A Fall day in the garden....

Last weekend found me facing a big pile of lilies in my garage. Where did they all come from?
Trades I forgot about, The Lily Society Show in Des Moines, llilyfan's harvest and Bloomingbulb's replacements!

Got out my gloves, my favoirte shovel, my garden markers and my grody garden shoes....

And can't forget my music--Tina Turner! Amazing Rythm Aces! Linda Rondstadt and more...

Wanda,
I was wondering why I had'nt seen you post in a while. I see you have been doing some digging there girl.
Winnie

Waanda 5a, bliss. Would love to have your temp s today - as am watching the odd flake drift past windows.

Glad you are in 5a, stil in warm weather. Not like us. Most -not all- of our lilies are safely tucked into bed for the winter. You have quite a job ahead of you.

Presume you are taking off a few scales from each so you can increase speedily.

My silly story. When cleaning up a couple of weeks ago, found a paperbag with very very dried out scales. I soaked them, chloroxed and rinsed them and then put into baggie of peat moss to start growing babies. Guess what. They have all grown fungus. ie: rotted. Oh well. Found out you can't do that.

Inanda

Inanda, it was worth a try!

I got all the bulbs into the ground & well marked. Everything is mulched under 4-5 inches of wood chips plus another 4-5 inches of chopped up leaves. Hopefully, they'll all sleep until May...

It chilled off last night to another hard freeze & 25 degrees. Chilly 40s today & warmer tommorrow. I think we've had the last of our nice weather for this year.

Just looked at my database--112 lilies clumps out there? darn. Funny how these things multiply when I'm not looking!

LOL, love your 'grody gardening shoes'. Wow, that's a heck of a lot of bulbs! Only planted 6 new ones this year, 2 asiatics, 2 orientals, 1 hybrid and a martagon. It's cold and windy here today and the first flakes fell for a short while. I'll soon have to put away my grody gardening shoes too!

Sandy

I too added lots of lilies this year, about 15 varieties. Mostly orientals, some asiatics, trumpets and orienpets. I love martagons. Do any of you have a good source for them.

Lily Nook has many martagons, but they're done shipping for this year and they won't be available again until next Fall. http://www.lilynook.mb.ca/Catalog/martagon.htm

Here is another possibility ~ http://www.bdlilies.com/l4027.html

Wanda, its 64 here today, so went out and planted 15 lily bulbs from Blooming bulbs plus spread 4 large loads of wood chips on one lily bed. still have one more lily bed to cover with chips. Then its on to cleaning up the rest of the flower beds and spread wood chips on them.
Hopefully I will have a better spring if we decide to go tripping in early March.

wanda--just a lily question slightly off topic--so do you put altogether 9 inches of mulch on your newly planted bulbs in addition to the soil? Should I be doing that too?

Thanks. t.

I'm mulching my lilies heavily this year in an attempt to keep them from coming up until AFTER our last frost in late April. I lost 1/2 my lilies to hard frosts last year. The wood chops will clump with ice/snow and make a layer 2-3 inches thick. The leaves will mulch down to 1-2 inch layer hopesfully sealing in the bulbs farther.

Iowa weather is very changeable in March & April. We can have 70 degrees & sunshine one day and 30 degrees & snow the next . My TB iris are fine unless the forming buds freeze--like last year. My daylilies are usually okay except for the evergreens which sometimes turn to a mush. The other perennials fare well, but the lilies only have one chance to come up properly. I'm hoping the extra mulch will give me an edge. I'll let you know if it works next year....

The chips do work, Wanda. I have had them on mine for the past 2 yrs. and am hoping to finish today. If youngest son comes down and runs the bobcat to load chips for me in trailor.

By the way, we had 60 here yesterday. Strange weather. Talking snow for this area as I am sure you have heard.

Yes strange weather this year, but what you say makes sense to deal with it.

The woodchips would seem to be a good cover to retard lily growth. Will try it here, too.

Thanks for the tip. t.

What a difference a day makes here in Wisc. We finished putting the wood chips on the lily beds this morning in a cold wet rain. We did get wet, but water never hurts any one.
Think the temp was around 38 to 40.
Now the sun is shining.

Yes ~ what a difference a day makes! 74° yesterday, 52° today. brrr.....

47 degrees and I have ONE more lily bulb to plant--I think Tazzy sent it to me just for harrassment....

Don't worry Wanda ~ no good deed go unpunished. ;)

coldest darn day all year and mail from Moby
guess what ?
lilys to plant BRRR... and thank you .
Will thank you more after i get feeling back in my frozen nose .

heh, heh.....

Tazzy, see--no good deed goes unpunished. "Giraffe" got buried yesterday, finally. Gets dark so early here now and I had to wait to see where I had a barer spot of soil....

Here are my last blooms of mums as the snow began to fall last Friday.

eek the S word No ! No !
we haven't had rain in forever but it has got BRR