Lilies - How they grow
Lilies never stop growing. Even in winter the bulb is busy forming the new stem in its very heart. Here is a record of one season in the lily growing world.
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November Frost Damage This lily has been severely damaged by some late hard frosts. Other lilies have come through relatively unscathed but this one was just at its most vulnerable. |
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Here in Christchurch, most lilies will now be growing extremely fast. Make sure that they receive plenty of water if conditions have been dry (as they often are here in Canterbury). They need plenty during this fast growing spurt. However, that does not mean they should be 'swimming' or that they have continual 'wet feet'. The three most important rules about growing lilies are 1) Good drainage, 2) Good drainage, and 3) Good drainage! Be careful when watering only to water the soil. Excessive moisture on the leaves, coupled with warm conditions are attractive to Botrytis, a fungus type of disease, causing leaves to brown and die off. The flower buds are getting bigger and soon will show some colour, on this martagon (left). There are 2 stems this year where there was one last year. Twice the pleasure! |
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The Lily Garden - Ted Alexander - Nov. 5. Christchurch, my home town lies on the East coastal edge of a large plain on the Western edge of which, about 100km inland, there is a large mountain range. Being an island country we always have winds, but the "Nor' Wester", our faughn wind on the Canterbury plains, is dry and dusty after dropping all the moisture it gained from the Tasman Sea on the mountains. It often comes in hot, strong and gusting to about 90km per hour. It very rapidly sucks all moisture from the ground and the vegetation. I grow several hundred lilies, mostly of my own breeding. Most are Aurelian trumpet types and their stems are up to 1 metre tall at present, but their stems are being threshed about as some parts of the garden are exposed directly to the Nor'Wester. I am having to replace the pea straw mulch the wind has blown away, and some of the taller stems have already needed to be secured with bamboo cane. Irrigation at ground level is needed too. The seedlings in the small cool house and those recently planted outdoors are needing extra watering too as long as this drying wind prevails. Throughout this month more lily stems will be staked with bamboo canes. Nice straight stems look better on the show bench! Hopefully not too many Nor'Westers will be with us during this month, although this is typical of November. The wind is very tiring, for both the plants and the gardener! - Ted. (pictured at left) |
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