Lily Co-op adventure continues

Thought I'd start a new thread in this lily forum.

Where we started:

~50 people participating in a lily co-op, hosted by 1violetheart (Char) - and the vendor was: Sunshine Flower Bulb. Collectively, with side purchases (some of us even went to the vendor on the side to get MORE), we probably bought over 4 thousand bulbs to add to our gardens, some, already pretty crowded.

This is intended to be a fun thread for people from the co-op and anyone else who loves lilies. It'll be a great opportunity to show what we did and see what others did with some of the same purchases.

I'm sure many of you who are organized (put up markers and can say - Oh, look at what I did with X.) I might be able to do that with some of the varieties where I had larger purchases, but a few - I'll be saying - I think I put something there, see, that pink one, yeah, I got that one in the co-op. No, next to the other pink one - wait, maybe they're both from the co-op or maybe from another purchase. (Me, the 200 or so that I bought, were in additional to 50+ Scheeper last fall + 60 from bleek (Bert Leek) last month - so with about 300 new lilies on top of some from earlier years my house is bound to be lily madness this year. I hope everything falls together nicely - needless to say, I wonder if our house will look like the little shop of horrors (that's a nicer description for this family site) - when I was really suggesting a house of ill repute in a nearby island country that is like our 51st state. No offense to anyone from that country, just that it sounds funny to say we look like the XX *****house on the street (as in bright and gaudy). *laugh* But, seriously, my friends, is there an ugly lily?

Let the adventure continue... I'll try to get some pictures of my palette (empty areas). Funny thing - a week later, when I was putting in dahlias, I'd already forgotten that I put some stuff in because I almost cut another bulb that I planted a few weeks ago and several near misses with stuff from last fall.

I almost expect the ground to heave and start spitting out bulbs - saying, enough is enough.

What I'm starting with:

50X 150 lot with a white house - not a large lot, esp. with detached garage. My main areas are a plot by the driveway, area at the corner of a fence, 2 gardens about 8 X 15 feet and a few areas where I tucked away clumps because I didn't have any space - and started thinking about hiding bulbs in my neighbor's yards.

Look forward to hearing about your adventures....Myself - 3 weekends of planting, and except for a few specific plantings, I honestly don't remember what I planted where. I can't miss 25 Triumphator in the same place, or 10 Dizzy (oh yes, except, not sure where the Dizzy ended up). Maybe you can help me find them.

Sandra

This message was edited Apr 25, 2010 3:18 PM

glad i didn't order a lot, because my bulbs aren't even here yet and i'm out of room. guess i need to drag out te tiller

LOL.. Sandra.. you know as well as I do that your place will look fantastic!! I immediately planted maybe 20 bulbs after I got the order, and found room in the frig for all the rest! So far they are still there..LOL.. I have maybe 3 acres we call "yard" but we mow about 10, so I have plenty of room to expand, even though I get more work done in my mind than actually bending over, dig it out, plant it and get er done!

I planted maybe 25 bulbs last year from Bert my first order ever for these kinds of lilies and fell in love, and made an order from him this spring also.. maybe 60 bulbs, and then the great coop from Char and Andy... I went a lil berserk... about like you did, do it's nice to know I'm not all by myself in that corner for spending way too much!

I hope to get at least 1/2 in the ground this week... I do try to mark them, but sometimes I get confused and there won't be a marker even though I know I put one there..lol.. I think my lil garden fairy likes to keep me confused!! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

I have been trying to get stuff in the ground from my Green House... it was packed to the gills over the winter, and I've at least been trying to get it all out of there since it's been up too 120 degrees in there! I say I am tooo greedy for my own good, and I have the addiction bad, but it's the best addiction I have ever had!!

Y'all saw this pic.. but it's the very beginning of my journey, and one I'll be enjoying for many years to come... all because Char had the great insight for a coop and Andy took her up on being our seller.. Thanks to everyone involved!

Finished planting mine today but a few that I'm gifting. They're all marked and labeled in the garden as I always have the quest to find an empty space. Maybe we should do another co-op with Andy this fall. Not just lilies but spring flowering bulbs as well. Most of the bulbs cost less than $1 and as low as 59 cents at such a superior quality at that. He went out his way to substitute bigger bulbs on some varieties and $15 shipping for 157 bulbs is nothing.

