Lily Fertilizing question.....

Hi All~~

I have been growing Lilies in my garden for many years, but after my new garden went in a couple years ago, I decided to try to really give them what they needed to do well. I've read many articles, a lot of chapters in a bunch of gardening books, and read a LOT of threads here.....but I was wondering what you all feed your lilies at planting time, as well as after they have been in the ground for 2-3 years and beyond. Do you feed them anything special in the spring as they start to break ground? Do you feed anything in particular through spring and summer? And what about Fall as they go to sleep for the winter? I know this is a lot of questions, and have all probably been dealt with here over, and over I just wasn't finding the kind of great info you all always have here!! :-} I have bought a LOT of new bulbs that will be going in the garden this year (Gotta love those DG co-ops!!)and wanted to really grow these Lilies as well as I can.

Thanks in advance for any help with these questions!!

Jamie

Im no expert like lots of folks here,,and I say this with much respect,,,,It may not be the proper thing to do but as soon as the soil is soft,,I poke dents about 3" along my beds,,,I sprinkle bone meal and some allium? acidic stuff,,,and when it rains,,it puddles right in,,and every other year I put mushroom compost on,,about a inch or so...that way my beds stay some what raised..good luck Dee

Hi Dee~~

Thanks for taking a minute to help me out! I appreciate it!! And thanks for the info, it was just was I was looking for.

Have a great weekend!

Jamie

A lot of folks use Osmocote (or something like it) to feed all season. Some also use a general fertilizer is the early Spring as things are emerging and follow with a bloom booster before bud set. It all depends on how much work you want to put into it. I'm pretty lazy myself.

Your lilies will be perfectly fine if you maintain your good soil and work in a little compost once in a while.

last year I did use a bloom booster,,and they were beautiful,,but im not sure If Ill do it every year,,well see!! Dee

Occasionally I've tossed some bone meal around, but not very often. Typically compost is all mine get. Sometimes I see the occasional plant with yellowing foliage (next to dark green happy ones?), and fertilize and water in some epsom salts and usually that does the trick.

Moby, d_lilly, gemini_sage ~~ Thank-you all so much for the input!! I think I will continue to add an inch or two of good compost each spring and again in fall...and adding maybe a bit of bone meal and/or epsom salts as needed, or when I am already doing that for the roses near the lilies. After spending some time on this forum looking at all of your pics....doing what you all are doing can't be anything but a great plan!!

Thanks to all of you!!

Jamie

Hi Jamie, just to provide a little local confirmation, I do just about exactly what Gemini-sage does and it works great for me, too, but I rarely need to add fertilizer. :)

Thanks for the input susybell ~ I appreciate it!

Enjoy your lilies! :)

i use a bulb fertilizer. in the spring before the emerge, before they bud if i remember, but not normally., then after they have bloomed. i do this with all my bulbs. i'll be out throwing around something or other onto the plants during the course of the growing season. then come august i shut off the fertilizers and let them do there dormant thing here. i also mulch my beds every other year, with a good wood mulch.
enjoy your new bulbs, i hope to too
debi z

Jamie
I have had my lilies for a few years now & I just use that Miracle Grow rose Plant Food 18-24-16. It's like 4 bucks at HD or walmart for 1.5 pounds. It's the water soluble stuff. It's not just for roses but all plants & flowers. I use it on everything - even my hostas as they are emerging.

Don't know if it's the 'proper' thing to do, but been working great for me year in & year out so that's what I do.

Good luck & happy blooms!!

Kristy

Hi all~
Thank-you so much for taking the time to let me know what you feed your lilies. I have never been let down by this forum, not once! You all are so helpful and ready to 'lend a hand' so to speak whenever anyone has questions! I really appreciate it! ^_^

I just went through and re-read each post in this thread, and it seems to me that Lilies are very flexible in their feeding requirements, and that as long as we use common sense they will grow well for us under a wide range of feeding schedules and "diets". As long as their basic sunlight, planting depth and drainage needs are provided for that is. It amazes me just how much Lilies add to the garden, and how little they require of us in return. Hard to believe they aren't in every garden...♥

Thank-you all again! I am adding a lot of lilies to my garden this year, many from DG co-ops, and your information will help me grow them better than ever! I am so excited I can hardly wait for them to get here!

