Lazy bulbs

Hi,
Most of my autumn planted bulbs have came up. However my Buggy 'El Sol' supersize and TLG 'Orange Crush' are being poky. Have any of you grown these with slow results? Perhaps the cool dry May has slowed them down. Hoping that over rot.

Good day,
Andy

I have one from BC that is being poky too. Hope it's OK.

I had lots of lilies not come up all till the following spring (1 1/2 years). OT's and Tetra trumpets are very good at this. I always soak my in a fungicide Before planting to keep them from rotting. It amazing how you forget about a lily and then it suddenly appears over a year later.
Dennis

This message was edited May 18, 2008 4:45 PM

This message was edited May 19, 2008 8:46 PM

I hope there is something to that Dennis, because none of my Japanese hybrids have made an appearance (spring planted this year) or any of my fall planted OT's. Everything around them is 8 to 12 inches tall right now.

I got a late order in and planted early May (last minute order on my part) from the Lily Garden and those bulbs are very slow to show up. I haven't seen any sign of either asiatics or trumpets from that order. It has been unseasonably COLD here too. Heck! If I were a bulb, I would stay hunkered down too.

If the bulb doesn't have a sprout when planted in spring the wait can be 4 to 6 weeks, if it is going to show.

That gives me some hope, I've been tempted to gently dig to see if there are sprouts or even healthy bulbs down ther, but I will wait awhile longer since there were no sprouts on these bulbs.

Glad I saw this... I have no sign of my Silk Road that I planted in April!

I occasionally have spring planted lilies that don't show. I mean don't show until the NEXT year. They simply weren't able to put out the roots that are needed to support a stalk and bloom. Sprouted, spring planted lilies will usually bloom, but the bulb ends up depleted if it didn't develop a good new root system. If the bulbs were stored over winter under excellent conditions and shipped with good root systems still in place, it doesn't seem to matter. A good example is the bulbs I ordered from Faraway Flowers last year. All came up last spring except Terni; that one decided to sleep for a year and is up now.

I bought a bag of 3 Elise at the PNWLS meeting (shame on me, I wasn't going to do that): 2 in a large container and one in the garden. They are up except for one in the container. I haven't peeked but they were all nice and firm and it should be OK.

This is a good time to remind people who purchase lilies, fall or spring, to take out an insurance policy by taking one or two scales and bagging in a ziplock with slightly damp peat moss. Just in case something happens to the mother bulb...

Pard

That's a great idea!

Pard, we all know those PNWLS bulbs needed to be rescued, needed to have good homes. Going to those meetings with such high hopes for turning lilies down, is just an accident waiting to happen.

Scaling is fun too, not just a novel idea for ensuring a newbie's future in your garden.

Elise is one I've especially wished I had room for.

It's so cold here! 2 of 5 fall-planted l. Henryi's (from Buggy) haven't shown yet, nor have several asiatics, some from this fall, some older ones. Those are in the bed that's always the last to warm up in the spring. But still. It's been such a weird spring here, everywhere in the garden. Identical plants a few feet apart from each other have broken ground a month apart.

Geisha Girl has broke ground...some of the pressure is off, still have about half a dozen lilies (including the other two Japanese hybrids) that haven't shown themselves and the entire patch of Pink Perfection has defected!

That is what I get for hoarding the darkest ones!

Oh, the entire patch of King Kong from Buggy has only put up a couple of very spindly stems :-(

Sue, when they only put up spindly stems does that mean that they are over crowded and you should divide??

These were newly planted last fall and were decent sized bulbs. I bought the bag of 10 because I liked the color and height so much. I gave them plenty of room for this first season.

I fear our cold WET winter is responsible for much of my lily woes. Unfrozen constantly wet soil is not home to a happy lily. It really didn't freeze until February here cause we had so much snow cover that kept the ground from freezing.

Yeah, I know the feeling. I lost my fernleaf peony to that nasty cold wet weather.... Poor baby drowned...

Wicker, it has been a strange year. By now most of my peonies should be popping, so far only Roselette (which usually blooms by April first) and a couple of tree peonies have popped. So, don't give up hope, this warm weekend will make things start jumping out of the ground. :)

Diann

Warm weekend? I hadn't dared to hope. Good. My few speciosums, which were like tree trunks last year this time are spindly and sad this year. They were melon sized Buggy bulbs when I planted them in fall '06. From what you say, I think I should divide this fall. I tell you what, though, the ten Zeus bulbs I got from Buggy are all well up and incredible, with dark red stems and leaves. Very exciting.

I am starting to think that now the ground is getting too dry here. We haven't had a decent day of rain for a couple weeks and the 10 day forecast is now showing one day with isolated showers. I am sure glad I am not a farmer, trying to grow a garden in the city seems like too much work sometimes. LOL

Looks like I lost 'Arena' that I planted in the spring of 06' :*( Any of you fellow Midwesterners have issues growing orientals?

