First Time trying Gloriosa Lillies

I have three tubers and need to know how deep to plant them and do I plant them on their sides or straight up and down? They came with no instructions through mail order.

Thanks Gary

Oh, you reminded me that I have to get mine planted. The way I plant them is I look for the "eye". It should be on the end of the tuber and red or pink. I plant them vertically with the eye up. I put them in pots and plant them two inches below the surface, then I am very careful to not overwater. They rot easy. As soon as you see foliage, then step up the water. I pull mine from the pots in fall and overwinter in a box with peat moss, I replant them in spring, glad I saw this, lol. Be sure to give them something to climb up, they will climb up using the tips of their leaves, they can get over five feet. I use a regular pottng soil and light fertalizer once the foliage emerges.
Rebecca

I can never tell. I plant them flat. just to make sure they will be OK. I usuually THINK the slightly pointy end is the growing end but then panic a bit and plant flat for another year. I love them. They really are spectacular.

inanda

I always plant them horizontally 2" below the soil in large pots. I still attempt to line the eye up. I leave mine in their pots overwinter in basement and re-pot next month for summer bloom. It's curious, but when I do re-pot them, they've often migrated mysteriously into a vertical position.

Thanks everyone. Wow jmorth those are beautiful how many tubers do you have in that pot?

I usually put 3 large and a couple of small tubers in 17 to 20" pots.
This picture illustrates a pot of gloriosas in a full bloom rush eariler in the season.

Stunning!!! What kind of support to you recommend?

Here's our newest trellis, style is Franl Lloyd Wright, I think.
This one was found in a shop next to Mo. Botanical Gardens in St Louis.

OOooo, very cool!

Oh yeah, nice trellis!! As soon as the roofers get done making a mess of my yard, I'll be able to go get some new trellises for the West porch and the South sun porch!! Yippee Skippie!!!!! Ok, maybe I better wait till the stucco guy and the painters get done first.... :)

Diann

I have to say, I have yet to make use of the trellises that I have. From morning glories to clematis, I seem to fail at the climbers. Yet I see sooooooooo many beautiful trellisy doodads and people that have great success. I must say, my actually dream would be to have a climbing rose here, but if I can't get the obviously easier typ[e climber to do it gracefully, than how can I expect a rose?
Ticker, you sound like you're gonna have a lot of trellis fun this summer.

Mags, you just got to get the kind of roses you can't kill. :) Look for Buck Roses, Canadian Explorer Roses, and Mordern?? Roses.. The last two were hybridized in Canada (duh, that explains the Canadian in the Canadian Explorer name) and the first was hybridized at Iowa State University by Prof. Griffith Buck. Also, try to get roses that are grown on their own root and not grafted onto root stock. :)

Now, back to Lilies. :)

Diann

I live in the deep, deep south and gloriosa lilies are one of the easiest things I grow, I plant them in my flower beds that are rich w/ homemade compost and they go crazy! I started out w/ 2 tubers and they have multiplied like crazy, they are sprouting up every where around the original planting site. I never need to dig them up so they come up really early in spring. So many people have seen these and think they are so beautiful and delicate,but they are tough as nails. I just lay them horizonally and they work out which end goes up and which goes down! Kat

I planted 5 Gloriosa Lilies according to jmorth's suggestion (I'm deeply grateful) in big pots last month. I believe one of the shoot is trying to break thru. It looks about a pencile thick and light green, I'm so excited. Coult that be it? I can't hardly wait.

No sign of Glory lily sprouting yet since March. The weather is no longer cold, what little sprout I saw on last posting, wilted, and felt off. Am I losing my tubers? I am tempted to dig them up to inspect, but afraid I'll disturb the root system (if there is any)? Need advices.

No sign of mine either. I think the harsh cold snap may have gotten them along with every thing else.

Oohhh, I was afraid of that. I'm on my quest for more tubers. gldandrews; where did you get your tubers? Were you happy with your order? I'd like others to share their opinions as to where is a reliable source for these precious plants/tubers.
Kim

Lily-love,
I order mine from Touch of Nature,Inc. They are gardan watchdog with a 100% rating. was very pleased with the tubers and can't bet the price.

Gary

Isn't it funny, that's where I got mine. Thanks Gary. It's in my neighboring State Ga. so hope I can have them ship ASAP for planting.

Lily where I'm at in NC is in the far western County (cherokee Co.) which border North Georgia. We both ordered from the same company and both live in neighboring state/ Oooohweeeeooooh! LOL

I'm glad to have found you, neighbor! Ooooooooyesssssssss! LOL. Hey, it's time to get out to the garden, I'll keep you posted on my Glory Lilies, will you do the same with yours?
Kim

will do. I'm at work so no gardening for me today!!!!!