Last fall sometime, I read a magazine article about pushing a piece of blackboard chalk next to the bulb when plants start to emerge. Has anyone heard of this, if so, what does the chalk do for the plant?

I sure haven't heard of this -- and I am curious to know what the chalk would be accomplishing? changing the pH of the soil? Adding some mineral Lilies like as they start thier growing season? Can't wait to see if anyone chimes in on this, very interesting!! Do you remember what magazine it might have been? I am going to google this and see what pops - but if you had a guess as to what mag. you read this in it might get better google results.

Thanks for posting this very interesting question! If you remember where you read it please post that, OK?

Jamie

Blackboard chalk is made from gypsum and there is always talk about adding it to soil... http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~linda%20chalker-scott/Horticultural%20Myths_files/Myths/Gypsum.pdf

This would be a good question for Lefty to chime in on ~

I didn't know it was made of gypsum - that would explain why it would be helpful to put it in the soil. I always see gypsum at nurseries and many people I know swear by adding it to garden beds, borders, the lawn, vegatable beds, etc.... Very interesting that chalk is made of it!

Thanks Moby for letting us know, and the link! I am going to go check it out!

Jamie

While blackboard chalk does seem to be made of gypsum now, this application method, to me, is ridiculous. Knowing that gypsum has its benefits only when assimilated (spread all around) into the soil, why would anyone apply it in a form that would take years to begin do its job?

I am also not totally convinced that blackboard chalk is only gypsum. It could possibly still be calcium carbonate (lime) instead of calcium sulfate (gypsum), or a mixture, and who knows what additives it might have in it. Dry wall is predominantly gypsum too, and is not recommended as a soil ammendment.

Better (and cheaper) to buy the gypsum specifically produced for the purpose.

Thanks Leftwood - I was a little sceptical about the article. I cannot remember the magazine the article was in. It had to either be Garden Design or Fine Gardening, the only two I read cover to cover. I'm thinking it was Fine Gardening, because they have a section in the front devoted to Gardeners' hints and tips. There have been a few "spacey" ideas in there, but I always read it because I do sometimes find a useful idea. I seem to recall the writer made a comment about timed release. I don't remember anything about size of piece of chalk. I was thinking of experimenting with a couple of my lilies just for kicks. It probably would not hurt them, but thanks to you I see it would be a waste of time and I've already done enough of that in my life!! These days I don't even buy a calendar until January, no need get something I may not need!

I was at a lily show a few years back and overheard a woman ask about fertilizer. I was standing right there so I listened. The man was well respected and others listened too.
He said he had tried expensive fertilizers and mixes but kept looking for the right one. He was told to use milorganite from LOWES and just follow the directions. He said he tried it and uses nothing else as it was so good on the lilies and even tried on other plants.
Off to LOWES I went and did as it instructed. No mixing or long drawn out instructions. The color of the leaves and flowers was more prominent and bigger. I also tried it on my perennials and it was great. The only problem is the odor is like a sewer. After you water, the odor stays awhile and then is gone. My daughter now uses it and nothing else. Her flowers are gorgeous, the bananas, elephant ears, and even shrubs are doing great.
Perhaps you might want to try it but do not add extra, just follow the directions.
Lynn

I understand that it will also help to deter deer... :)

Nothing wrong with reading "spacey" commentary, as long as you have a discerning mind.

Of course, you can get Milorganite in many other stores besides Lowes. An advantage of the product is that it will contain many microorganisms, etc. that were alive when the sewage was boken down. Out of the millions and millions (I feel like Carl Sagan) of them, some are bound to come back to life to enrich the soil fauna, helping to balance the soil ecosystem. That's a good thing.

Milorganite has a very low nutient content compared to chemical fertilizers, and release them much more slowly. So that is not a contributing factor in your reports of success. More likely though, the advantage you are seeing is addition of certain heavy metals contained in Milorganite to your soil. It is probable that one or more of these, although not lacking, were a limiting factor in optimal growth of your and your daughter's plants.

