I don't know either.
Last year was my first to grow them. I opened the pods and scattered the seeds. So far nothing has come back.
My DIL's fav also. She carried them at their wedding and my corsage was one also.

They are probably bulbils/bulblets that formed around the stem underground. When lily seed sprout they look like fine blades of grass.

Annette

I had some thin, papery seeds I had saved from a lily. Just before winter I tossed them in a flower pot and set them under a shrub. Much to my surprise here is what I now have:
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Glenda, you got them on steroids? I've never seen anything like that the first year from seed.

Annette

Way cool!! I'm not sure about seeds....I have had the 'bulblettes' that form at the leaf/stem junction, and they have grown for me. Can't remember if they were a clone of the parent....

Nancy.

Nancy they would be the same as the parent, seed could vary. I've only grown trumpets from seed, first the cotyledon appeared like a fine blade of grass then tiny leaves appeared but mine looked pretty wimpy the first year or two, nothing like Glenda's. Glenda which type of lily were your seed from, asiatic?

Annette

Annette, I haven't a clue what they are. I just saw them in a container that I had collected that just said lilies. I do bright things like that a lot......or can't read my handwriting sometimes.

What should I do with them when they get bigger? Separate them and plant them out, leave in the pot? I have never done this before.

I have very few asiatics, died out. I do have trumpets and LA hybrids. Should be interesting.

Annette, these are definitely larger than blades of grass. They look like weaker versions of the parent plant. Maybe I got a lot of underground reproduction. I've never had them multiply like this before. I'll try to get a picture this afternoon. It's still dark out.

Glenda, are you sure those are first year lilies? That is highly unlikely to have so much growth in the first year. If they really are first year sprouts, that is really amazing. You will have to show us pics when they bloom. They should be called wonder lilies. And yes divide and spread these lilies out....growing like this, they will need space.

Tom, I have grown oriental lilies for many years here. And many stargazers. They have not multiplied for me by producing underground stem bulbs or at the leaf axis. I have also not had the main bulbs multiple like some lilies I have either. Here in my zone 2 I would not see seed as they bloom to late and freeze off usually.

However a friend gave me seed a couple of years ago and I potted them up and they were very slow to sprout and very slow to grow. As Annette has said, basically blades of grass at first. I have also started martagons from seed....same thing,small leaf,looking like blades of grass.

Now the mice got into my garden a couple years ago....they chewed up a lot of lily bulbs, leaving pieces everywhere. Many of these pieces have grown new little lilies. They are very thick in places and I am not sure what is there yet. It will be interesting to see if any of the orientals come back this way.

Annette, it sounds like Parkland is going into more species and martagon lilies and having less asiatics and LA hybrids. They are zone 2. :)

Sierra

Glenda, if yours are Asiatics they look big enough to have a bloom or two this year, by all means carefully separate and plant them out.

Tom, if yours are indeed stargazer seedlings you've got yourself a little gold mine there. I think it's a little more involved growing Orientals from seed than Trumpets or Asiatics. They are almost the last to bloom in the garden so don't have much of a chance of the seed pods maturing in some zones. Some cut the stem, hang it upside down in a dry place to finish maturing.

Sierra you are so bad, Parkland, WHAT'S THIS another source I didn't know about? Can you believe I've never grown Martagons, they are soooo pretty. I'm going to have to look into this, so much for cutting back. But hey, these go in the ground not in pots LOL.

Annette

Well?

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Is the mother bulb still there? These do not look like first year seedlings to me. What you are might be seeing are bulblets which formed on the underground stem or another possibility, bulblets have formed on scales from a damaged mother bulb. I'd be tempted to dig separate and replant these. One more possiblity is your mother bulb has divided into smaller bulbs.
Orientals are IMO a little finicky from seed they need about a 3 month warm period around 70 and then a cold period 40 or so before they will germinate.

Whatever you have you've increased your stock of a very pretty lily :o),

Annette

Tom's plants look to me more like a bunch of little bulblets growing from around an asiatic lily. Notice the little rounder leaves at the very bottom? They are helping a new bulblet grow on a bit before it sends up 'real' foliage, maybe next year. I don't see any mother bulb coming up yet? I snip off all seed pods so the original bulb puts its energy into next year's blossoms instead of making seeds. I save any scales that break off a bulb to see if a new plant will grow -- it will if there's a piece of the basal plate.

Stargazers usually divide into two bulbs, no bulblets. Did you have only Stargazers, or some other lilies?

Glenda's 'lily with no name' seedlings look like they could be from an LA . LAs are stronger and bigger and put on fewer bulblets around the mother bulb stem than asiatics which would lead me to beieve they grow more easily from seed. True lilies like cold weather, which would explain why they have grown so well. Could you have forgotten the pot for a whole year, so they are second year plants? No telling what you have, since you may have offspring of a hybrid. Could they be reverting back to Longiflorums?

I always wonder about the mysteries of what lily bulbs do underground. Some years they hardly come up at all, just a couple of little round leaves, and some fail to bloom. Suddenly one that hasn't been heard from in a year or two will leap up and bloom as if they'd been off on vacation for a while.

Nell

Nell, I only had stargazers last year. I have some Asiatics, but I haven't gotten them in the ground yet. We had a truly cold winter this year for several weeks there. When I planted that corner, I think I put 3 bulbs in the hole. That could explain why I have so many coming back. Here's a picture from last year. Unfortunately, they're not in bloom, but they were stargazers. I love them for their smell.

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I did find a mother bulb just a few minutes ago. It's barely poking out of the ground. It's got the red tips on the leaves that I'm used to seeing from stargazers.

If your mother bulbs are just coming up DON'T DIG yet wait till fall to separate, I can't tell you how many times I've sliced through lily stems. They don't always come up where you think they will :o(.

Annette

Annette, the moth bulb is popping up about 8" away from where I KNOW I planted it. I did that myself a couple years ago.

No, Nell, I am sure it was just late last summer or fall because I have moved the pot several times to keep it dog free. It just sprouted this spring. I did bring them in last night because of our predicted 20° lows and now have them under lights.

Time will tell...................
I will plant them out in a couple of weeks.