Life Span Lilies

Better yet, put small daffodils around your lilies in the ground. I once lost about 50 lilies to the little I won't say what's. I used Volblok (Permatil) and it works very well, but small daffs made the voles abandon my lilies.

There are many people who grow lilies solely in pots. The catch is that the pots do nor have sufficient soil to keep the lilies from freezing in winter. I had to put all of my lilies in pots, since I was moving. For the winter, I took them out of the pots, put them in plastic bags with soilless mix, and put them in a small refrigerator. About the time lilies are being shipped, I will pot mine up - all 68, including some I bought from Faraway Flowers last fall.

The other thing that I have done is keep lilies in pots in a garage that is unheated but adjacent to the house. The only thing is that you will need to give them a bit of moisture over the winter, and of course change the soil in the spring.

what is it about the dafffodils? does the bulb stink?

This is the time of year I make Fall Bulb planting plans. The ground is bare of large perennials and last years bulbs are up. I mark areas where I want bulbs either to enlarge a tulip area or add mini daffs to surround the lilies.
Last fall I planted 200 daffs around lilies to protect them from voles. I needed more daffs because I have tooooo many lilies to protect. I devised his method so I can see where to plant and not plant on top of old bulbs because spring bulbs disappear in the summer. I use red knives for Daffs and spoons for tulips.
I keep notes so I can go to the appropriate area and see red under perennials,dig and plant.
These are s few of this years red knives around lily stalks where there arent any new daffs showing.

probably poisonus,animals are smart about things like that.

I should explain better. Daffodils are poisonous. Deer, rabbits and voles avoid them. The critters also have very strong senses of smell. So if they even smell daffs (which don't stink, but have a distinctive scent) they steer clear. I use small daffs to repell voles and rabbits. I put a couple of small ones around my lilies, and it protects them every winter. I used to lose large numbers of both.

Edited to say that I use them to protect my tulips fromm rabbits, too. It works.

This message was edited Mar 15, 2012 8:51 AM

Then I guess these lilies are going in the bed with all the daffodils in it. That is so far the only place that they have not eaten my lilies. The only ones I have left.

I've been doing the daffodil thing with great success. But if you did want to plant lilies in a container, you could sink the container in the dirt where you want it to grow. I wouldn't plant anything vigorous in the container, as Asiatics or LAs would fill the container in no time. And you need the heavy plastic containers as the voles can get through those flimsy ones.

Ah, Marie - they were telling you something. You will really enjoy life without disappearing lilies. It made me feel completely different about my gardening.

I have been using this stuff that someone told me about. When I find a new hole i put this poison in it. Well I found a dead one today... Yeah, I am on my way of being with fewer voles...lol

A good vole is a dead vole.I doubt they have any other uses. Moles ear grubs,I wonder if grubs are on vole diet.

I don't think voles eat grubs--they eat plant matter.
I like the idea with the red knives. I did not realize I had lost my lilies to voles. I will use the daffodils. The only problem with daffodils (and it's really not a problem) is that they multiply. I wonder if they would eventually crowd out the lilies?
I ordered Lilium Anastasia this year. I sure hope the voles don't eat them before I can plant daffodils next fall. Any other ideas for the summer?

The daffodils work very well, and I suggest minatures, specifically WP Milner ( a division 1 tiny trumpet) that has multiplied very slowly for me, if at all. It always comes back, but I haven't particularly noticd any increase.

And you can't do better than with Anastasia - which multiplies very nicely, by the way.

Donna, I took your advice on the Anastasia! :)

AH.....

I have had lilies here for 5 years. I learned of the daffodil and vole solution last spring when voles ate into my nice big paych of Shocking lilies.
I planted daffs last fall.I see fairie rings of daff leaves around all the lilies I planted daffs around. Now to see how the lilies fared over this winter.
I saw trails to some lilies but dont know if they were damaged or not.
I will plant daffs again this fall because I ran out of daffs last fall and many lilies didnt get treated.
Hence my redknife experiment. I have placed red knives around the lilies that werent protected and in places where I thought daffs might be needed. This way ,in fall I can see where I need to plant new daffs.
I dig a hole and plant 3 bulbs at a time.