But these heavy metals don't leach through the soil. Concentrations can build up in time and possibly become toxic. A reason for your wise advice not to apply more than recommended. And even though they are absolutely necessary for plant growth, plants use them in extremely tiny amounts. It is my suggestion that you will get the same "wonder effects" from an every other year application of milorganite, with inbetween times using whatever other fertilizer you want.

I've heard you could use chalk sticks to help raise the ph for particular plants. I know someone out this way who uses it with her Hellebores.

Leftwood, what exactly do you mean by "spacey" commentary?
Lynn

Lynn~
I think Leftwood was just commenting on the above quote from a post zorba wrote a couple back.....is this right Leftwood? I wasn't trying to speak for you, I apologize if this is out of turn! Just saw the quote and thought I could answer Lynn's question... :-)

Leftwood~
I was also thinking chalk had to have something other than just gypsum in it! I was curious about what it would do to help the soil, or how it would possibly benefit the lily bulb so I googled several combos of the words chalk, lily, garden,soil etc... and didn't find anything helpful at all. It seems to me with gypsum so readily available and inexpensive, that if someone felt they needed the benefits it provides, bagged gypsum would be the way to go.

And your drywall comment cracked me up! I have a retired neighbor who uses all sorts of interesting things in his garden, and always has a bag or box or spray bottle of something in his hand treating this plant or that bug he found. He is quite the character and is forever coming over when I am out working in the front yard telling me how I should be doing whatever it is I am working on ... :-} He lives alone, and is lonely and just likes to talk and I always like to hear what he's up to. I decline politely, but love to hear his latest trick for his garden. He'll offer to spray my roses with this or sprinkle that around my Hostas. He does the tuna cans of beer for slugs (a lot of tuna cans), the egg-shells and coffee grounds and banana peels mounded near this plant or that, tin foil and/or copper strips around his primroses and Hosta. He once heard hair has nitrogen or something and now he gets hair when he gets his hair cut and puts it in the hole when he plants. Right now he is using half-buried gallon milk jugs all over his garden beds for something (maybe to slowly let water out into a bed??), kinda looks like he is trying to grow milk....LOL He hasn't gotten to tell me about them yet! But I got a picture in my minds eye of him hearing about the chalk, and thinking if chalk works, well then let's break up this left-over drywall and bury it in the flower beds with the milk-jugs....LOL ^_^

Thank-you all so much for all the wonderful thoughts and tips for the fertilizing lilies question! I love reading them all!
Jamie

Yes Jamie, that's right about the "spacey". What I meant was, that reading really wacky ideas is fine, as long as you do it with a discerning mind. In other words, don't believe it just because it is in print. Decide for yourself.
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Gypsum does not appreciably change the pH of the soil. So unless blackboard chalk is made of calcium carbonate (lime) there would be no effect. If we are to believe what we find on the net, and I have no reason not to, blackboard chalk is not made of lime anymore. Yes, lime does leach through soils, but that takes years.

Even if chalk was made of calcium carbonate, this would be a pretty stupid way to raise soil pH. The soil immediately surrounding the stick would have a very high pH, while the soil farther away would not experience a change in pH at all.

Anyway, although there are a few species lilies that do prefer high pH soil, most lilies, and certainly the hybrids most people grow, want a neutral to slightly acidic pH soil. Although they can be pretty adaptable, trying to raising the pH just doesn't make sense.

Regarding hellebores, I am not an expert, but they do not require alkaline soil. However, maybe a certain species does. One of the largest hybridizers of hellebores is in West Virginia, growing hellebores in natural woodland forest. The soils there are definitely not alkaline.

I'm not a hellebore expert either. But, I do think that I've read that they prefer alkaline soil. However, I have also read that they're very adaptable. I'll maybe toss a little lime and calcium towards my Hellebores, but just once when I plant them-and only if I remember. I'm fairly casual about it. But, then, I do like my lilies better than my hellebores. If they bloomed at the same time, there'd be no contest. ;)

And, as far as some of the Fine Gardening tips, yeah, I'd agree- I've definitely been surprised by some odd things that they considered to be tips...of course, I can't remember any of them now...

