Lilies a year from seed in flower Part 2

Full on

Oh, so lovely!! I just can't wait till my trumpets decide to bloom. Mine were bulbs, I don't have near the patience or skill to raise them from seed. :) Keep the pictures coming, please. :)

'Twas easy Ticker! :~)

One more today, George Slate x davidii. Coming close to the end I think for the quick bloomers.

I think all the descriptive terms have been used! Exquisite photo!

One more for you wallaby, picturesque.

More stunning beauties from your magic stick!

I'm really amazed that your L .regale makes so many buds being from a 1-year old seedling!!!

Mine, which was bought as a potted-up bulb of considerable size last year in autumn, (it had many dried-up seedpods), only made one big flower, perhaps because it had been half eaten-up in spring..

Thanks llilyfan and magnolia!

It is amazing bonitin, one has 4 buds, they were a good size when I repotted them in early March but still only small compared to the big mature bulbs. Most about 1 inch in diameter or less, that's 30mm! They have also been outside since they were repotted. The label is 5", 125mm, they are in a half size seed tray. Wish I had a magic stick to do all the work, lol.

They look very healthy!
As you sowed them on the 14 th of Aug.2007 (on the label) did they make leaves and did these leaves stayed green during the winter? I'm sorry that this may sound stupid but I'm completely ignorant about growing lilies from seed, just curious to know.. So when you took the pic of the small bulbs in March they were only 7 months old..

It was 14th March, so they were just under a year then from sowing. I kept them in the greenhouse over winter, I don't remember exactly when they died back but it would have been in late autumn I think. Some kept their leaves over winter.

Can I please share my seedling that I got to bloom in one year? I just noticed it hiding in back of some other seedlings. Bought it from Buggy Crazy and it was some of the first seed I tried.

Lilium formosanum var. pricei

By all means magnolia, well done! My formosanum v. pricei didn't grow. :(

This is L. regale I took a couple of days ago.

Way to go, magnolia! Congratulations! You should be all pumped up now to grow even more lilies from seeds!

These are happy L.regale wallaby!
Lovely magnolia! Congratualtions from me too!

Thanks you guys. You're all my inspiration, really. I don't have your magic, but the very fact that seeds really do work! is enough for me. I've even done a couple of crosses this year. Time will tell. I've enjoyed these seed threads immensely.

Pssssssssst... Mag's husband built her a room in their basement for her to start her scales and seeds. It is child and kitty proof, mostly kitty proof, since her sweet little girls will probably be right down there helping her scale and sow those seeds. It's going to be fun to watch and see what she does now that she has her own "Lily Laboratory!" :)

Congratulatory salutations, Magnolia!
And extra kudos on your hybridizing endeavor. I have been hand pollinating up a storm here, but so many are really wild and crazy (flash on Steve Martin and Dan Akroyd). I don't expect to much out of them, but you never know. Always keep that brush and tinfoil at the ready . . . .

And as usual, Wallaby, what would we expect, other than the ahhhhhhhh... factor?

You guys are sweet. Look what you've done to me.

Speaking of wild crosses, well, I might be there too. I have no idea who is a tetra and who is sterile, for the most part. Some of the data I have tried to get from the Lily Register, but many times unsuccessful. I guess I was just meant to play in pollen, no matter what the outcome.

Question: Once you start this pollination business, how do you stop it? ;) I just finish one and I am off to another. Do I pollute the cross if my hands are clean and I use them instead of a brush? And is it really bad if I don't protect my pollinations? I've marked them, I just don't foil them. If you use foil, when do you remove it? Questions from the resident newbie.

Oh goodie, Magnolia has indeed crossed over! Hey mags, heres what you need to do: this winter spend some time with a pencil and a bunch of little squares of foil. Form the caps over the end of the pencil, toss them all into a cup and voila! you're good to go next year. It's what I call my cup o' caps!

The foil comes off with the stigma when it drops off. So it will fall into your garden under the lily. You want to use foil if you want to be very sure of the cross. I do this on seeds I donate to NALS. Or if I don't do it but still want to donate, in all fairness to the buyers I will describe it as open pollinated. Sometimes in the morning before I go to work, I will cap up a stigma on a lily that is just starting to open and also remove the stamens for later use. At this time the pollen has not been released yet. I'll pollinate and recap in the next day or two.

I store the anthers in labeled microcentrifuge tubes and use the whole anther when I pollinate. Then I discard it. I know, its kind of wasteful.

Well, this is a short lesson on how I do it.

No. But if you use your fingers for more than one pollination, than yes. If you are holding individual anthers, for all practical purposes you are safe with multiple crosses. Especially if you hold the anthers by their filaments(the little "stem" that the anther dangles from).

I do as pard suggests, and protect the stigma before or as the flower opens. Before means peeling the tepals back and removing the anthers to expose the pistil. Supposedly, and in general, the pollen will mature first on a flower, and the stigma(the end of the pistil) will become receptive in another day or two. If the pollen doesn't want to stick on a new flower, try it again the next day or so. For myself, when I am putting on a cap that I know I will need to remove, rather than making a cap, I prefer to kind of just fold it over the pistil to make it easy to remove. And the less you have to dink around to get it off, the less possibility of damaging the pistil. Always be as gentle as you can. Large pistils, like what trumpet lilies would have, would seem almost indestructible, but you may run into some small, rather dainty ones on other hybrids/species.

Flowers I pollinate that had their pistils protected (before and after hand pollination), I mark as clean.
Those that were not initially protected are marked dirty. While I make a distinction for my notes between dirty and open pollinated, as pard says, it is only fair to label them as open pollinated for a seed exchange.

I can't remember if I ever told you I was in healthcare, so like it or not, this technique stuff is well part of my brain matter. So I really do get the dirty pollination business and clean hand importance ;) I'm just more likely to have my hand available than a brush when I am doing my 101 things at once deal.

I doubt if my seeds, dirty or clean will make it into a seed exchange. I'd be too afraid I screwed up, especially in year one.

Thank you for the detailed descriptions of what I should do. You guys have helped a lot. I spent my vacation reading lily books in hopes that when I returned I'd have a better understanding, and I think I do. Thnaks guys for being patient with me too.




This message was edited Jul 7, 2008 7:22 PM

Okay..this is my second and last seedling to bloom in one year. It's from Buggy Crazy and it was darker asiatics times similar. Not too bad, huh?

That is very nice, magnolia. Good job! Buggy has good stuff, doesn't she..

I feel like a kid ...can you believe I did it?? Can you even believe it?

That lily is NOT 'Ebony' or 'Landini' or 'Summer Night' or anybody else. It's unique. Yeah! I did it.

Yay Mags!! You go girl!! :)

Thanks for cheering me on. As you see, it's not without it's struggle, that one bud had something chewing on it one day, before I had to take care of it.

Good for you Mags !!! See . . . . it's not so hard after all.

Next hurdle, your own pollinating.
And your already on your way on that too !!!

Excellent. Most Excellent.

Luck you magnolia, that's a lovely colour!

Thanks wallaby and Lefty. You guys here in Lilyseed Land are quite the inspirations. I feel like a little understudy. I'm not sure if any seed I am collecting will be worthwhile, or worth much of anything, but I will say, it adds a whole new dimension to lily season.