Spent lily bulbs.

What does anyone do with their spent lily bulbs? I have just emptied a large container ready to replant with new lily bulbs. I now have several small lily bulbs looking healthy but too small to flower, I have usually thrown them on the compost heap as my garden has light gritty soil and nowhere semi shady to put them to grow on to flowering size. It seems a shame to just bin them.

 

If you put them into pots or trays, they'll grow on until big enough to be at flowering stage. You can shove them under shrubs or similar if you don't have another site that suits. As long as you label them well, you can check them every so often.
I often see small bulbils if I'm moving lilies for any reason, or dividing clumps that are congested, and any small ones just get put back in with the bigger ones. I did some the other day.

 

From a purely safety perspective, I think the bulbs are particularly toxic to some animals (pets) so probably a good idea to ensure the bulbs are inaccessible, if put on an open compost heap where curious animals might venture.

 

As a point of interest many lily bulbs are edible and are eaten in Asia.
For example L davidii, L lancifolium, L brownii and L dauricum among others.

 

Easy answer - pot them put the pot where you want, not full sun. Behind the shed might work. Ignore and see what happens

 

Yes - they'll just grow on. They don't need any particular attention.

 

I was under the impression that lillies we good perennial bulbs.

 

They certainly are @pete. I assumed the @Goldenlily26 just had a container of them to empty and put elsewhere.
Perhaps that's wrong though...
I grow a lot of them in containers, and only take them out when the clumps are less productive and need dividing up. That usually takes many years before that happens.

 

Thanks everyone. I have a couple of large containers, one each side of the conservatory doors where I like to grow white scented lilies. I have to replace the bulbs every 5/6 years when they stop flowering.
I will experiment and bury the baby bulbs somewhere, they have 2 chances, they will grow or they wont.

 

@Goldenlily26 - do you not feed them as they die back? In pots it can be more difficult to keep them healthy, because as they grow, they aren't getting the amount of nutrition they'd get compared to being in the ground. I also replace the top layers of soil when I have them in containers, usually in late winter/early spring just before they're starting to show. I've had some in pots for 11 years, because I got them for a couple of pounds just after I moved into this house, and I just follow that process.

They do need separated after a while, so maybe they're just very congested, which also means they flower less prolifically. It depends on how many you have in the pots, and the size of those, but the roots can get really big and they take up a lot of space.

 

Lilies definitely repay feeding! I have some lilium henryi in good soil - I lifted a couple from my late mother's garden where they survived and flowered for over 20 years in poor soil with just an occasional bucket of manure. Now, in better soil, they grow about 6feet tall, have huge bulbs, and will need splitting because they have multiplied so well. The hybrid ones, though, do seem less robust - I think more sensitive to soil quality and drainage.

 

Like you, I feed my lily bulbs after flowering and I also replace the top few inches of soil each year but I find they drop off flowering after 5 or 6 years. I have found the bulbs just diminish is size rather than bulk up and divide.
The new bulbs I have just bought seem much smaller than usual. I had to order them on line as none of the local GCs have them in stock until after Christmas.

 

That's very strange @Goldenlily26 - especially if they're diminishing in size rather than increasing.

The usual time to buy lily bulbs is late winter into early spring, and you'll usually get larger bulbs at that point too.
Is it a specific type of lily you always buy?

 

Not really. I usually buy the white Lillium Regale for the scent. I have tried all of the local GCs, none have any lily bulbs in, they have stocked up on Halloween and Christmas stock and will not get the lily bulbs in until they do their Spring bulb orders.

 

Regale is one of the easiest to grow from seed, so your baby bulbs shouldn't take long to get to flowering size if they're potted into good compost or enriched soil, Goldenlily26 Next time you're throwing any away, let me know and I'll send my address by PM