It may simply be the variety you're growing - some of them are very tall and best in a border with other planting to support them or disguise any staking. The shorter varieties - up to about 3 feet - are best for pots, because they make a nice clump which will hold together well without support
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Lilies are bursting into elegant and colourful blooms at this time of year. It's a dramatic sight, and one you can prolong by simply removing the flowers as they fade.
This says that it will "prolong flowering". It might tidy it up a bit but will it have any effect on flowering? Never knew you could get more flowers by "disbudding" with lilies.
I've got some concern that deadheading lilies might not have the same impact as with other plants. I have the pink scented variety and cutting away the finished flowers didn't yield any more blooms. Moreover, I have recently collected the bulbs from the plants to find just 1 per plant.
My gut instinct says that if I had left the flowers, I would have received more bulbs - or seeds but that works as well. Is there a more general rule that plants that produce bulbs might not produce more blooms through deadheading?
I just cut the head off. That stops it making seed. I leave the stem and leaves, so that the bulb for next year builds up. The bigger the bulb, the better the flower next year.
If you allow the seeds to form the bulb will be weaker the following year and produce fewer and smaller blooms.
If I understand his final sentence correctly, Frank 4004 seems to be under the misapprehension that deadheading lilies will produce sideshoots and more flowers as with delphiniums, lupins etc, but this is not so. Each bulb produces just the one flower spike, as with other bulbs such as tulips, daffodils, hyacinth etc.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have always deadheaded my lilies, but this year I am going to try sitting on my twitching fingers and not doing it. It's going to be hard for me.
The reason for this radical idea is the neighbour I acquired 3 years ago. She brought with her a huge container of pink and white (Lollipop?) lilies. They flowered superbly and she now has 4 such containers, all full to bursting with flowers.
She does nothing to them except the occasional feed. Never dead heads. She seems to get very few of the non-flowering spindly babies that I get lots of. Just loads of strong stems loaded with flowers. .A magnificent display, much better than mine..
I don't understand how this works but I'm going to give it a try. Fingers crossed, if only to stop them reaching out and snapping dead heads off!
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It may simply be the variety you're growing - some of them are very tall and best in a border with other planting to support them or disguise any staking. The shorter varieties - up to about 3 feet - are best for pots, because they make a nice clump which will hold together well without support
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks fairygirl.
Todays project says -
Lilies are bursting into elegant and colourful blooms at this time of year. It's a dramatic sight, and one you can prolong by simply removing the flowers as they fade.
This says that it will "prolong flowering". It might tidy it up a bit but will it have any effect on flowering? Never knew you could get more flowers by "disbudding" with lilies.
I've got some concern that deadheading lilies might not have the same impact as with other plants. I have the pink scented variety and cutting away the finished flowers didn't yield any more blooms. Moreover, I have recently collected the bulbs from the plants to find just 1 per plant.
My gut instinct says that if I had left the flowers, I would have received more bulbs - or seeds but that works as well. Is there a more general rule that plants that produce bulbs might not produce more blooms through deadheading?
I just cut the head off. That stops it making seed. I leave the stem and leaves, so that the bulb for next year builds up. The bigger the bulb, the better the flower next year.
I do the same Fidget
If you allow the seeds to form the bulb will be weaker the following year and produce fewer and smaller blooms.
If I understand his final sentence correctly, Frank 4004 seems to be under the misapprehension that deadheading lilies will produce sideshoots and more flowers as with delphiniums, lupins etc, but this is not so. Each bulb produces just the one flower spike, as with other bulbs such as tulips, daffodils, hyacinth etc.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks Dove, that clears things up nicely.
I have always deadheaded my lilies, but this year I am going to try sitting on my twitching fingers and not doing it. It's going to be hard for me.
The reason for this radical idea is the neighbour I acquired 3 years ago. She brought with her a huge container of pink and white (Lollipop?) lilies. They flowered superbly and she now has 4 such containers, all full to bursting with flowers.
She does nothing to them except the occasional feed. Never dead heads. She seems to get very few of the non-flowering spindly babies that I get lots of. Just loads of strong stems loaded with flowers. .A magnificent display, much better than mine..
I don't understand how this works but I'm going to give it a try. Fingers crossed, if only to stop them reaching out and snapping dead heads off!