Grow Your Own Magazine

hey all i bought and oriental lily from b&q if you have been round there you'll know the one the pink one very very fragrant. now the floweres have been and gone and i have "dead headed" them i was wondering is this all i need to do to keep it growing and flowering or do i need to do somthing else thanks

It won't flower again this year but will die down. Next year it'll be just as gorgeous. I love lilies and have had some for several years. Eventually you get less flower but if you dig them up you'll find they are overcrowded and have little lily bulbs attached to them. Split them up at this point and repot. They'll appreciate a feed occasionally too.

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If your lily is in a container try to protect it from getting waterlogged as this will rot the bulb. Put it in a sheltered spot or bring it into the greenhouse if you have one.

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And when you're back stops aching,
And you're hands begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner,
In the glory of the garden.

Rudyard Kipling.

I don't know where you are gardening Nosferato, but I have planted lots of the large oriental lillies in the garden here over the last five years and they seem to be particularly hardy. They have struggled a bit with the cold wind this year, but are still flowering well.

thanks for the advice fingers crossed on having a good show next year re where im gardening im in derby

I also have asiatic lilys, and am wondering if they can be propagated?

Hi mapcr77, there are two ways to propagate lilys.

1 Take off the small bulls that form round the larger flowering bulb or in the axils of the leaves and grow them on.

2 Take the scales from the large bulbs and put them in some damp peat in a poly. bag and they will form new bulbs at the base of the scales.

I never bother as both methods are slow. I just leave them in the ground to do their own thing and then split them up when they are overcrowded.

Best of luck

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet