Part I Part II Part IV Part V

Ask Lil E. Um received these questions and with the help of Dr. Gene Fox, North American Lily Society President, sent a quick response to a very happy college student. Here is the email:Message: Hello, my name is Ashley and I am writing a paper about different flowers and I would like some information about the lily. Please help me with any of these questions that you can.
1) Is the lily sporophytes or gametophytes?
2) Can you see the gametophytes?
3) Is the lily complete?
4) Is the lily perfect?
5) How is the lily pollinated and what clues support your reason?
Thank you so much for your help.
Ashley

Reply: Dear Ashley,
My answers are about lilies (true lilies) as in Latin Lilium
1. Lilies make seeds and are gametophytes. No true lily makes spores, so none are sporophytes.
2. When you say that, I believe you mean, "Can you see the 'gametes?'" One can see the male gamete, which is pollen as it is on the end of anthers and it, can become a brown smudge on your clothes if you are not careful. The pollen is made up of hundreds of tiny spherical grains. One needs a microscope to see the individual grain of pollen. The female gamete is inside the ovary or what becomes the seedpod. If the pods are cut open or dissected before pollination, one can see the female gametes or ovules (eggs).
3. The lily has a "complete" flower in that it has both male and female parts.
4. Yes, lilies have both the pistils and the stamens in the same flower, so it may be said to be "perfect". The word, "monoclinous" is actually the technical term for perfect in that case.
5. The lily is pollinated by transferring the pollen from the stamens of one lily flower to the stigma of another lily flower. One knows the flower is pollinated if, after the petals drop away, the ovary (seed pod) starts to swell up as seeds grow inside it.
Dr. Gene Fox
President, North American Lily Society

Lil has received several questions from a gardener who would like to learn more about their lilies.  We've asked experienced lily grower and hybridizer, Jeff Stiller for his advice.  Jeff's response is included below each question.  I hope Pat and our web visitors find this information useful.  This is also a great time to promote this year's largest lily show in North America.  The North American Lily Show is being held in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, July 12 - 16, 2006.  The show itself will be free and open to the public from Friday afternoon, July 14 through Sunday July 16.  Folks who officially pay their registration fee may attend the symposium of speakers who will cover a number of lily culture topics on Thursday and Friday, July 13 & 14.  For more information visit the website of our sister regional, Wisconsin Regional Lily Society www.wrls.org or the website of the North American Lily Society www.lilies.org. Jeff is also a member of WRLS and is busily preparing for the NALS show.

Message:  Hi, Lil

I have a lot of questions now that my lily garden activities are expanding. I've received a few damaged bulbs this year that I've ordered on-line. The stems had grown 2 or 3" and then snapped off right at the base of the stem. I've heard that the bulb will never grow and all it would be good for is scale propagation. I've also heard that I should plant the bulb. While it won't do anything this year, it should be OK for next. Which is it? Pat Hunter

The bulb has stored energy in the outer scale portion. The center portion is where new growth for this years flower starts  Some bulbs recover in the following year & some do not. It is a 50/50  chance. The same goes for the scales as it is best to scale in the fall or after flowering. Again 50/50. Conditions in which the bulbs were stored are a major factor. If outer scales dehydrated too much, or if the bulb is heavily contaminated with mold it may affect the year's growth.  Be sure to check out the bulb sales from regional lily societies.  They acquire bulbs locally and from trusted vendors. Jeff Stiller

I haven't had much luck planting orientals in the fall, but spring planted ones do just fine. Can an oriental bulb be held over winter successfully in a refrigerator?  It is hard to find a oriental that will survive in Minn/Wisc for more than a year or two. They need conditions we have a hard time duplicating: acid soil, dry winters, and a long growing season. The long growing season being the hardest thing to offer as the bulb needs time to grow & build up energy. Our frosts & winters come too soon. I grow my orientals in pots. They are started indoors to get a head start. In winter they are stored in a cool place with peat moss. They still do not last, so like some annuals I just reorder them, as they are too nice not to include in my garden.

I know that a lily bulb will pull itself down if it's not happy with its planting depth, but some of mine seem to be wearing running shoes. I see them popping up several inches away from where they were originally planted or in some cases where they have been planted 6 or more inches apart, coming up right next to one another. Is there anyway to contain the bulbs so they come up where they are planted?
No. It is a survival trait.

I also have some questions about propagation:
1. When propagating scales, once the bulblets have set and roots start growing, how deep do you plant the scales?   The tip of the scale should be showing. I grow mine in small pots for a year & in fall plant them out in the garden.

2. What do you do with a scale that has 2 or three bulblets attached? Do you cut the scale and plant the bulblets separately or do you keep them all together for a time?Plant as advised above or if bulblets are larger than a pea, separate and more may grow on the scale.

4. How long does it take to for a bulblet to reach maturity? At some point, should the bulblets be planted in pots that have been sunk in the ground for easier retrieval?  Some bulblets may flower in two years, others may need more time depending on the variety.  True plant maturity will take longer, but at least you will see what to expect from the lily in the future.

We are happy to answer your question as it has added importance at bulb planting time. We asked one of the most experienced lily growers in North America for his advice, Dr. Gene Fox, current President of the North American Lily Society. Here is his response.

"Bone meal is fraught with a ton of problems. It does attract animals and rodents who dig up the bulbs in a quest for the bone meal even if it is put in the hole. Sometimes insects that are harmful to the bulbs take up residence because of the food value in the bone meal. It also may initiate bulb rot if in contact with the bulb. Since bone meal is in short supply due to bans for health reasons, the companies have been stringing it out (extending it) as "Bone Meal Plus" which is a smidgeon of bone meal and ordinary chemical fertilizer. Unlike bone meal, this mix can burn plants or bulbs or at best induce fast growth and hence open the door to botrytis in the too lush green tissue.

Besides attracting animals, bone meal, after it is watered in by rains or such, attracts tree roots aplenty if any are nearby. Tree roots rob all the soil nutrients and the lily bulbs whither. Also, bone meal is not balanced. It contains really only one (P) of the magic three ingredients of say 7-7-7 or 10-10-10 or NPK. Bone meal, because it is not balanced, causes lilies to increase by division into multiple smaller bulbs so small they will not be big enough to bloom. Taking the clump up that has been so fertilized and spreading the little bulbs out in non-fertilized soil still takes a few years to get them back to bloom size and settled down from the division madness.

Finally, I would not touch it, because its contents are ground up bones and general stuff like skulls and spinal bones that may include brain cells and spinal cord cells on them and in them. These materials are the center in beasts that may be infected with Mad Cow Disease or BSE or as it is called in humans, Jacob-Kreutzfeld disease. The bacteria can live for decades in the soil and cause potential infection a decade or so down the road.

Garden supply centers push bone meal as they can triple or quadruple their sales return by selling it with tulip bulbs etc. There was a time, early last century when other fertilizers were not available and bone meal was in general use. A lot of the old garden writers recommended it and people in the field tend to recycle old methods without holding them up to the light of modern knowledge. Almost every garden columnist writes and perpetuates nonsense like, "always use a "little bone meal," because they write and do not get their hands dirty in the garden or read widely and get their eyes opened.

I would use no fertilizer year one, except good compost or good soil not used to grow lilies before. The next year when the lily is in full bud and every second year thereafter, unless inordinately wet, I would use a tablespoon of 7-7-7 or 10-10-10. Thereafter, I would use it every second year at bud time, unless the lilies got too lush, in which case I would miss a year or three. I would spread it on top of the soil near the bulb clump."
Dr. Gene Fox
President, North American Lily Society