Overwintering Lilies

Hi All. Had a wonderful display from the 5 Oriental lilies I planted in a pot this summer but soon is the time to think about over wintering these bulbs. Done some googling and in general the advice seems to be the same but I thought I would ask for your experience to see if I am on the right track.

These bulbs can they say be left in the same pot for 2 seasons before transplanting.


As they do not go completely dormant they should not be stored "dry" but in a moist compost or even left in my case the pot they grew in but keep compost only moist.


They will not tolerate freezing but can be stored in a greenhouse overwinter or somewhere it does not reach freezing point. As my greenhouse is unheated during winter and fuchsias & geraniums are wrapped in bubble wrap then perhaps the garage would be better.


I did read that light is important but that may of been only applicable as spring comes as bulbs would start to grow.


I have taken Kristen advice and ordered some more lily bulbs from H.W Hyde to be delivered next spring.


One other point I must admit I just planted the 5 lilies in just normal verve MP compost with some granular feed and they done well.H.W.Hyde recommends using ericaceous compost.


Do you use this compost only for planting lilies or have you found a MP compost is as good. I just may of been lucky the 1st time around so better to be safe than sorry.

 

Sounds right. I doubt you will have to water much / at all after November if they the pots are stored around 5C - if you have a moisture meter I would use that to see what the moisture content is, as it can be difficult to judge accurately otherwise (easier in Summer when the plants are drinking lots of water as getting it wrong is soon put right by the plant! but in winter when they are drinking almost nothing there isn't the same leeway. If in doubt under-water rather than over-water)

Garage sounds best. They don't need any light until they start to grow, above ground, in spring.

I would only worry about Ericaceous compost if you are growing varieties of Lily that need Acid soil. Some types of lily do, most don't. H W Hyde's site does clearly indicate, for each Lily, what sort of soil it needs so I would check that for the ones you already own, and for the ones you are buying.

However, personally I would not use Multi Purpose - I wouldn't use plain M.P. for anything that was going to be container grown for long periods, a John Innes (soil based) compost tends to drain better, so less chance of rot in winter, and is much easier to "re-wet" after it has dried out - Multi Purpose can be very hard to get moist again. You could try "Multi Purpose with added John Innes" but I would be inclined to just use a bag of John Innes #2 and perhaps add up to 1/4 (by volume) of Multi purpose to it. For container-grown lilies I would increase the drainage will some sharp grit - around 10% maybe.

 

Thanks Kristen for your excellent advice.You are correct MP when it gets dry is a bugger to get wet again and sometimes only a soak in a bucket of water will accomplish it.

 

All my lilies are left outside in their pots in a sheltered place - I don't have anywhere indoors that they could go in. I stack them up against a wall usually. Most come back next year just fine, though there are always some losses. I don't know if this is due to cold or some other factor. Sometimes the main bulb has died but the pot is full of bulbils which have survived the cold.

I do live in a large city - friends living in the countryside where temps are slightly lower say they have trouble keeping lilies alive through the winter.

I sometimes wonder if I should experiment with planting in the ground as I think they might attain larger sizes & bigger flowers but I'm worried they would just disappear or get damaged by slugs or spades! It is useful to be able to move them about to display them better.

I find lilies to be very drought tolerant - I've never seen a lily wilting - so I would not water at all from October onwards. They do get rained on, however. I put grit around the bulbs but not sure if it makes any difference. I've heard it recommended to plant them on their sides so water does not gather in the crown. That would certainly be cheaper than grit.

 

That may be "cold wet feet" rather than specifically "cold" do you think?