Wicker, I don't know if you should or not... Lilyfan thinks her's might have not liked wet feet. (Well, she knows they don't like wet feet.) What are the conditions like where you have your bulbs??

I'm not getting shook over no shows just yet. It's still been pretty chilly here and the ground hasn't warmed up that much. I'm just now thinking about putting my tomatoes in the ground, so.....

Andrew, my Aerna is just starting to break ground now. There may be hope for yours yet. I have lots of Orientals. For the most part they do good, they just don't multiply for me like the Asiatics do.

Orientals do well here. They seem to return each year, but as they are the last to bloom, they are the last to come up too.

I have found that if you see tiny stems coming up in an area you planted a bulb Sue, that usually the larger stalks come later, even a week or more. It's much easier for the little guys to find the sun. The big guys that you likely planted deep down may take more time to come up. I have found this to be true of all the lilies. I had little stalks come up from 'San Souci', two weeks later the big guys came through. Patience here is essential. I have no doubt now that those Japanese Hybrids will show up. Just wait until they bloom for you!

Do we have this conversation every spring? My short term memory is too good ^_^

Maybe we do. It has been a strange spring (what is normal anymore??) though. It has been very cool. Had no idea it was going to hit 34 degrees the other night.

Some lilies have made it a ways up and others just poking up. I won't be so bold as to say I have never lost anything, because I have. But overall, everything seems to come back nicely, even after turning to mush last year, the LOs mostly affected are back up this year.

Sometimes I think lilies are like watched pots that never boil. Once you stop looking, they are sure to make it above ground.

I'm sure (maybe) that I'm jumping the gun, but the spindly little stems of King Kong have been up for 3 weeks already and if the main stems are to follow that means they increased over the winter!

It has been quite cold here and the soil isn't very warm, they are still applying anhydrous and I think that stops at about 55 to 60 degree soil temps.

I have other things to do so I'll stop watching super close and just look them over once or twice a day!!!!

I have been very, very guilty of watching the kettle, believe me ^_^ I am here hoping everything shows up for everybody this year. It's going to be a great lily year here at DG.

I found that I have more enjoyment when I look over my seedling bed every other day or so. They seem to grow faster that way.

So odd how some are so slow to emerge some years. One of my trumpets, Casa Rosa, I'd given up on, and a few days ago 2 big stalks started emerging. While at the same time I have another trumpet (African Queen) thats already chest high! I'm anxiously awaiting the Japanese hybrids too, soon to be my pride and joy I'm sure. Seems weird to have roses blooming and lilies are still just emerging.

lilyfan, I got one of those melon sized bulbs from BC of Leslie Woodriff a couple of years ago, and it seems like it did like your King Kong. It has this year for sure; I was afraid the bulb had rotted and only babies had survived, but a few weeks later finally a big stalk showed up. Then it was another week or so before yet another showed up.

Diann, I won't be digging up anything right now anyway. I was thinking the spindly stalks might be offshoots, but they've been up for weeks. Will keep looking, though (hourly), for the big stalks to poke through. Won't give up yet. Hope warmer temps come and wake up all our lazy lilies.

Thank goodness Silk Road has appeared! But I still have an African Queen missing....

I guess patience is going to be the name of the game here. I have so much going on right now that I can't 'babysit'

What is amazing me is that some of my lilies that were hit with a frost in April are looking real good right now and even showing some bud formation.

It's freezing out there, but amazingly today I spotted three new noses just starting to poke up. Two lazy asiatics, one lazy l. henryi.

Meanwhile, just finished moving pots of annuals indoors. Going down to the upper 30s tonight.

Well my super sized "ElSol" from buggy is just a big pile of mush. :*( Does she replace bad bulbs?

This message was edited Jun 17, 2008 8:37 PM

My Red Dutch have still not showed up...and 1 African Queen still MIA too.

I haven't seen Dizzy yet this year... I'm tempted to go digging for it... :)

I don't know if BC replaces no-shows. With the very wet spring we've had, I won't even ask.

Moby, YES! There are so many many many many things that can happen to live materials after they leave the seller. Things that are out of the seller's control and IN the buyer's control. If Andrew's bulb was bad when he first got it, then an immediate complaint would be in order. But in my opinion, unless there is a specific reason why he thinks this is Buggycrazy's fault, it would be ludicrous to assume so in such blanket manner.

I was hoping :*) I know TLG is quite generous with replacements and many online nurseries have replacement policies. If I had a bulb shop I wouldn't guarantee the bulbs once they left though...

Buggy is a one woman operation, so it would be tough for her to replace bulbs that drowned.... Heck, we're just lucky that she's still selling bulbs... :)

The 'lazy bulb' that I've been waiting on is Skyscraper which came from BC. That it came from her is what makes is so heartbreaking! It's rootless body is still there so I gave it some TLC and will hope for the best.

omg, I killed a buggy bulb... I'm a failure... sob, sob... ;)