I wait for White Henryi to bloom each year and welcome him back like an old friend. If you need a source for this one try The Lily Garden. Also if you are looking for a great buy on orienpets try Jung Seed Company. You can get one bulb of 5 different ones for $17.95. I ordered these last year and have loved them. Also a good source for other lilies at reasonable prices.
Susan
very nice
GORGEOUS!!! I got 3 blooms on my 'White Henryi' this year that were planted in April....not bad for a couple of months growth. Next year!!! Woo Hoo!!!
Wow! Thats beautiful!
These are the flowers off 2 bulbs that are maybe 12 years old and not planted in very good locations. One is under a shrub and has to bend over to sneak out and the other one has had it's space invaded by an ornamental grass, but both always give me some great flowers for cutting.
I recently became captivated by this cultivars beauty on the Old House Gardens
site. I haven't really seen it before. I guess I'll have to try to find some for spring
planting. I had some less than stellar results from spring planted lilies last year.
Who's fault? dunno.. But I don't think I will buy lilies from anyone but a grower.
Susan, your white henryii is perfection! They make me think of honey and cream. I have read that it is the same lily as Bright Star and Lady Alice, but they are registered as different cultivars, and others here at DG have confirmed they are indeed different. I do have Bright Star, which does share similar coloring, and I love it. This was their first year, so I'm looking forward to a nice show in '08!
fleur_guy, I prefer lilies from growers too and have received some of the best bulbs from them, but don't judge your lily display too harshly the first year. Lilies need a year to settle in before they really start performing to their potential, then they just keep getting better. I think you may be very pleasantly surprised next summer :)
Neal
Susan - the lily is gorgeous and so are the color echoes.
GS - another beauty!
FG - I agree with geminisage and don't judge by the first year but still the big lily growers have the best selection and, I believe, the best products.
Gemini & Pirl
Sorry to mislead with a vague statement about results with spring planted lilies.
What I meant to say is that they just plain didn't come up. 2 out of 2 for L Girosa
and 1 out of 3 for L. Luminairies. 2 of the Luminairies produced a stem but did
not flower. OK - planted late, 1st year etc. The 3rd did not come up at all. The
Girosa did not come up at all. Is there "any" possibility that the dud bulbs could
magically sprout this spring? Or is it time to move on?
How I'd love to comfort you but I've never had them come up if they didn't come up the first year, even though the first year they're getting adapted so I don't expect too much but I do want to see some flowers.
I'd love to be wrong on this one, fleur_guy.
I've had them skip a year. So I do think there's hope. I had an instance where I planted in the fall, and they sprouted that fall, as the fall was so mild, and didn't come up the next spring, but the next year they were back on cycle.
I've also planted in the spring, ones that were not pre-cooled, and had them not come up till the following year.
I much prefer spring planting for lilies.
But lilies like Gemini is offering in his co-op are precooled, and should come up the spring they are planted. Places like Ednie pretend to be winter for you. So the lily is at the proper place in the cycle for spring.
So fleur_guy to sum it up, if the lilies you planted in the spring were not pre-cooled ones, they may skip a year. If they were pre-cooled ones, they may be goners.
Ahhh, I see. As pirl said, it is unlikely and probably time to move on, but there is a chance you may see one return. I had this happen once and was so shocked.
Polly, good point about the precooled bulbs. I hadn't thought of that.
In this case I just love being wrong as I'd hoped I'd be. Now I have hope my Easter lilies will return.
As the old saying goes "Time will Tell". Thanks guys.
Good luck with them.
Pirl, you're probably not wrong. And that picture of Easter lilies is lovely. Easter lilies are not hardy in my area, and since you are a zone warmer, you might have had a colder spell that did them in. I think they seem to be pretty fussy to grow anyway, but yours obviously did well.
They were not in growth at the time many suffered that brief freezing spell that didn't happen here, thankfully.
Polly ~ why can't you grow easter lilies? I do here is 5b.
Moby - did yours ever take a year of rest? I had no growth at all on mine in '07.
Mine have never survived the winter. I think most sites only rate them to Z6, so you've done well, Moby .
I think it depends on the cultivar, also. I remember White Flower Farms had them that were hardy to Z5. But I've never had luck with them. I know the most common lilium longiflorum for Easter lilies is Snow Queen, but some of the other cultivars might be hardier. I've never attempted to try the different cultivars after loosing them one year.
You want to know the most painless way to try easter lilies? Plant some cast-offs after Easter. That's what mine are.
Pirl ~ I don't think I've had a lily rest that wasn't 'put to rest' by rabbits.
I tried that, didn't work either.
Those dang rabbits. And mine wait till the lilies get quite tall, and them nibble them all around until they're gone. And I know it's the rabbits. I've seen them.
It's always iffy when planting bulbs that have been forced. Guess I've just had good luck.
