Lilies in pots

These lilies have been grown in the same pot for years and never troubled with lily beetle or vine weevil. A handfull of chicken manure in the spring and a daily drink is all they need.

 

my neighbour bought lillies put them in a shallow bowl of water,they are outside, the same ones as your red ones and they have grown fantastic was so suprised with our north east weather, can you give me any advice for me to tell him as he has not a clue but he must be doing something right.
I will also tell him to get some chicken manure.
I dont know a thing about keeping them other than having them in a vase indoors, the only thing i said to him was to gring them indoors for the winter. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

My lilies are hardy and so stay out all winter. They are greedy feeders and like plenty of water, but they MUST have good drainage. My soil gets waterlogged in the winter so I can't grow them in the garden. I put lots of broken brick, gravel etc in a big pot. Put the lily bulbs on that and then cover about 4 - 6 inches with good garden compost from a garden centre. Then in the spring, I throw in a handfull of pelleted chicken manure and top the pot up with fresh compost. :D

 

not sure of their name.O/H brought them from work.i just put them in a pot and hoped for the best.im so happy with them. :D there should have been more but my little dog jumped in among them to hide something and a few snapped off but even those have lit up my living room.

 

sorry,couldnt resist posting the close up. :D

 

Some more of my lilies are out.........These are from one lily in a pot which my daughter gave me 2 years ago- there's now 5 decent size bulbs! They are semi double.


These are Lilium longiflorum, new bulbs this year

Both are perfumed, but the longiflorum are amazing- they are at the top of the garden, but I can smell them halfway up!
I have to keep them all in pots otherwise the squirrels would eat them all.

 

I managed to get abetter view of the longiflorum lily, now much battered by rain but still smelling beautiful. I didn't use flash this time as advised!

I'm very pleased with these lilies. I also have 3 Ismene [spider lily], one of which flowered but I thought the other 2 would as well, so missed a photo. They are very strange looking.

 

Stargazer out early and white one which was a free offer from a magazine a year ago:



The lower half of the garden is now smelling amazing!

 

LIZ love your lilies looks beautiful FANCY

 

Wow, those are gorgeous! So pleased to see they can be grown in pots! Is it worth growing these from bulbs yourself or buying them?
And whens the best time to plant them?

I'm so in love with that nameless orange variety!

 

I think it's more rewarding to plant bulbs, but if you buy a plant in flower you can see exactly what you're getting. Most flower from spring onwards, the orange ones you liked are usually the early flowerers.
You can plant the bulbs in spring or autumn. They can be quite large so you need a correspondingly large pot. Here's an article with details on planting:
http://www.greenfingers.com/articledisplay.asp?id=301
The bulbs are usually in the garden centres soon after christmas for spring planting, and will mostly flower the same year. Not all are scented.

 

Oo will keep my eyes peeled then! Thanks for the info, and the link!

 

One point worth knowing. If you cut the flowers to have indoors always remove the pollen stamens -prolongs the flowering and they stain if they drop on furniture or carpets.

Whiley whereabouts are you - North or South Devon - if you are near North Devon I can point you in the right direction - I'm near Barnstaple.

 

Another thing to remember is that the pollen is dangerous for cats.