When to move lilies
VShea
be. They have bloomed beautifully, but are almost done for the
season. We'd like to move them after they're finished blooming. Can
we do this right away, or is it best to wait till late
summer/fall/winter? (This is SF Bay Area, so the ground never
freezes.) Any special considerations re: when to replant, whether to
divide, whether to keep dry/moist before planting?
Thanks!
Bill McJohn
I grow asiatic & oriental lilies in the garden and in pots.
I'm continually amazed at how tough and resilient these plants
are. It's always encouraging that something so beautiful should
be so easy to grow.
The best time to move them is in the fall.
After the plant finishes blooming, it makes seeds and stores up
energy in the bulb to produce next year's flowers. Remove the
flowers (unless you want the seeds), but leave as much of the
stalk as possible. They probably won't require any supplemental
water after they bloom; you could water them well once as they
finish blooming (and feed with bonemeal, if you like), but don't
keep the soil wet; lily bulbs will rot in wet soil. You can also
mulch them well with compost so that digging them up will be
easier later.
Once the stalk is brown and dry, (probably October) the easiest
way to remove the it is this: put one foot next to the stalk;
grip the stalk firmly and pull up with a twisting motion. This
will detach it cleanly from the bulb.
Since lilies are prone to various diseases, I don't compost the
stalks myself; instead, I send them off to the municipal compos
with the bindweed & blackberries. (Seattle's municipal compost
operation is excellent; they run a good, hot system, which seems to
kill all the weed seeds and pathogens.) I gather up the fallen
leaves and send them off, too.
Right after you've removed the stalk (while you can still see where
it was) is a good time to carefully dig the bulbs. I loosen the soil
with a fork and then grope around with my fingers, which gets my hands
filthy but avoids damaging the bulbs. You may find lots of little bulbs
along with the parent--if so, you can plant them separately, and they
should reach blooming size in two or three years. Lily bulbs are never
truly dormant, so it's best to replant them immediately. (In other
words, prepare the new spot before digging the bulbs up.)
When you replant the bulbs, keep in mind the three cardinal rules
of lily culture:
1. Lilies require good drainage.
2. Lilies require good drainage.
3. Lilies require good drainage.
Some species are more fussy (e.g. martagons resent disturbance, and
may take a few years to settle in), but the hybrids are generally a
tough and forgiving lot. Of course, if you give them a well-prepared
spot with plenty of compost and some bonemeal, water them in well,
and maybe give them a winter mulch of composted manure, they will
respond by growing and blooming even more vigorously.
This is all covered more clearly in a great publication that's
available from the North American Lily Society: "Let's Grow
Lilies!"
Bill McJohn
billmc@microsoft