All of mine are from Easter gifts. They've always flowered the next year and it couldn't have been the rabbits since the lilies are in three gardens and not a bit of green ever emerged. I also use many bags of blood meal to keep the rabbits away from the many lilies including the Asiatic and Orientals and OT's, etc.
pollyk, why do you prefer spring planting for lilies? All the spring lilies I've planted have come up and done pretty well. I'm on my second year coming up with Casa Blanca. Hope they get bigger and better this year. I planted Monte Negro some years ago and they came up but weren't as good as they would have been planted in the fall.
I'm fairly sure Polly is referring to pre-chilled lilies. They do splendid planted in spring. Here are some Yelloween I planted last April:
Pirl, I am referring to the pre-cooled ones. They bloom the first year, but the main reason is that I have the full seasons growth on them before going into winter and get a better survival rate that way. Especially with the more tender ones like the Orientals.
revclause, why do you think yours were not as good as they would have been if planted in the fall?
Not enough time to develop good root system.
I've planted many lilies in October and November and always had blooms the next year but it might be the difference in zones.
Mine always do better fall planted, even in this winter wonderland. Can't say that I have ever (knock on wood here ;) ) had one that was fall planted that didn't come up nicely in the spring. There seem to be more offerings in the spring, otherwise I'd pick to plant in the fall every time.
It's interesting to hear there are different experiences out there.
Hi Mags,
prior to this last spring I would agree that I've rarely if ever had 'no-shows' when fall planted. This year was no different except for the fact that all of those who chose to 'rise early' were nailed by the hard freeze and did not reappear when the weather stabilized. I'm hoping they are just waiting for spring to try again.
I guess I didn't count last spring, as it was highly unusual. Heck, I would have popped my head out too, if I was an oriental on the south east side of the house and it hit eighty degrees. Mine turned to mush (the stem) even covered with that 18 degree three day snap.
I would say though, that it effected all of my lilies. Whatever chose to go nuts on those warm days never saw a bloom due to being frozen out early. 'King Kong' was one of those. So bummed about that one... Hope it makes it up this year.
llilyfan, we must cross our fingers that doesn't happen again this year. One thing is going for us this year, a large blanket of snow to protect them thus far.
I've planted many lilies in October and November and always had blooms the next year
How about a normal winter? Snow cover is getting thin out there and we have upper 30's and 40's forecast for later this week. Eek....
I'm not sure I agree with, or maybe don't understand your statement, Leftwood, about making no difference if planted in spring or fall, as to survival. I do know the orientals I plant in the fall have limited success, where the ones I plant in spring do come back the next year. I do a lot of lilies in pots, over winter, and they do much better planted in the spring. It doesn't seem to make much difference with the asiatics and LAs. I feel the orientals are doing better as they are having a chance to establish themselves before winter comes.
Also what you said about :
"However for most lilies, planting in the fall before (rather than spring) will produce a more hefty, vigorous plant the following spring, and better flowers."
I have found if you fertilize them again in the fall, as you would normally do when planting them, they seem to do about the same. I see no noticble difference. What would be the reason the fall planted ones would be more vigorous in the spring, than the spring planted ones in the following spring
In that case, wouldn't you think lilies would get weaker as time goes by?
And there's always a chance of bulb rot when planted in the fall in pots depending on the kind of winter we have. When we don't have a lot of snow they do better, even with my drainage schemes in place. Last winter we had an unusual amount of snow and cold, and then in the spring we had torrential rains and late freezes. I had no luck with any fall-planted bulbs last year, but my spring-planted Casa Blancas came up and bloomed just fine. I planted another 200 bulbs in pots this fall and I'm keeping my fingers crossed, although the winter is starting out much like last winter. Normally we don't have a lot of snow at this time of year. But we do now, just like last year only not as much. I'm hoping for the best.
Rev, I don't know how you get so many bulbs in there, but you do it well! I always think of you as our "mad pot lady" ~ in the nicest way, of course. :)
I am sorry if I somehow mistyped. I made no reference to survival being an issue for fall verses spring planting.
The point that I obviously failed to get across is that the number of buds a lily produces in 2008 (for instance) is not dependent on whether a bulb is planted in the spring 2008 or the fall 2007. It is dependent on the growth of the lily in the growing season (i.e. spring/summer/early fall) of 2007.
My wanted-to-be clarification was prompted by the previous statement I had quoted.
I've planted many lilies in October and November and always had blooms the next year
However for most lilies, planting in the fall before (rather than spring) will produce a more hefty, vigorous plant the following spring, and better flowers.
Rick,
You didn't mistype. I mistyped. You made no reference to survival. I misunderstood what you said, with survival on my mind. I apologize for confusing you.
What I did get from your 11:25AM paragraph was that lilies planted in the spring (of say) 2007, will not do as well in the spring of 2008, as lilies planted in the fall of 2007 will do in the fall of 2008. I still wonder about that.
Could you please clarify if that is what you mean? I truly value your opinion. I am not by any means a lily expert. I just jumped into growing them to sell, and really don't have that much experience with them, and anything I can learn will help.
