I bought was was supposed to be 8 pips at WM. To me it just looked like one matted up clump. Anyway, Can I pot it and then transplant in March/April when some green shows up? This is my first time w/ this plant. thanks for your help.
Lily of the Valley
I'm guessing that if you tease the clump apart you will find that you indeed have separate pips. You should really try to separate them, as if they are planted in a matted clump they won't do as well as if they have a bit of room.
They should be fine potted up & transplanted; lily of the valley is pretty hard to kill! They might not bloom for a year or two, though.You can plant multiple pips in a pot, just use your judgement according to how much root mass there is & how large your pot is.
When I pot these up to sell in the nursery I usually put 5 or 6 pips in each 6" pot; makes a nice clump and the whole thing can be planted out into the garden & they spread from there.
I see you're in Texas. Will lily-of-the-valley grow well for you there or does it need a winter dormant period (vernalization) in order to bloom? Something in the back of my mind reminds me that my aunt in California had a flourishing patch of non-blooming l-of-the-v and finally decided it wasn't cold enough for it.
Or maybe I'm wrong about that ...
Anyway, best of luck!
This plant is very invasive. Yes, it's pretty, but contain it or it will smother out your other plants - I'm talking from experience!
It depends on the situation it is in. I had a bunch of these here in upstate NY on the north side of the house, and they did spread a lot but didn't bother any other plants.
Our maple trees keep smothering out our lily-of-the-valley. If only the lily-of-the-valley would do the smothering! I'd give anything for some voracious maple tree-eating plants right now... I had such a beautiful clump that I transplanted from my mother's house, and it was reduced to only a few wispy leaves by the end of last season. *sigh*
I'm ashamed to say I've managed to kill off long established healthy lily of the valley plants when I transplanted them to a different spot..... very depressing because in my mind I had the vision of them spreading and filling in the spot. That was two summers past and they never came back.
~Julie
sure sounds like LOV doesn't like to me moved around, lol
At least not in Michigan, lol
I have not found them thuggish in dry shade but if you make them happy, be careful. ;)
Has anyone here grown the pink variety?
Not I, but I am always so tempted when I see it in catalogs... It's just seemed too expensive :( I'd love to hear from someone who has grown that variety.
And if anyone knows how to get LOV to survive huge Silver Maple roots, I'd love to hear about that too :)
When we sold our house we moved the LOV to the cottage, from limestone and elms to granite and pines. It's not happy and I have to think it's the soil acidity it doesn't like. I'm going to try creating a spot with amended, sweeter soil this summer, just to see if it's happier.