Anastasia is so beautiful! After seeing some in a local garden I bought a dozen of them and they've been fantastic.

We don't have the vole problem...yet. I will buy a lot of tiny daffodils and get busy planting them this fall. Thanks for the tips.

At this point I believe the daffs help. The circletts around lilies dont show vole trails.Lets see what the lilies look like.

Yay, Jo! I am definitely surrounding all lilies with daffs. And how pretty they look. Big daff order this fall.

Birder, you can plant them far enough away that when both lilies and daffs multiply they won't push each other out. I don't think they would anyway, they must be equal pushers, LOL. Or like Donna said, plant the minatures.

Mineatures worked best for me.

Why do you and Donna think the minatures work best? I'm curious. I like the larger ones better, but if the minis work best, that's what I'll go with.

Its just easier for me to dig a hole that isnt too deep. I did get some "minies" that had larger bulbs. I believe they referred to the size of the bloom. Its a multibloom

This is Suada I believe it had bigger bulbs.
I plan on some bigger bulbs for fall orders. I will photo my newbies as soon as they bloom.It should be this week as they are budded.

The main reason I looked for miniatures is that they are inconspicuous. Daffodil foliage is pretty hideous, and the sooner it fades away the better.Tiny daff, tiny foliage. WP Milner foliage disappears very quickly, so that it does not create a yellowing mass of foliage. So you don't have big strapping foliage next to the lilies.

Also, because it is a miniature trumpet, it doesn't have the cache (and the cost) of miniatures in other categories. It's quite cheap.

Make sense?

This message was edited Mar 18, 2012 12:07 PM

I never considered the daffs past the bloom but you are absolutly right.Smaller is better.

If you are diligent about letting the foliage mature, and plant midseason daffs, as I do, you end up looking at the horrors of the foliage for many weeks. I love Mount Hood but it's midseason and the foliage is a real eyesore! It blooms at the end of April and stays in bloom for quite a while, so its rearing it's disheveled head when the early lilies are blooming.

The foliage doesn't bother me a bit. Just part of having bulbs to me. My eye is drawn up to the lilies anyway, and I tend not to notice the dying foliage on the daffs. I can appreciate you folks that don't want the dying foliage, though.

It doesn't really bother me either (Steve was teasing me about a picture in which I was showing roses but also decaying daff foliage) but I noticed that it really bugs some people, so I thought I'd take those sensibilities into consideration when recommending a daff (lest they chastise me later!)

I just think it's the price for having later ones. The yellow ones around me are all in bloom but mine won't bloom for weeks. So I always have late foliage (hence the goodnatured teasing).

I braid my daff foliage so it doesnt crowd emerging perennials.

Ah, let them chastise you. We'll go to bat for you, LOL.

They say not to do that, Jo, as they don't get enough sun, then. But if yours are coming back fine and multiplying go for it.

Its not like I have rows and rows of the big ones.

You'll have to remedy that, LOL.

HEY no enabling.

Never saw that in the rules here.

Gardeners are born with the enabling gene.

Thanks to all here. A few years ago I started to get voles - never even knew they existed (I have gardened for many years too). One day a small mouse tried to jump up inside my pant leg. We had both moles and voles. My new tulips disappeared without blooming. My older asiatic lilies disappeared slowly. So did several other types of plants - old and new. I read up on moles and voles. We added mole ultrasonic devices. I planted new AL lily bulbs in wire cages with sharp sand - what a pain to do. I had a lot of these lilies for the last 2 years, then I moved so I do not know if it still works. I did not even try new tulips this way. (I also put out mouse poison traps where other animals could not get to them - shhhhh.) (The rotten mousies or some other rodents also ate through the electrical cord on my spa.) (And squirrels ate ... - but that is another story.)

I never thought about daffodils are protectors against voles. What a great idea. I love daffodils - most of them anyway. I have lots of so called pinks, some whites, a few yellows, and some tiny yellow ones. I have lots of new lilies to plant - asiatic and oriental. I will get tulips again this fall - what a joy. And I have good reasons for getting more daffodils, especially the tiny ones. Joy, Joy, Joy.

