staking lilies

I have many lilies that are 5 to 6 feet tall. What do you use to stake them with? They have 6 or 7 flowers on them at one time. That make them very heavy. Thanks. Elaine

Green colored bamboo stakes seems to be the most popular choice. I don't have any that tall. A lot of people use a short stake to mark the spot the stake will go, then when the lily gets tall, they remove the short stake and put the tall one in place. It keeps form having an unsightly tall stake until the plant is tall enough to hide it.

I use the tall metal stakes, coated with green plastic that you can get from Lowes. I will also use the poles from the tomato cages for the really tall lilies. The first picture is of African Queen, with the plastic coated metal stake.

I hear ya about the really tall lilies. Pink Perfection is well over 6 feet this year.

Whatever you decide to use, secure it to the stem near the blooms. Otherwise the stems can snap if you have strong winds.

Thank you. I will get some stakes tomorow. I had several fall over and I had to cut them off. Have a beautiful vase of blooms.

I had LA Opening Night that grew to about 5' snap off at the base of the stem due to the weight if the blooms, after we had a rainy, windy day. I'm glad I found it and I was able to enjoy the blooms in a vase as well.

The lilies seem much taller this year, with thicker stems, and seem to be doing better because if the cooler, wetter summer compared to last year.

Elaine, I hope your lilies continue to do well for you, and that you don't get any more broken stems.

Annette

I have great faith in trellises where needed.

My ANASTASIA"S are over 7 feet tall this year......I have never had them get so tall before!

I agree the stems are thicker and the flowers are beautiful. One of mine had 18 blooms on it. I love the fragrance of them also. We have had afternoon rains which has been great. Do you leave the stems after bloom and just let die naturally? Also when do you dig the bulbs to share or move? I hope everyone has a nice 4th. Elaine

I leave the stems with leaves to die down naturally, but I do cut off the heads on the stems just below where the the blooms were so the plants don't form seed heads, which would take energy away from the bulbs.

All of the lilies that I've ever planted, were done in the spring from purchased bulbs. I've not yet dug any bulbs to move around the yard. I did just dig and remove several lilies yesterday that appeared to be infected by a virus, and got rid of them.

This message was edited Jun 30, 2013 8:46 PM

I move lily bulbs any time after they have bloomed. As Annette mentioned, cut off the heads on the stems so the seed pods don't grow. I generally wait until the stems are dry, but it is not essential. You can dig them with the soil that surrounds them and transplant into another container. If you are not ready to transplant, take off the the extra soil and leave the bulbs dry, really dry. Transplant when you are ready, with at least four inches of soil above.

One spring I found a container of dry lily bulbs that had been left out all winter naked of soil, and they still grew just fine despite our cold winters and my lack of attention.