October Easter Lily

L. longiflorum is native to the southern islands of Japan.  It is listed in catalogs as hardy to zone 7.  Here in zone 4 we have kept if alive but barely.  Plants left outdoors produce a single flower on very short stems.  A full sized blossom on a four inch stem is comical at best.  Bulbs that were moved indoors during the heart of winter did produce normal foliage and clusters of flowers.  So the bulk of our bulbs were prepared for indoor forcing.  The rest were planted in the last available pot in the lily sod house.

These three pots are near the house by a south facing wall.  Protected from north winter winds, this is the warmest spot that we have.  Each pot contains one large bulb and three medium sized ones.  The pot in a pot trick is designed to make the removal of a pot from the frozen ground possible.  A layer of dried grass between the pot bases raises the inner pot a bit.  This may keep the pots from sticking together.  On January first one pot will be pulled from the ground and placed in a cool dark corner of the basement.  Three weeks later it will be moved upstairs to the relative warmth of our bedroom and placed near a south facing window.  At that time a second pot will be moved indoors.  After June first the contents of each pot will be planted out in the garden.

The single pot left outside all winter will get protection from late frost.  It to will be planted out in the garden after June first.  We expect short growth and single flowers but these plants will do one special thing.  They will produce a multitude of daughter bulbs.  Better note taking would tell us how large these bulbs will grow with two seasons of outdoor growth.

Out Of Season

Our garden madness expresses itself in many ways.  Planting something on New Year's Day just seemed right although a little crazy.  When our lilies were transferred to pots for the winter, we had more bulbs than planting space.  The left over Easter lilies, L. longiflorum, were planted in four pots and placed near the south side of the house.  We planned to move these pots into the house during the winter and see if they would grow.

We had to make this up as we went along since we knew nothing about forcing bulbs.  A certain amount of cold was assumed necessary before the bulbs could come back to life.  This winter has been mild so we did not know if the chilling had been sufficient when the first pot was pulled from the ground and placed in the basement in early January.  About two weeks in the insulated but unheated basement were allotted to give the bulbs a slow wake up.  Then the pot was moved upstairs and placed in a south facing window.  To date two lilies have broken the surface with new growth.  A second pot is now in the basement making the transition from winter to its artificial spring.

July 9, 2011 found our overwintered lilies in bloom.  Foliage growth was compact but the flowers were appropriately sized.  We bought these plants from the grocery store after Easter 2009.  Two mild winters allowed these zone 7 plants to survive here.  A normal winter will likely end these plants but we are enjoying them for now.  We will count the days between moving the pots indoors and first flower.  Then next year we may be able to enjoy our own flowers at Easter.

The above photo shows one of the best tended areas of our garden.  Sweet peppers and basil both receive this special treatment.  Weeds are allowed to sprout and grow a little after the plants are set out.  Weeding is followed by an application of ground maple leaves.  Very few weeds had to be pulled when this area was prepared for its photo op.

Ed takes his wheelbarrow and coarse, half inch square mesh screen, into the woods where the red maples grow.  Forrest floor litter is forced through the screen.  This material makes great mulch suppressing weeds and adding to the soil for next year's garden. We hope we will have the pleasure of enjoying  fragrant lily blossoms even if it takes until  July.