I am moving (maybe - if sale ever goes through) to a house that never had a garden. I have many plants to move from my old house, including many daffodils. I have many new summer bulbs in bags here - could not resist. I have summer bulbs on order.

I am going to spend the next hour going over Brent and Becky's Bulbs for tiny daffs. I can get Baby Moon to grow but not increase a lot. They have some I could never get to grow (hoop ones). They say Toto is a dwarf 4-6" - but I have it and it is medium tall - maybe it was mismarked? Tete a tete is really tough - what a plant. I may use this one as the gladiator. I can depend on it. Yes - I will use tete a tete as the deterrent. I will try many of the others just because I want them. I have jonquilla something still alive but no blooms after 3 years. You guys made my day.

We should stay in touch. I just did what you are doing - moved my garden. I moved from a house to an apartment (with a huge balcony) to a house in December. I brought small shrubs, roses, perennials, and hundreds of bulbs. Think about the replacement cost of your plants! I have 68 lilies in my mini fridge - time to break them out soon. Some of them are out of commerce!

Have a look at WP Milner. It's really short and quite inexpensive. It's a Division 1 - a miniature trumpet. It keeps voles and rabbits away from tulips and lilies, and it is small and the foliage disappears quickly.

Oh, and to deter squirrels - I stumbled across it this summer. Freshly ground black pepper. Just grind it over your pots every few days. It works like magic. Now, whenever I disturb the ground to plant my treasures from home, I grind a little pepper over the plants.

You can always take your perennials. Collect pots, and when the time comes, dig them up and put them in. If necessary keep them in the garage over winter. I did all of this, and it worked. The most exciting thing has been digging up my smaller peonies, putting them in pots, and now into the ground again. The darned things take years to develop!

If you are going into fall and want your lilies, bag them up with a little peat moss and refrigerate them (but away from apples and pears and plants with ethene gas). That's what the bulb suppliers do.

I can't begin to convey the joy I feel when I see my babies in their new homes. I even took a small oakleaf hydrangea. Watching it leaf out is like watching a kitten being born.

Be bold. Your choice is to try to move it or lose it forever. You don't want to leave big holes, but you don't want to have to spend hundreds to replace the plants you nurtured.

We are in the same zone, so if you would like any information on making it work please feel fee to dmail me.

Donna

Thanks. I will order W P Milner too, along with lots of tete a tete, some sun disc (to try), and some baby moon (because I like it).

I moved lots of plants in pots, then got them in the ground at the rental. They are getting big and must be moved soon.

Took my favorite daylilies, irises, daffodils, some roses, a few other types, even one delphinium. I did not take any peonies. Took no shrubs - figured they were too big. I have several thousands of bucks of plants from the old house - many I could never replace. I did not take the LA lily courier - too tall for me there - had to stake.

I saw new cheap boxes of plants at Walmart and bought named asiatic lilies, named and mixed oriental lilies, astilbes, named peonies, glads. Then I went on line and ordered 4 roses, more glads (one I really wanted), more asiatic lilies, phlox, ranunculus, peruvian daffodil (must have), df eryngium, some shrubs. One old alba rose was sold out everywhere, but finally found Canadian source. The plants at the rental are growing a lot - the daffodils are blooming. I will order the fruit and fancy trees when I get the house contract - if ever. And more shrubs.

I have enough lilies to have a large corner of the front yard covered in asiatic and oriental lilies. Just hope the orientals are not over powering. I planted trumpets and orientals at a previous house and the fragrance was too much for me. Never thought this would happen. So, I plan to put the orientals at the farthermost spot from the house, just in case.

Ha! did similar things. I ordered roses from Pickering and Heirloom and perennials and ferns from Forest Farm. I would have loved to have taken my lilacs and viburnums and smokebushes - and oh, my Yoshino cherry. I don't need to tell you anything - you have everything completely under control.

I'm so glad that you are not leaving them behind. I know it seems like a pain - at times I felt as though I were nuts - but it is so satisfying. I know that when you have settled you will, as I am beginning to do, beam on my babies.

Donna

Carol: Are you ordering your daffs now?? I assume they will be sent in the fall?
I worry about the lilies I still have and the voles getting to them before I can get the daffs in the ground around the lilies.

I like the idea of the colored knives. I must remember to get some of them.