oriental lilies ?

recently [4 weeks ago] i potted up some lily bulbs for next summer/autumn they have begun to shoot and are now approx 6" in height what do i do now as i dont want to lose these beautiful plants to winter can i cut them down or must i leave them to the elements and mother nature someone sort me out please !?

Hi Chaz, in our climate, Lily bulbs are better planted now rather than spring, but you can do it in spring so long as it is early spring, the oriental type need to be planted about 6 inches under the soil so our frost dont get them and in pots that are too small for this, they will get damaged in winter if they are outdoors, also check your pots wont crack when we get ice cold sometimes, I am thinking Terracotta pots here, DONT cut anything off the bulbs, bulbs are like a store cubourd and all the goodness inside has been made from the year before and stored in the bulb, unlike other plants that grow from just roots, if you cut them down, you will possibly cut off the food supply to the flower buds and end up with foliage and no flowers, make sure they are in good quality compost/soil in the pots and come spring, add a feed to the pots when you see new fresh foliage start to grow, check you have them in a large enough pot size too as this may have caused them to shoot this time of year, if they are indoors, keep them in a cool area or the warm house will set them into false growing times but weak growth. hope this helps you a bit,
Good luck. WeeNel.

sorry weenel i did not explain myself very well it was only 5 weeks ago that i received these lily bulbs from a mail delivery company with instructions to plant asap as previously explained i did so right now i have 10 inch high very healthy growth and i am worried about losing plants hope i explained this better and you can be of more help thanks lots. c

Would "watering" with ice cubes twice a day help? This is something I remember my mom doing when plants would do things out of season. Her Dad and Brother were horticulturalists and this is what they had told her to do, but this was 40 years ago...

chaz,

I would say if they're 10" high already, they've already come out of dormancy and little will stop the path they're on. You could plant them in the ground, but the growth seems awfully far along and would be difficult to plant so that the tips weren't at risk of damage, even assuming they did not resume much growth while in the ground (I wouldn't count on that!)

Sounds to me as if they've been kept in cold storage for some time by the seller, as Oriental lilies would normally just have been dug within the past few weeks and should not be sprouting, whether in a pot or in the ground. Your biggest issue at this point is if you get some hard freezes as they will likely destroy what top growth you have, and then that's it for this year, though the bulb itself should be fine.

I had some lilies emerge early last year, in March - and then we had some hard freezes and the top growth was mostly destroyed, and of course no flowers. This has happened to me in the past as well. If you don't mind missing a year of flowering, they will likely return to their normal timetable and grow/flower at normal time the following year. You could also take the pot indoors when the weather gets significantly cold and place in a sunny window, and maybe you'll have flowers this winter.