For those of us that are new to Glory Lily, (include myself). I think some of mine is getting ready to pop up. I tried to dress up the bare looking pot where I planted my Gloriosa rothschildiana, and found its nose under two inches of the top. Talking about excitement. Yahoooo, they're coming. Yippie!! ... and they're taking their sweet time too, it's been days and it hasn't surface (but I knew, it's there). :-)
BTW, goldandrew; has your garden recoop? I do hope so neighbor. I've a dogwood that looks very stress, I may wind up losing it. :( My friends' garden looks tired after the frost, one of her Wisteria even sufferred (usually those thing were hard to rid off, otherwise).

I planted mine in my hanging baskets and every year they come up and climb the hangers or hang over the sides. Stunning!

I am totally new to gloriosa lilies. I got two bulbs from a co-op this year. I am trying to start them in plastic bags with a little dirt and not much water. Really, I promise, not much water.

This is how I encourage dahlias and thought it might work for this. Anyway, they are rotting and I don't have much hope for them. I so wanted these to grow.

I guess I was not meant to have these. ;-(

Susan
=^..^=

Gloriosa tubers are a favorite food of my squirrels.They have not reappeared this spring so I think they got et yet again.

I really like the idea of planting them in a hanging basket.The first year I had them in a pot but I was told that they really multiply in the ground.I moved them last year and they did very well but have not appeared this year.I hope Bleek (touch of nature) still has some.Once you have grown them you can't be without them.

Touch of Nature indicates that this tubers needed to be lifted in our zones for the winter. Unless they were planted in subtropical climate. Just my though, btw, I've one that's growing a couple inches. I'm so proud. Tickled pink. Hope those squirels leave my tubers alone, or Else. :-)

Hey Andrew! Holler, holler!!!!
How on earth are your Glory lily's tubers doing?
How are you?

Hi everyone,
3 out of my 5 Glory Lily tubers sprouted, they're 3-5 inches tall. Looking healthy. Will post more pic. and report progress.

Mine are doing NOTHING. One is rotted and the other is just sitting there.

What should I do?????

Susan
=^..^=

Susan;
Jmorth is an experienced Glory lily grower. By my limited experiences, a well drainage growing medium would help. Also, zonal differences speaks volumn. (Yours maybe just a little behind mine) For most of my DGers in warmer climates perennials are in full blooms compared that to mine whose are in buds stages. At the mean time, keep them protected from squirrels.
Kim

BTW, if your other tuber that rotted shared the same pot. I would dig up the healthy tuber. Give it a good fungicide drench. Repot it in a good growing medium. Besure to water it throuroughly, place the pot in a sunny site where it gets ALOT of sunshine. And keep your wiskers...I meant fingers crossed. :-)
Kim

LOL, they are in plastic baggies right now. I was trying to get them to eye up like dahlias.

Is that a bad thing to do?

Susan
=^..^=

Good question, Susan. I've not had much experiences with dahlias, either. Only I know FER-sure; plastic will hold too much moisture, and Glory tubers requires well-drainage potting medium. jmorth uses "miracle grow" potting soil. I use Promix, his result is fantastic. Mine, is a way before I can rip the result.
Hey, maybe you give me tips on growing dahlias. :-)

Ok, here is my baby-Glory lily;

The eye on the gloriosa tuber is at the end of the tuber. It signals it's readiness to begin new growth by taking on a pinkish color tone. I tend to think the trigger for this is more from an internal timer than an enviornmental stimuli, possibly rooted in its rest period length. Careful examination of that tuber end often reveals which way to initially place the tuber as you want that eye pointing up. The eye could be compared to a small triangle (in a crude sort of way) that sort of tapers upward, that is the way the plant will send up it's shoot. When able to ascertain that direction I arrange the tuber horizontally on the growing medium so the triangle points up, insert a trellis (so as not to spear the tubers), and cover tuber with a couple inches of soil.
Most of the pots I've prepared are sending up shoots, some just peeking through, some up a couple of feet. The shoot won't set flowers till it divides into two horizontally inclined branches.
I'm intrigued by gardenerme's habit of growing some in a hanging basket. I'll have to try that.

jmorth; it's nice to have you visit. Please post pics. and share with us your beautiful Glory lilies this year.

Gloriosa's early growth. This year I've a dozen large pots of them. The remainder will be placed in the ground next to a fence and I hope to yet make a hanging basket.

jmorth;
Do you grow your G.L. tubers in succession? I've several large basket I'd like to try them out myself this year. Those look much taller than mine, there goes my zonal differences in growing stages hypothesis!
Kim

Kim,
It's a succession in as much it might take a few weeks to finally finish the task of depotting and repotting. This year I started April 20th. I've still got a few to do, these are the broken legs with eyes, smaller tubers, and questionables; these will all go outside. These should do well enough to peak interest wherever planted but won't be as intense as the potted show.
I usually enjoy a blooming period from 2nd week in June well into September with July and August having the heaviest concentration.
J