The Main Criteria When Buying Lily Bulbs

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Read the previous part. ← How to choose a lily, the most common groups of lilies

How to choose the right one and where to buy lily bulbs

I really want to be sure of the sound mind of our gardeners and florists, that they will not be led to such proposals as to buy from aunts standing by the metro or walking on our trains, bulbs of "lily-tree" or "curly lilies".

From someone's light hand, tall OT-hybrids were once called "trees" for their height, trunk thickness and number of flowers on it.

And immediately unscrupulous traders with strongly non-Russian types of persons turned this successful comparison into a "group" - "Lily-tree". With the help of the craftsmen, we photographed a bunch of multi-colored “trees”, at the same time invented “curly” ones, scanned pictures of rare plants, and also called them lilies, painted them in unprecedented colors, and started trading in things that do not exist in the world yet. Moreover, the prices for such "varieties" are rather high. People, be careful! Do not buy what is not in the world.

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What criteria should be followed when buying bulbs:

1. Do not buy dry, without signs of sprouts and roots of lilies in the package. Such a product usually goes a long way from the store to the counter, has time to dry, and lose its supply of nutrients. Such bulbs require special care, and it is not known when they will bloom.

2. It is not necessary to take the bulbs already used in forcing, since such a bulb has already faded under artificially created conditions and now, with a depleted supply of nutrients, it can bloom only after a year or two, and even then this is questionable.

3. If in the fall you are offered a decent onion, plump, juicy, but with a sprout, this means that for some reason this lily was not sold in the spring, and was not planted in the ground. she has not gone through her natural life cycle this season. When planted in the soil in the fall, a bulb with a sprout will begin to grow as Mother Nature told her, and the sprout will naturally freeze in the first frost, and the bulb will most likely die.

4. Bulbs offered in spring should be strong, succulent, with last year's roots or new year's root buds. As soon as the bulbs are taken out of storage or dug out of the soil, they happily rush to germinate, feeling the slightest warmth. Lilies with sprouts are common and normal. Only if the sprouts outgrow, bend, such bulbs should be planted "on the side", focusing on the sprout, the onion will subsequently turn itself over "as it should".

5. Lily bulbs can almost always be planted in the soil, even if you remove the snow and punch a hole in the winter with a crowbar - you can try. But seriously, lilies are perfectly transplanted and in full bloom. Therefore, if in the summer you see a wonderful flowering lily with a clod of earth at the seller, in which you can feel or see a bulb, and you like this variety - take it without fear and plant it, you can even not cut the peduncle. In short, buy planting material from trusted companies, from reliable and honest people. And this applies not only to lily bulbs.

6. A very important addition is the size of the planted bulb. The larger it is, the stronger the peduncle will grow from it, the larger the flowers will be, and the number of them will be greater. The size of the onion is given in centimeters and is measured “at the waist”. The largest bulbs have a circumference of 20-22 cm and 22+

Planting lilies

And now let's talk about the requirements that lilies make to the quality of the soil and the place of planting.

1. The soil needs crumbly, light, acidity (pH) about 6.5. For tubular lilies, a soil closer to alkaline is desirable, Asians and LA hybrids love the soil more acidic, they can be added to peat when planting in a flower bed.

The site chosen for planting the bulbs must be fresh, not grown by other crops. Lilies do not like tired soils on which other crops have grown for several years in a row. If the garden is small and there is no way to find the right place for new bulbs, then soil replacement is necessary. On old plantings of lilies, new ones should not be planted, because this used land contains the waste products of previous bulbs, and pathogens accumulate, affecting beginners. In general, it is advisable to change the place of growth of lily bulbs every three to four years in order to avoid diseases.

If you need to change the soil, then I propose a recipe for a new nutrient soil: sand, peat, loam, coniferous litter (pine or spruce needles) - all in equal proportions. And in addition to this composition, there is also vermicompost. You can change the soil not over the entire area of the beds, but pour it only into the grooves or planting holes. It is advisable to add a handful of sand under each lily, and cover especially valuable varieties with sand in order to separate the bulb from the soil. Manure is prohibited! Bulbous manure is poison! There are coals from a fire or stove - we will pour a handful under the bottom of the onion - this will be both a drainage and an adsorbent of harmful substances.