It seems that it had been a general practice in the past to plant hellebores in alkaline soil, and so it lives on. I am not surprised that you did read it somewhere. But it has been proven false myriads of times. I don't know where this advice would come from in the first place. Hellebore mecca is centered around where my European relatives are from: the Balkans. While the mountains there are made of limestone, the rich composty forests/meadows where hellebores grow are definitely not alkaline.

I'm actually pleased to hear this, as my soil most decidedly is not alkaline and they've seemed pretty happy. I've actually wondered why they were doing as well as they were if they did require alkaline soil. So, that's settled-let's talk about lilies!!! :) How are yours coming along?

Hi Susy~
I am so happy with my lilies this year! I followed some of the great advice on this thread and just gave them all a really good quality compost mulch. The ones that hadn't done great last year got a small bit of a good, balanced organic fertilizer as well when they started to poke through the soil. I am amazed at how well they are all doing this year! I have some that tripled in quantity since last season, and the size of some of these stalks - the diameter of them is massive!! I can hardly wait to see the flowers this summer! One of the stalks of my Pink Perfection is almost as big around as a banana - 2-3 times as thick as last year. Maybe the third year is when they really hit thier stride, I don't know, but I find myself out checking them every day to see what's coming up, how they're doin' and how many little noses are peeking up through the soil! How are yours doing Suzy? Do you have some new ones that will be blooming for the first time this year? I got a bunch through a co-op here on DG and am so looking forward to seeing those new ones!!Sorry - got off the topic of fertilizing but am back on track talking about lilies... :-}

I am so excited for summer!!

Jamie

Hi Jamie, no, we're the ones who got off topic, this is your thread, do talk about your lilies! So glad to hear you're going to have a great year! Isn't it neat to see how well they can do here with just a little compost? Plus, there's a reason so many lily companies are in this part of the country-they like it here...

The waiting to see new ones is agonizing, but fun, too. I'm out there watching them every day to see how much they've grown. Mine are doing really well so far. I think our wonderful weather earlier this week helped persuade the rest of mine to pop up, so I think they're all up now, except for some late purchases this spring. So, yes I have added some new ones, and I'm hoping to see a couple that didn't get to bloom last year as well. (darned cold spring, squirrels and slugs...) What new ones are you waiting for?

Hi Susy~
I agree with you that the sun earlier this week really got things goin' in the garden!! I take my morning cup of coffee and go walk the beds and borders every morning, and there is so much goin' on I find it hard to go to work -- want to get in there and weed, prune, plant, play....anything to be out in the garden instead of a dental office... :-} I would love to know what your newest lilies are - and which ones you are most excited about for this summer! I have rarely had a group of plants grab me as much as lilies - maybe daylilies and roses in past years, but these lilies - the ease of care they require is amazing! The non-existent pruning, spraying, maintenance, and the sheer beauty of the flowers and the beautiful fragrance of many of them has completely captivated me, and made this a lasting addiction I think! I love how small the space required to tuck 3-5-7 lilies in a spot allows them to be placed in so many places, in and amongst so many other plants! And they are so easy to share with friends, family, fellow gardeners and visitors to the garden, as they multiply suprisingly well in a lot of cases. Ok, here is my list of new lilies ......keep in mind I really got bitten by the Lily bug this last summer, so this is a big list (by my normal plant buying habits!!) of new lilies in my garden! But here they are:
Black Beauty
Arena
Mother's Choice
Justina
Red Dutch
Landini
Chianti
Angelique
Farilito
Merostar
Show Winner
Tiger Woods
Robina
Centerfold
Crenum
Muscadet
Sombrero
Dream Catcher
Royal Present
Urandi

These are all the new ones I am dying to see this year, and a few probably next year. I got them from several trades here on DG, Many are from a co-op here as well. It will be a joy to walk the garden and see these new beauties bloom, many alongside my old favorites!!
Enjoy your weekend!
Jamie

I'm looking forward to my lilies this year as I have a few new ones - mainly species types. I usually feed my plants and bulbs with pelleted chicken manure in spring - better do that this weekend then!