This year we started a new bed, even though we decided last year that we were getting too old to keep up. Of course, about 80 lilies went into this new bed before I even got a chance to plan it all out. I thought that I would throw some annual seed around the bulbs to hide what eventually would become a plot of just spent leaves, but I noticed that thousands of little weeds had seeded themselves atop the newly dumped soil so I needed to rake over and throw preen.

What do you do to keep this area looking attractive after the lilies have bloomed?

Holikrap Beck.
Thats a big order. I am a lily nut .The co-op missed me but I can enjoy everyone elses treats and PLEASE take pictures of them blooming.
Roses rRed! I plant annual Poppies and hardy geraniums among the lilies.
I was given tall Salvias as a "after bloom" filler.
I also dig a 12-14 inch hole for three lily bulbs at a time.Its much easier and less digging that way.
I also have some lilies in with Hostas where there is bright shade and some sun.
These were planted a few weeks ago so no pix of them.
The Sheepers,Lily Garden,LilyNook orders planted last fall are just peeking out.
The biggest lilly patch is about 10 feet square on a garden 100 feet long and 15 feet wide.I have lilies in other smaller gardens.

My lilies are planted in amongst daylilies, irises, liatris, coneflowers, etc..

Mine too. I had read that combo from you awhile back .When the lily bulb flood started I was glad to know I could sucessfully plant them in with DL's .I have also seeded Larkspur with the last fall bulbs.

Morning everyone!!

ge... LOL.. I told y'all on the other site I had a huge order coming in..lol... you didn't believe me??...LOL.. I am a research type gal... I google everything, and research it to death, so I can have knowledgeable info at my fingertips...notice i didn't say it was coming from my brain..lol... Anyway... after seeing the prices and the cms of the bulbs for the coop I knew I couldn't go wrong, and since I so love bargains, I made good use of this coop!!

Moby.. I have planted mine in the middle of anything and everything. since I have no concept of style

LOL LOL
Whats not to like about lilies. they are atractive wher ever they are planted.
So many gardens are over planned and then the happy accidents when the stuff you didnt know what to do with gets "put somewhere" and that spot becomes more interesting than tha planned beds.
I love gardening for that reason.

I just want some stuff growing among them so that I can have flowers blooming after the lilies are gone.

I am planting mine in the plastic window boxes like I have most of my amaryllis in. Can't get many in one as they are so big. I need to get busy but I have opened each bag so they have room to sprout.

mine got here today. now to find a place for them

I got mine planted today. I planted them in window boxes and only planted 4 in each. I had exactly 6 boxes for the 24 bulbs. I am so excited that I ordered. They are huge bulbs.

Make sure you plant any part that came off also. (not sure what you call them) I read years ago you can take a bulb apart and each scale? will make a lily. I am sure it will take years but what do we have to lose. I don't mean pull them apart but plant any that fell off and see what happens.

They are called scales. put them in a baggie of damp [squeeze moss, just so it hangs together] moss and put them in a box with a heavy book on top and if you have a basement or closet [where dark] forget about them for about 3 months, look and they should have rooted or produced a very small bulb.
Hope this helps. I now have around 30 pots of these lilies [scaled from last falls order] potted up now in the greenhouse. Most should bloom next yr. after setting out this fall.

Maxine

Thanks Maxine.. I've just been planting the scales a little higher up with the Momma... that sounds better the way you do it!!

Planting the scales with the mama works too! If you want to speed the process, the method Max mentioned comes into play. Here's more info on that, for those that may be interested ~ http://www.mikesbackyardgarden.org/lilyprop.html (about 2/3 down the page)

Mine are all popping up out of the ground already. I hope I planted them deep enough.

I planted a bunch of tulips this past fall and I put those in to deep and quite a few only got leaves. So I hope I didn't over compensate with the lillys.

It got down to 28 over night so I went out and gathered leaves out of the woods and covered their little heads. I will go out later this morning and uncover them. They look so sturdy so far.
I am excited to see everyones gardens when they bloom.

