Planted some lillies - gone wrong already?

Hi all,

We are new to gardening but as in my intro post we want to take this on and make our back garden look lovely.

Our first area we worked on was a pre existing bed that had fallen into disrepair.

The good lady, her indoors loves lillies so we bought 3 established plants from our local BGC (differing colours) and planted them in the ground on Easter Monday. The ground was fully weeded, forked, and compost was inserted into the hole before planting them. They've been well watered since, and we had some good rain yesterday too.

My question is based around the lillies being open or closed. Each plant consists of what looks looks 3 distinct plants (or 3 stems linking deep in the soil) and there are 3 or 4 heads on each. Some of them haven't opened at all although the heads look big, and some are permanently open (i.e. not closing over night).

Is this a bad sign that the lillies have not taken to their new home? Do all varieties close at night?

The bed gets lots of sunshine from about 8am when the sun comes over the neighbouring houses to around 4pm when it sadly disappears over the other side. Though even after 4pm it doesn't get shady, just not the direct sun it gets earlier.

I'll post a picture when I get home from work but any general guidance would be great!

 

They seem ok from your description but a picture when you get round to it will confirm if they is anything wrong.

 

Here we go... Both sets of Lillies. You can see the open ones and the closed ones. The open ones never close and the closed ones.... Well you can guess the rest!

 

Those Lillies look ok to me, I'm sure the buds will open. As far as I know the flowers don't close at night.

 

Hi @Cardinal-Red ,

First of all welcome to Gardeners Corner

Your Lilies look in excellent condition and health. They don't close, once they're open, they're open.

Lilies naturally flower from June through to October. Yours have been ( like so many things nowadays sadly ) been forced to flower early. This though won't affect them in any way, just that next year they'll flower later.

The one thing you will need to do is .....

When the stems start dying back in Autumn dig them up in their groups and plant them around 5 inches deep. Lilies root along their stems aswell as from their bulbs and the depth they're at now ( being planted out from pots ) won't be deep enough.

 

Sorry, I forgot to say.........

If your wife loves Lilies so much you should buy some "Oriental " type bulbs such as " Stargazer ", " longiflorum " or " Purple Prince " .as they have a fantastic scent.

These are available cheaply from Wilkinsons at around £2,50 a packet and can still be planted now for flowers in August/September. You could plant them between the ones you have there now.

 

Totally agree with KFF. So many plants are forced so asto appeal to the shopper. To get what appears to be a bushy plant of Asiatic lilies such as Cardinal Red has planted. Often around five bulbs will be planted in the pot. Lily bulbs are not cheap to buy, hence the price of a pot full.

There are several species of lilies each having it's own preferences. Some prefer acid soil, some alkaline and some are not choosy. At the same point, not all 'Lilies' are such. Shall we say that the lilies such as in this case, grow from bulbs. A few as KFF says, send out stem roots. Not in the case of Cardinal Reds. The bulbs can be left in the ground, don't cut of the growth, let is gradually die downs and finally a twist of the stems and no damage will come to the bulb.

Warning: Most of us do it. Take a sniff at the flower. Don't poke your nose into a lily flower. The pollen can cause nasal irritation. It stains and mind you don't get any on your cloths, it reall stains.

 

Thanks everyone that is reassuring.

I'll be planting more in the next corner we take on so I'll look into those bulbs you recommend.

 

These are my lilies. I took this photo about 10 minutes ago.


This photo was taken 20th June last year. Last years display was far better than the first year I planted them. I'm expecting an even better display this year.

G.

 

One point to remember with your lilies ; check every day for Lily-Beetle and destroy them immediately .

Once they get into your plants the devastation will soon become apparent .

Scarlet lily beetle - Wikipedia