Lilies

Hi All. I know I have posted before about overwintering lily bulbs and has some good advice.
I decided as the bulbs were in a pot and the pot was basically small to take them out of the pot for storage in garage over winter. The reason being they were root bound and would need bigger pots next spring.
I know I have to keep them just damp but at the moment all the compost I have is soaking wet so that will have to do for now,at least the medium will dry out in garage pretty quick.The bulbs have grown almost 100% in size with lots of bulblets coming off of them.
Reading the advice it varies,some say take off bulblets now and plant in 9cm pots and others say take off bulblets before planting main bulb in spring?? I even read on one site to plant bulbs in Autumn, crumbs I only just lifted them,so much to learn!

 

I'm no expert on Lilies but from experience mine don't seem to object in the slightest to being in my case tub bound. They were absolutely ridiculously big this season and are really tightly packed together as been in situ for about 4/5 years. I live in Scotland thus not the best of weather and do absolutely nothing to protect them in the winter and they are totally fine. When I do move Lilies which I normally do in the Autumn I usually take off and replant the bulbils then at the same time. It never fails to amaze me that somethings which look so exotic are as tough as old boots and flourish with no special treatment. The only thing I would make sure of is that the drainage where you store the bulbs is good. certainly mine do much better in tubs which drain freely than just planted in the flowerbeds, but that said the ones in the beds do not badly either. I wish other exotic looking plants/bulbs were so easy!
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My inclination would be to plant the bulblets now. My thinking is that they will be happier "in soil" than drying out. Given that they are small the effect of drying out will be greater than on a large bulb / volume.

Having said that I would prefer to plant the bulbs for the same reason, rather than leave them dry, as I think the outer scales will desiccate which will reduce the plant/flowering vigour next year. No drier compost, left over from "spent" pots / grow bags etc. hanging around? Old leaf mould? as a temporary potting medium? The bulbs won't make any growth for months, so no harm potting them in a temporary medium I reckon

 

Thanks 4 your replies,love that pink/whitey lily (4th picture) have not got round to taking off the bulblets as yet ,and we do have lots of dryish left over "spent" compost which I will use.
Decided to renovate/restore my 35-ish old Black & Decker Workmate.Not finished yet,in fact only got as far as rubbing all paintwork down.
On a side note and nothing to do with gardening.The handles are hard plastic ,covered in old paint.Anyone had any experience of what to use to get years old paint off hard plastic.
Thanks for help