I was given a beautiful huge, white lily, 11 blossoms, for Easter. It's now done blooming and I'm going to plant it outside. The question is.....I'll need to plant it deeper than the depth of the pot it's in. Do I just lift it out of the pot and plunk it in the hole or do I remove the leaves that would be buried at that depth or just leave it in the pot until it completely dies back, trim the stalks and plant it then.
I used to plant these things out in the garden all the time with great success many years ago but I can't remember how I did it.
plant it two inches deeper than the pot. feet in the shade and head in the sun, don't cut the bulk of the stems off, just where the blossoms have dropped their petals. the leaves are feeding the bulb. Come fall, a little time release bulb food will be fine, come next year it WON'T bloom on Easter, it will come up and bloom around the mid part of June. They only bloom on Easter because they're forced in greenhouses. But they are perennial for most of us in zone 5 and up. I've grown them successfully for years now outside.
plant it two inches deeper than the pot. feet in the shade and head in the sun, don't cut the bulk of the stems off, just where the blossoms have dropped their petals. the leaves are feeding the bulb. Come fall, a little time release bulb food will be fine, come next year it WON'T bloom on Easter, it will come up and bloom around the mid part of June. They only bloom on Easter because they're forced in greenhouses. But they are perennial for most of us in zone 5 and up. I've grown them successfully for years now outside.
madgardener, zone 7a, Sunset zone 36
Thanks Maddie, you've refreshed my memory. I won't be planting it in the ground, as in terra firma, it will be in one of the large planters on my balcony. I've got quite a few Star Gazers that have thrived for the past five years and in February I planted 3 Miss Lucys. They've all got their little heads poking up and looking good. I actually foliar feed all leaves on my bulbs from the time they start to appear until they begin to turn yellow with liquid kelp and compost tea. In the spring I top dress all my containers with a mix of worm castings and alfalfa meal. It seems to work well since my tulips, daffs and other bulbs continue to bloom profusely and even multiply year after year.
I saw a few sad looking pots of what were Easter Lilies sitting down by the dumpster yesterday. I might just go on back down there and see about adopting them. ;)
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