To divide or not to divide.....

I just bought a Lilium candidum on the flower market and the bulb looks in an excellent state.
I wonder now what the result would be if I divide it in two as there seem to be two separate noses coming up. I'm concerned that if I do that it will not have blooms in its first year or does that make no difference ?

A picture of the bulb;

I have noticed here with that lily that after you dig and divide it can (not always, but sometimes) sulk. As tempting as it is to divide, I'd just leave it.

I don't really know anything about this species. Mags, have you dug and not divided, and still have them sulk? I am wondering if it is merely the digging and not the dividing that might be detrimental. Sometimes when a double nose is so tightly held together, dividing could be seen as traumatic, but with the bulbs separated so clearly, I can't see how dividing would make a difference, now that it is already "dug up". Does this make any sense?

Perhaps you're right Lefty, maybe it is in the digging itself that provides the stress. Last year, I divided a few and left clumps intact, the clumps dug, moved and left intact bloomed, the divisions, very hearty and healthy, did not. They simply put out the foliage and nop flowers, though most certainly they seemed plenty big enough to flower. I also moved them to a totally different area, perhaps they also liked the old spot better.

So, I guess, go with your heart on this and whatever will be, will be. You most certainly will get flowers in two years. Like Lefty says, they have already been under stress simply by being dug.

Thank you Magnolialover and Leftwood!

I really wanted to try this one, Magnolialover as I fell for it through your last spring picture in the specie-lily thread of Wallaby and this one is also more easily available... It will get about 4 hours of sun so I hope it will perform...
It was exactly the fact that the two noses looked so clearly separate, like Leftwood mentions, that I thought it wouldn't make much difference whether I would divide them or not.
But I decided to leave it undivided anyway, not to cause more 'eventual' stress on it...



This message was edited Oct 28, 2007 11:04 PM

I try not to divide a lily that is not naturally disconnected from it's twin. I figure why open a wound when in another year it will most likely complete the process naturally.