and even easier...thankyou all.
Is This Lily Virus?
I had a couple of lilies that looked virused, stunted, twisted, discolored earlier this year. I dug down to remove them and discovered that they were in (what ecrane calls) a "bathtub" of clay, drowning, and unable to set down roots. We had used the bulb auger to plant them, but did not realize that the area had a patch of hard clay extended from my foundation. So down into the hole they went, but were unable to penetrate the clay with roots or escape the onslaught of water inside the hole.
Once moved, they did great.
So it isn't always a virus causing the problem. Could be other things.
Excellent post. We've run into that clay barrier every now and then. In 2007 we bought a Japanese maple and it took a week to get it planted since we had to dig through the entire clay mass. What a job!