casablanca lilys, is this normal?

11 years ago

Hello,

I posted about this on the lily forum but haven't gotten an answer yet. It is a little quiet over there, thought someone here might know why this is happening. This is a pic of what is sprouting in my pot of casablanca lilies. Last year I planted 3 bulbs, two came up and were beautiful but I don't remember anything like these tiny leaves just nice healthy stalks. Is this normal? They overwintered under an overhang and I tipped the pot slightly so the soil wouldn't get too soggy. Brought the pot out into the sun a couple of weeks ago when I saw some green tips poking through, but then they turned into these leaves. This is my first bulb planting experience and I'm in zone 9b or 10. They get about 3 hours of sun and the rest of the time bright shade.

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southerngardening24

11 years ago

I checked them again today and took a picture. There are some leaves that are flat like yours. Very interesting. They get a few hours of afternoon sun. This is their second year and I left them in the same location because they did so well last year.

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Comments (6)

southerngardening24
11 years ago
Mine are working their way up too and they are a bit more narrow and curled than yours.
User
Original Author
11 years ago
Interesting! So your lilies are sprouting leaves rather then stalks? I have another pot of lily bulbs at my community garden that I planted a week or so ago and I just noticed they are sprouting stalks like the casablanca did last year. I'm beginning to wonder if it has something to do with the amount of sun. My community garden plot gets all day sun while the casablancas get just 3 or so hours. How much sun are your bulbs getting?
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floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
11 years ago
You sometimes get those smaller flatter leaves from offsets of lily bulbs. They don't usually flower until they have bulked up in subsequent years. Flowering buds will be thick 'noses' rather than individual leaves.
User thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
User
Original Author
11 years ago
Good info, thank you. "Thick noses" is a very good description of the stalks just breaking thru the top of the soil... Unfortunately, I don't see anything like that on my casablancas....
User
Original Author
11 years ago
southerngardening24, A poster on the lily forum mentioned that lilies need a certain amount of winter cold to produce a stalk. I'm thinking that might be the problem with mine, although you are in a colder winter zone and the leaves in your pic look very much like mine. The suggestion was to dig up the bulbs in the fall and store them in the fridge. I'll be doing that from now on because dang are those bulbs are expensive, at least in my neck of the woods.