2. The place where we will plant lilies should be sunny or with very light partial shade. The close occurrence of waters can kill the bulbs. Serious drainage is needed here.

The place should be high and dry and well ventilated. Then the lilies will dry out quickly after rain or dew. If you plant lilies with other plants, consider the timing of their flowering, height and future color range. And let the "subordination" be observed: undersized plants - forward, tall - to the background. You can plant several lilies of the same variety to obtain a color spot.

And you can make exquisite combinations: pick up lilies of the same flowering period, one growth, but "play" with shades and color transitions from one to another and to the third, for example, we plant a raspberry lily of the Delian variety next to the white-raspberry variety Flashpoint and pure white Zambezi varieties.

We do not plant lilies next to those plants that, after flowering, do not need watering, while lilies that are ready to bloom need abundant watering. These are, for example, irises and lilies - here the union is unsuccessful.

3. Landing depth: we are not the south, we are the treacherous Northwest. We can have an almost hot beginning of May, the impression of which will be spoiled by return frosts. We plant the lily bulbs on the bayonet of the shovel. More specifically, there should be about 20 cm of soil above the bulb. As long as the sprout makes its way through this layer, the frost will end by itself. For the southern regions, it is enough to withstand the law of three diameters, or leave 10 cm from the top of the bulb. True, the south is also different. In the future, the bulbs themselves figure out to what depth they need to climb. Leave the distance between plants at least 25-30 cm.

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How to drink and what to feed lilies

1. If the lily bulbs are planted in the spring, then you can water it in 2-3 days, when the earth settles down, if in the fall, then it will rain.

2. Bulbs planted in new, fresh soil can be grown for 2-3 years without fertilization, or they can be applied in very small quantities (provided that the beds are well mulched).

3. On very poor soils or in the case when you want to surprise yourself and your neighbors and grow flowers of unprecedented size, then this option is possible for filling the soil: after the sprouts appear 10-15 cm above the soil, and the leaves begin to move away from stem to the sides, you can feed with a solution of calcium nitrate. This is nitrogen, which gives the growth of green mass, and calcium, which has a beneficial effect on membrane metabolism during growth.

Before flowering, you can feed with Fertik's fertilizer solution (previously it was called Kemira-kombi). This complex fertilizer will have little nitrogen, and enough phosphorus and potassium. Before the lilies bloom, during the coloring of the buds, you can spill them with a solution of potassium magnesium (potassium permanganate). Then the lily flowers will be brighter.

And finally, the most important top dressing - after flowering - to restore bulb mass and growth. What the bulb has spent on the growth of the aerial part of the lily, it must get back, grow and go into a state of rest. A superphosphate solution is suitable for this. Dissolve the superphosphate granules in hot water, cool this solution and water the onions. All fertilizing must be carried out according to the rules - after abundant watering or rain. And top dressing should only be liquid.

But if you are engaged in natural farming and live in friendship with all microorganisms, worms and fungi of your soil, mulch plantings, then your lilies will be fed and watered without you.

Your task is to constantly mulch the soil, a thick layer of organic mulch serves as a "home" in which microbes, bacteria live and multiply (in a good sense of the word), earthworms feel great under it - these are all friends and helpers of your garden, your plants, and, therefore, yours personally. If you already have a barrel in which you put some manure, herbs, ash from the stove, fill this organic matter with water and let it brew, and then feed your plants with this "soup" without using mineral fertilizers purchased in stores - you do very true and wise. And if there is no barrel, put it down.

We are already accustomed to using environmentally friendly fertilizers and preparations - epin, zircon, cytovite, ferovite, bone and blood meal, etc. etc. For the health of your garden, and, therefore, yours, there are a large number of natural stimulants, means of protection against pests and diseases, you just need to move away from the habitual long-term habit of pouring mineral water into the ground in unlimited quantities.

4. Watering lilies is best in the morning, when plants at the beginning of daylight hours take water and nutrients dissolved in it from the soil to start the process of photosynthesis.

Read the next part. Diseases and pests of lilies, cutting lilies →

Irina Tuzova, leading specialist of the NIKA kennel

tel. 7 (812) 640 85 13, (812) 952 09 15, www.nikaland.ru