Be mindful of lily bulblets.

Oriental bulblets in spring.

As you well know, not all green leaves emerging are weeds.

What are those odd looking single leaves at the base of an established lily?  Lily bulbs have a built in process for creating offspring; tiny nodules may form at the base of the bulb (basal plate bulblets), along portions of the underground stem (stem bulblets), or even with a few Asiatic lilies, at the base of a leaf where it attaches to the above ground stem (aerial bulblets).

The leaves shown in the right photo are of Oriental bulblets.  They typically will be wide and slightly rounded.  The bulblets under ground are not much larger than the eraser on a pencil.




Basal Plate Bulblets

'Candlestick' Basal Plate Bulblets.

This is the most common way for a lily bulb to divide, by simply forming new growth at the bottom of the bulb.

See the three large bulblets at the base of this bulb of 'Candlestick'?  They will put up a small stem, with one flower each.

Asiatic lilies and Lilium longiflorum hybrids are quicker to divide, sometimes three or more new bulbs can form each summer, which may bloom for you the following year. 

'Belonica' double-flowered Oriental.

Oriental Lilies

Oriental lilies can be erratic for propagating, only producing side bulblets on some cultivars if the growing season is good, and enjoying even amounts of moisture, fertilizer and fluffy soil to grow an expansive root system.  The usual method of quickly increasing bulbs is to "scale" the lily in fall, see "Scale Production" on our website.

Most Oriental bulblets grow slower than Asiatic hybrids, usually needing three years of additional care before they mature enough for us to offer on www.bdlilies.com.

'Donato' Orienpet lily.

 

 

OT Lilies

 

OT (Orienpets or Oriental-Trumpet Hybrids) have similar growth patterns as do regular (purebred) Oriental lilies.  They make fewer basal plate and underground stem bulblets (see below), and therefore take longer to propagate commercially.  Most years, bulbs will simply get larger and larger, until they naturally divide into two or three flowering size bulbs.

 

Purebred Trumpet lilies are similar, and after a few years of growing undisturbed, can be the size of a small cantaloupe. 

 
Stem Bulblets - on all types of lily bulbs

Asiatic bulblets along the underground stem.

Attached to the underground stem, and tucked within the new feeder roots produced every year, offshoots (bulblets) are an exact genetic duplicate of the original flowering bulb.  

These are easily removed in fall after the foliage has matured from green to brown and winter is approaching.  Simply pull the old crispy-brown stem out of the ground and gently dig down above the mother bulb to harvest the bulblets.

Choose a protected nursery bed with only 2 or 3 inches of soil covering the tops for the first year.  After the garden has frozen for winter, add a bit of mulch so you do not forget where they are planted. While we are harvesting bulbs in fall, bulblets are saved either for propagation or to sell as a mixed bag of bulblets at flower shows in spring. 

Arial bulblets are the little black colored offshoots that grow at the base of each leaf on an old-fashioned, orange colored tiger lily (Asiatic).  Some modern hybrids that have it in their breeding background will also exhibit this trait.  We do not grow "Tiger" hybrids here, partially because any bulblets that drops off the stem, or are missed during harvest will grow, causing all sorts of havoc.  There would be out of place, rogue lilies in the field two years later as they begin to grow within the carefully planted row.  However, the primary reason for not growing them is because they can be a "Typhoid Mary" in the garden.  See our Knowledge Base, Lilium lancifolium for more information.)

See  Dig 'n Divide - Lilies for Fee - Easy How-to  on our website, www.bdlilies.com

What's happening underground this winter?

Lily bulb regenerating in October.

Lily bulbs are in a constant state of growth; even during the winter months new basal plate roots are expanding, bulblets (offshoots) are growing larger, but most important, the center of your lily bulb is continuing to regenerate for its next flowering period.  

Sometimes it is easy to see the transformation because more of the bulb is spent to grow a stem with some cultivars.  The bulb shown is a perfect example - notice the two different colors of scales?  The outside purple-brown scales were part of the "original" bulb; you can see that during flowering, most of the nice fat bulb planted the previous fall or in early spring had shrunk to only a few outside scales, consuming the center in order to grow a stem.  The backside of this bulb (not shown) was where the stem had emerged for flowering in July.  The new bulb began forming when the flowers were finished, emerging from the basal plate, (bottom) along with a couple of new bulblets that will be exact duplicates of the original.  


Of the three prime necessities for a sustainable lily garden—well drained soil, sunlight and fertilizer—some folks begin to become a little forgetful when it comes time to help the lilies prepare for next year's flowers. 

If your soil was prepared well before planting to be soft and fluffy—even if an application of fertilizer is missed a couple of times—lilies will extract what food they can from their surrounding soil to flower the next year.  If no fertilizer or annual top dressing of compost is provided, lily bulbs will tend to become smaller each year and finally disappear completely. 

Spreading POOpeas around the stems.

Feed your lilies for bigger and better flowers each year.

We recommend two feedings a year—once when the sprouts are just emerging in spring and the stem roots are beginning to grow—then again when the flowers are beginning to open and the stored food within the lily bulb is depleted.  You can either use a commercial formula or mix your own elements for an organic approach.  Remember that lilies like balanced feeding, too much nitrogen will grow lovely green leaves, but at the expense of good flowers.  A "blooming" formula (e.g. 0-20-0) encourages flowers, but nitrogen and potash are still needed to grow new bulb scales. 

Lilies are heavy feeders, but they only need fertilizer spread during the times of rapid growth or roots can be damaged.  Slow release fertilizer (worked into the top 2 inches of soil) generally only works when soil temperatures reach a certain degree, and usually after the stems are already tall, missing the first milestone.  Time release is better in containers than open garden, because potting soil stays warmer during active growth, but because the volume of soil used is constricted and pots are watered more frequently, it is harder to judge the amount of fertilizer needed.

What if you've forgotten?

• If you've missed spreading fertilizer during flowering in an established lily garden, do put an inch or two of compost or well-aged manure where the stems were produced this summer, even if your soil is completely frozen when you remember. 
• For newly planted September to December bulbs, mixing fertilizer at the bottom of the planting hole is generally wasted over winter.  It is the roots produced in spring between the top of the lily bulb and the soil surface (stem roots) that are expecting the food at the proper times, not below the bulb.  Organic material spread on the soil surface takes a year or more to completely break down, and so is a better choice during planting time in October and November.
• Since everything the lily needs to bloom is already present in the bulb and is depleted during the process of making a stem and flowers, fertilizer you apply during the spring and summer is for the next season's bloom.  If your soil is on the poor side naturally, not fertilizing will compromise next season's flowers—so it is important to always be thinking ahead.  Missing a few meals will not hurt, but for long term health, a regular fertilization program of twice a year is preferred.