I've never grown lilies before, but bought two packages at a great discount in mid June. They are LA hybrid lilies, Dazzle and Iceberg. Two had green growth on them and the rest didn't. I planted them all the next day. What are the chances of them growing and surviving?
It would depend on how dried up the scales were when you planted them. Sometimes they're so dried up that they just rot away but if the inner scales were still fleshy then there's a good chance they will bloom next year, or they will have produced a bunch of bulbils which may even bloom next year, sometimes the 2nd year.
When I buy lilies in packages I check to see if they have a little green shoot on them. I find if they sprout in the package, they'll be ok, if they do not sprout, they are unlikely to sprout at home either. I then pot them in gallon containers until they are well up. You could also keep them in the container for the first season to check the flower is what you expect... Finally, I plant them out in really good, fertile earth. I find the small bulbs you get in packages take a couple of years to really get their feet under them. You get out of lilies what you put in, even the most anemic packaged bulb will respond well to TLC: when we moved last time, I dug up all my lilies and the bulbs were absolutely massive...about 6"-8" across. They loved regular topdressings of stablings. Have you visited a lily farm in summer? My parents used to live close to Gratrix Lilies in Ontario, and I built my collection slowly (being poor!) by visiting every summer and choosing one or two favourites to plant. Visiting the fields, all in bloom, was wonderful. They had scads of named varieties, and all the hybrid babies would spring up along the edges of the rows, lot of fun!
I bought 5 packages of 97-cent lilies last year around this time, and saw no action out of two them last year. One of those did come back and bloomed this year, the other did not. So it's a gamble. They were in pots so I wouldn't lose track of them, but standing on soil so their roots could reach out in search of moisture if there wasn't enough in the pot.
Thanks for your replies. I haven't ever visited a lily farm, but I'd like to. So far, two out of the six are growing. I hope they bloom this year.
Just a quick note; I bought a bargain package of lilies this spring labelled "Kiss Proof", with a photo of a deep cherry pink, almost purple lily on the front. Well, they all sprouted, and they are all blooming...and they are all awful! All the lilies are a dirty kind of off white with a sickly yellow/orange band down each petal. Just dreadful!
You might want to reserve judgement until next year. Sprouting this late and under non-ideal conditions (ie in the package!) may have them producing sub-par blooms.
True, and I did expect something small and scraggly. But there is no way the colour is going to be better! Dang.
I would say they had the wrong bulb in the package because it is supposed to be almost all pink with a thin white edge and would also agree with KarenL that depending on the growing conditions, specially with Orientals, they don't consistently show their true colours from year to year.
