,

Congratulations on your first blooms! It's such a good feeling, isn't it?!

Here's a downer and I found this out the hard way, rabbits LOVE lilies (unless you've treated the area with rabbit repellent) I am new at gardening and the house we just bought already had a flower garden established. I didn't know this until I came out one morning and most the foliage on my lilies was nibbled off. The buds still bloomed which I was happy about, but the didn't last as long.

DebinSC, if it helps my flowers grow, I may have to try it... as long as hubby isn't around...he'll be calling my shrink for sure! LOL

NatureLover I think it would have been hysterical if mom could have thought quick on her feet and said something like that to that woman! I'm sure that woman wouldn't have ever forgotten that!

81302 I'm so glad to hear that stargazers will grow in my zone! I'll have to plant some bulbs in spring! I'm already so excited!

luv_lee_garden, most of my lilies look just like yours! I found out about bunnies and their preference for my lilies and my violets! Those little buggers! I used cayenne pepper and that seemed to work and when I ran out I used red pepper flakes which I thought was working, but now I'm not so sure.... I see signs of those little nibblers again! It's a good thing they're cute because I was very unhappy when they nibbled a few of my lilies in half and left the unopened flower bulbs on the ground.....grrrrr..... but you can't stay mad at something that fuzzy!

Christy

Stressedtek, so excited to see your first flower! It is so fun to go outside and see your flowers have bloomed!

I recently purchased a asiatic 'lollipop' lily, although to my surprise when it bloomed it had large trumpet like flowers cream and maroon, smelled amazing! So somebody mismarked the lily, was a pleasant surprise, think I like it better than the lollipop.

I searched high and low for tiger lilies, couldn't find any, Gabrielle dug some up and sent them to me, and they should be blooming any day now! So I have lilies from Illinois how fun. Lilies are my favorite, I have planted several of them, sad they don't last longer :(
Anyone know if after they have bloomed do you cut the long stem to the ground, or let them be?

This message was edited Jul 15, 2007 8:18 AM

Flowerprincess: Leave the stems until all the leaves have fallen off and the stem has turned brown all the way to the bottom. What you may want to consider doing as well ( I learned this from another site) is to cut the *flower stems* near to the main stem *after* they have bloomed & before the seed pods develop. This way, the plant will put more energy onto keeping the bulb healthy and less energy into creating the seeds.

Thanks Len_G