HELP! What would you do?

Two of my test tube babies want to bloom. Each stem has at least 3 buds on it. As you can see they are only 3 inches tall and very fine boned!

As much as I want to see these blooms I am leaning toward removing the buds. They are growing on the window sill and have been put thru 2 artifical winters. I was hoping to put them thru 1 more but it looks like they have plans of their own!

If they were bigger I might think about letting 1 bud open to display the wonderous beauty concealed within, but I just don't know!

At this time I still can't get to the buds, so will have to leave them for awhile no matter what.

No ideas for you but I'm wishing you good luck.

WOW ! Congratulations !

But definitely, cut those buds off. If they do somehow continue to bloom stage, size, color and probably form will be far off from the norm. They'll probably be something only a mother could love. Remember what happened with Bonitin's martagon, and she had a good size bulb to back it up. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/784881/

Hold back those top leaves, and you should easily be able to remove the buds with a fingernail scissors or exacto knife.

I'll bet you could still go one more winter. Let it grow a month or two more, and start putting it in the frig at night, and start withholding water to force dormancy. How long have your dormancy periods been so far?

Oh Lefty, you are breaking a mothers heart! But I really did think that was the way to go.

I guess I better clarify 'artifical winters' They lived in the fridge during the winter months, I 'helped' them to go dormant a little early this summer and put them in the fridge until the end of October (probably about 10 weeks). I was hoping to put them back in at the end of December. I really wanted to avoid bringing them out of their sleep in the heat of the summer.

I think it would take another month of growing after I remove the buds, before I should start the sleeping phase again. That would bring them out of their semi-dormancy in mid May or so. Uhmmm.....that just might work. Time to go remove the buds

Tough love ~ go girl!

Well... the deed is done! Here is the evidence!

This is my test tube L. speciosum gloriosoides. It has a baby beside it I think, just one leaf. It also is 'fine boned'. So far I see no evidence of any buds.

No buds, that's a good thing. And a nice lily.

I just couldn't bear to take the blooms off again so here is my very first bloom on my test tube L.parvum halidayi. True, it is a bloom only a mother could love, but I don't care!

Awww..... it's such a cute little stubby thing! Great job!

Congratulations on the new arrival. Glad it's a lily!

I think it's nice and don't see why you don't like it. Each year it will improve but it's fine right now in my eyes.

I'm glad it is a lily also...especially after caring for it since the summer of 2006 and not knowing what I was doing!

I LOVE my lily even if it is only a small glimpse into what it could grow up to be if I don't kill it! I have 2 more buds to go!

Ditto on the Congratulations! Looks like it will grow up to display a fine color hue, too.

Now don't wait too long to get the snippers out. I know it's hard, but that species doesn't like our midwestern heat. It will want to go dormant early, especially growing in a pot. It won't have all summer to build a new bulb before it goes semi dormant. Make sure the pot doesn't bake in the sun, in fact, I would give it less than half a day of sun now.

Lefty, the other 2 buds are on a different stem, they are about twice the size of this diminative bloom.

The pots are in high shade and only get about 1½ hours of direct sun first thing in the morning and about a ½ hour of sun in the evening.

I was hoping that making and blooming a flower would help to get its mind off of increasing. I'm not going to leave the bloom on the stem, tomorrow it is heads off!

I just finished reading about this little lilium and it said that the flowers even on a full sized wild stem (up to 5') are very small, they referred to them as 'thimble-sized'. Dry in dormancy, but likes moist soil while actively growing.

The pots are in high shade and only get about 1½ hours of direct sun first thing in the morning and about a ½ hour of sun in the evening.

Perfect!