Amy

28 degrees! Oh my! And I thought we were cold at around 40 overnight. The weekend looks promising. It will be in the 80's. Funny how these newly planted lilies will pop-out of the ground. They just seem to pop-out overnight and surprise the heck out of you the next morning. Some take their time and if they finally decide to surface they got those gigantic stalks already.

Does anyone here have an idea when the fall coop might be? I missed out on the spring coop and hope I get in on the fall coop.

Last year I got in on three different lily coop's they were all beauties when they bloomed. All of my lilys from them are up and growing for this season plus looking very healthy. This year since I missed out on the coop so I placed a order with the lily garden so there at least will be some new to my garden lilys this summer.

We got down to 31 last night and I was really worried, but they look good this morning. Hope planting them deep works cuz our last frost date isn't til the end of May.

clpgirl, don't worry, they will be fine. ^_^

I'm kind of jealous I missed out on this. As is typical time is getting the best of me - I have about a third of a bed that needs to be cleared which I planned on turning into a lily garden...I got shipping confirmations today so I better get a move on.

I finally got all my lilies planted today, I hadn't looked into the box untill today also. they are huge bulbs. ready to burst out of the bags. I did notice that kordesa was missing I figured that migght be one not sent or somehting, I did get 4 tiger woods, but the order form shows I ordered them I can't remember these days. NOt a big deal to me at all though.

Yes, you are right. We had second night of frost and the ones that are big, are AOK this morning also. Think that planting the 6-8" was a good idea for my area.

I've got 2 poking through, both Triumphator. You can barely see them by the sticks. It's not much....but enough to keep me hoping. The second pic is some of my Lily pots. This year will be my first try and I expect to be learning something from my own experience.

Lily pots....all empty except for soil, bulbs, and hope.

This area is waiting for my lilies to bloom. They will take up the 3/4 of the left side which is an area of about 15' x 15'. I needed to throw Preen on the soil because hundreds of tiny weeds were taking root. My plan to overseed with some tall pretty flowers was foiled because I needed to put the seed killer down. I'm not quite sure how I will put actual plants in because I put the lilies in so close that there is not much stepping room. Time will tell.

That will be beautiful

Yes that space will be beautiful, and if I was starting a new bed, I bet I'd be planting them close too! I'm looking for any nook and cranny that I can stick them now, all the while knowing they are too close to other plants..LOL.. I NEED another bed!!

Hello all....

Our weather forecasters are predicting a low of 40 tonight. Almost 1/2 of the lilies from the co-op are emerged with the tallest an inch high. Do I need to protect them tonight?

they should be fine. mine held up last month at them temps.

They emerge in 30* temps here.
They may slow down but wont be in any danger.

Yikes! The forcast here for Saturday is 32 degrees all of my lilies are up and growing well they are spread thruout the garden it would be hard to try and cover them all. Do you folks think they will freeze???

Betty

Thanks folks,

I was hoping to hear that.

I think they'll be fine. We did rig up a pretty funny looking bedsheet on poles device but I think, cuz we dug deep 8-9 inches cuz of zone, that it mostly made me look silly.

Mine went through several nights of frosty weather here without their 'bedding' and are AOK.

I agree, nothing to worry about - mine from previous years (2 or more back - I put in more each year) emerge in April, we get freezing temperatures and they do fine. They're pretty tough - not like some tender annuals that I continually fail in my attempts to grow seeds. Now if it were to go below zero, and they're 6 inches up, that would be another story.

Thinking about it - those who didn't plant right away may have put them in the fridge at 37 or so degrees to keep them somewhat dormant.

Give me a tough lily or hosta any day - they're pretty resilient.

Okay I redid this bed the other day and enlarged it and Planted in top part in between the lilac and Hardy Hib
OT Invasions me and Beck got to add on to our order with Andy...
in the bottom side by the other bush were lilies I got somewhere else...Sixth sense and Dizzy..
will be mulching the bed tomorrow...hopefully if it doesn't SNOW Tonight

This is a new bed i'm working on...it goes down a slight slope to the road..but at the top I planted
Truimphators and White Triumphs....will finish outlining with flat field stones...
in the front part will be Irises and Coneflowers and what not...

Right now the rest are either in pots...scattered in established beds or in the fridge...
So far their keeping pretty good in there...LOL
about as cold as it is outside right now...