Isn't it fun to have a new plant to see bloom the first time?! I hope you will share pics with us when they bloom - which lilies are new to you this year?

Do you use the chicken manure on many plants you grow, or specifically lilies?? I don't think I have ever seen that product here - it must be a sort of processed manure formed into an easier to deal with and apply pellet?? Sounds like something many plants would love, not to mention what a nice, safe, non-chemical fertilizer for the garden! Thanks for letting me know what you feed your lilies!

Have a great weekend!
Jamie

Wow, Jamie, fabulous list! Yeah, I'm an addict just like you-wonder if we could find each other's houses just by driving around and sniffing in, say, July, LOL! (You don't want to know that The Lily Pad is at the Clark Co PUD Home & Garden Fair and has some nice lilies discounted, do you???? bwahahaha.....)
I've gone a little overboard on lilies for the size of my yard, I think (I'm hoping that's not actually possible, though-LOL). I will need to rearrange some this fall-and definitely separate a few.
Yesterday I added Eyeliner (Asiatic) and Lilium Cernuum(species) -I was supposed to be done, oh well-need to get those planted ASAP
I've also added
Royal Sunset
Dusty Rose
Space Mountain
Summer Palace
Louis XIV
(I'm not counting ones that I've just added more of, like Mondriaan and Rio Negro...)

Sounds like I should tell you about PNWLS-Pacific Northwest Lily Society. They have bulb sales twice a year, great prices, a couple of events or meetings, but it's not a huge time commitment, and usually some kind of summer event and a winter tour of a lily grower in Oregon who does cut flowers. Their membership is very reasonable-$15/yr Here's the website: http://www.pnwls.org/index.html
Lots of DG folks are members-it's the only regional lily society that doesn't require its members be local. In fact, that's how I heard about it-either Magnolialover or Pardalinum told me about it. Magnolialover helps with the lily sale web pages, and I've been helping pack up the sale orders.

The pelleted manure is completely organic which is why I use it. It's easy to apply and can be used on all of my plants. Interesting to hear what everyone else uses and here's hoping for a bumper lily season :)

Oh Susy~

This is one of the things I love about DG! Even though we live in the same town, it takes DG to give youa chance to tell me about the PNWLS - and me a chance to jump at joining!! I am going to the website now, and would love to get involved with it!! If you need any more help with packing bulbs or any other kind of hands on help, let me know. I will volunteer on the site or where ever after I join. Thank-you for mentioning it, and giving the link!!

I like all the lilies you mentioned. There are a couple I haven't heard of and am going to look up - I always do that with lilies - just have to see 'em :-) I have so many coming from a DG co-op, and it's sure getting late in the spring for when I usually plant lilies. But I will hopefully get to see a few of them bloom this year, and will have a LOT to look forward to next year! I didn't plan on going to the Home and Garden Fair this year, money is tight and I was gonna be good and avoid temptation - but I probably will loose my will power and go. Big wimp, that's me! No Backbone when it comes to staying away from something like that. I will for sure go see The Lily Pad booth if (when) I go! Was B&D Lilies there too?

I'm off to the link you gave - excited to go check it out!! ☻
Jamie

Speaking of PNWLS... on their 'Humor' page is this http://www.pnwls.org/id19.html

Just for kicks I got a sample and it smells great! lol

Lol, Moby, thanks for posting that...Glad someone had the courage to sample it...

Jamie, oh, so cool that you're excited about PNWLS! Beware, it will take your addiction to a whole new level-just wait....but at least the prices are good. :)
Most of your lilies probably will bloom but be really late-but lucky you-you'll get to extend your bloom season.
Sorry to tempt you about the show-I understand, I have no willpower either. No, B&D Lilies isn't here this time-at least that reduces the "danger" somewhat. :) (Van Veen is, but I don't buy lilies from them anymore. I haven't been impressed with them. )

Galanthophile, I don't think I've ever seen pelleted chicken manure, either. It sounds like a great product. I usually buy either straight manure or a compost blend that has a manure mixture in it.

This is the chicken manure I use http://www.dobbies.co.uk/acatalog/westland-organic-chicken-manure.html