A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Lilly question

I have all kinds of lillies (asiatic) that have been done blooming now for a few weeks or more. Can these be cut back or do they have to be left alone to do their own thing? We've always just let them go..but with them getting taller the gardens are not looking so good now..

Barb
Ontario, Canada

Although they don't look attractive after blooming, leave them. The bulb stores energy to produce next years blooms from the green stalks. When they completely die down and have turned all brown, then cut them back. Meanwhile, perhaps you can plant something in front of them as camoflauge?

That's what I hate about Hostas - they look ok through the spring, then they flower and the stem and flower looks like something died before it showed up.

Then you have to keep after the bugs - I put pieces of wood under the leaves so the bugs will go under them to stay out of the heat. You just throw out the wood when there's a lot of bugs there.

Some people put a saucer of beer under the leaves. The bugs die happy I guess.

I'm glad we don't have them on this lot. I had them for a couple of seasons when I was working on my daughter's garden.

:-0

Hi Cricket,

Thanks for answering. Nobody else I asked ever knew the answer. Guess I'll just have to put up with it. It wasn't a problem until this year when they got so tall. Oh well..at least the stems still look good and are not turning colour.

Thanks for your help.
Barb

Hi Carly..

Hmmmm..Our flowers always come up on our hostas and look good. This year has been great for them with not having as much heat. Some people don't like the flowers on them but you can just cut them off.

We've had a few years of problems with slugs. We've used the beer trick..but what we found that works best is zebra muscle shells. Used to go along the beach and collect them. Put them around the base of the plant leaving about 1" of space between the shells and the plant. Works great.

Surprisingly we only had a problem with slugs the beginning of the season. Hubby went through the garden and got rid of lots..and we haven't had a problem since.

Barb

I too have a couple of asiatic lilies that I just planted this year. 2 questions: Do they only bloom once? and--- I read on the greenhouse ticket that came with them that they don't like the wet winter soil. We live in NE Ohio. Do I have to dig up the bulbs and plant them again in the spring? Thank you

Not sure if this is helpful with slugs but I had a pretty bad earwig infestation in my flower boxes so I mixed liquid dishsoap into my watering can and it cleared it up right away.

Donna,

I live in Southern Ontario (near buffalo) so we get pretty good winters. We've always left ours in the ground but I do know some people bring them in for the winter. Have never had a problem with them blooming. They get better every year.

They only bloom once.. such a shame too because they are so pretty. We do have some that bloom later in the season. I don't remember the kind they are but the ones that are blooming now for us are Starblazer, Starglazer, Japense Red and a real pretty yellow one that the name has escaped me.

What kind of lillies did you buy?

Barb

Hi "I love Hostas"
Welcome to The Garden Helper's Forum!!!

I just had to pipe in here, when I read the word
BUFFALO!!!
I'm in W.N.Y. by BUFFALO too!!
Well, about 1 hours ride South of that!!
And 90 minutes North from the PA. border too!

Limey is in your neck of the woods too, he stops thru every now and again!!! I think he's in N. Cobern, Canada.....
We have alot of gardener's here from Canada!!!
All very nice people, I enjoy talking with them,
And one in particular is LilyFreak, and she has a number of them....she has a post somewhere's, **I'll find it for you later* about all the ones' she has!!!

I always tell people to leave on that brown stuff, as it's doing exactly what Cricket said, puttin' food into that bulb for next year's growth and flower, so each year as it gets bigger, it's gettin' more food into the bulb for the next year's growth which is even bigger...

I also tell everyone, if the need is realllllllly great to get rid of that unsightly brown stuff off of the plants to tidy it, go out and take your snippers/scissor's, etc. and just cut off the brown, next to the yellowing part, always leave the yellowing as that's the part the plant is working on right now, but, just cut off the brown, may take several weeks to finish up, but then it doesn't seem to be soooooooooo unsightly.
I leave mine on in my back garden, as it's basically just me seeing it, and I use the long hollow stems in my compost, I love those for that, good "brown substance with an area to keep the air in, to keep it in good areation"......

Hope to see you on the boards alot...
We'd love to hear about your gardens and hosta's, I believe in another post your wrote you have quite a few of them...
Always enjoy hearing from fellow gardener's about their gardens and all the plants they love....

Weezie

Donna,
You wrote:
Nope, no need to, they are very self~sufficatant plants, a bit of compost or organic side dressing in the spring and they are good to good to go...
(I also sprinkle a little compost and leaf mould on top of soil in the fall... just on top....for winter's top dressing and insulation.. but they really dont' need it, they are pretty hardy!!!

Weezie

Hi Weezie,

Thanks for the welcome. I'm about 40 min from the buffalo border.

I guess I'll just have to live with letting them do their own thing then. We plan on digging them all up this year and moving them..so maybe i'll put them in the backyard so ppl can't drive by and see them..lol.

Yes, we have a lot of hostas. My hubby is addicted to them..lol. We have a large back yard and I keep telling him that I predict withen 5 years I'll have two huge trees in the middle of my gardens.

Hubby (Terry) has a picturetrail set up when we expanded gardens 3 years ago. www.picturetrail.com/terrysgarden

Grab a drink though cause I think he's got loads of pictures in there. Unfortunately none from this year though. he was laid off from his job last fall and this new job he has this year..well the hours are just terrible. not to mention the pay is terrible. We didn't get on no big flower trips this year.. . Oh well..they'll be there next year..hehe.


I still haven't found if there's an area with members picture albums online to look at the differnt gardens. I'd love to see what everyone else has done!!..

Barb

I just wanted to post this real quick
*I'm headin' out the door, but wanted you
to find this*

WEBSHOTS

Some of the gardener's pictures!!!

Weezie