I need help regarding surprise lilies aka Lycoris squamiger

I had some surprise lilies in my yard, my mother told me that the ugly foliage was daffodils. They had never bloomed. I dug them up about a week ago. There was no bulb it was a tuber on the end of foliage. I just threw them over into a bed I was going to redo. They have laid there on top of the ground with no cover. Now today where I dug them up I have 7 stalks of surprise lilies in bloom. I am assuming thats what the ugly strappy foliage was from but were too crowded to bloom before.

My question is this.....Are the tubers laying out ruined, or can I store them until next spring and plant them? How do I store? Or should I go ahead and get them divided and planted now?

LB - WELCOME from across the state line!!

I'd replant them as soon as they are done blooming (best to enjoy the blooms you have right now). They will put up foliage in Spring which dies back and then suddenly in mid-late summer you have these bloom stalks shoot up from no where hence the name "Surprise Lily".

They don't like to be planted too deeply, I believe, top 1/2" or so of the bulb above ground. Although one of the PDB comments says if you plant them deeply (7" or so) they won't need dividing as often. Here's a link to them in the PDB:

http://plantsdatabase.com/go/517/index.html

Again....glad to see another "Kansas Citian" on DG -- we're pretty few in number.

Brenda

Thanks for the reply and link!

I plant mine about 4" deep at the least. Those things multiply like crazy! Right now I have about 50 of them I need to give away, get planted somewhere or something. We have lots of them already and love them so I may just replant them . These were moved from an old house on our property since it was abandoned and it seemed such a waste to leave them there any longer. We think my husband's grandmother may have planted the first ones on the property. Or maybe his mother. But they have been around as long as he can remember(he is 68).

leaflady - I'd love to have some of your bulbs if you need to thin them out. I got some from PotEmUp last year but never got leaves this year and no blooms! :-( I had heard they need the top of the bulb at ground level so maybe that was my mistake (not deep enough). I know we met at the get together at Tracy's last summer but for the life of me I can't think where Hughesville is. Which direction from KC (I know you do work at Powell so you have to be somewhere in that direction). I'll be going to Powell either next weekend or the following for the Butterfly Festival.

I always plant my Naked Ladies/Surprise lilies 3 times the diameter of the bulb. The big ones went down 6 inches and are blooming fine.

If you plant them shallow, all you get are "Hussy Toes" instead of full Naked Ladies. (Ask Moby!)

well i'm chuckling again hussy toes dear dear.. i guess better buy some red polish to... pretty.. mine were planted deep no toes came up darn...

Well, you just never know what you're going to get when you plant something in Dave's garden...