Lilies, do you want more ?

likely that the survival behavior in this case is responsible for the urgency to reproduce, to ensure its own survival. Irrespective the reason, the gardener can benefit from this by harvesting the bulbs and rapidly multiplying the stock.

Care for lilies and offsets

• Dig a hole and cover a lily bulb with at least twice as much soil as the height of the lily bulb.
• Make sure the planting hole is well draining, and improve the growing conditions by mixing in plenty of well aged organic matter, such as compost. Avoid fresh manure.
• Fertilize lilies twice per year: in the spring as they break the surface of the soil, and again as they are about to flower.
• Water well during the growing season to avoid draught stress. This will prolong the flower show and avoid bud drop.
• Bulblets should be planted shallowly in loose friable soil and can initially be spaced very close. Eventually they need to be spaced adequately.
• Deadhead flowering lilies after the petals start to fall. Make sure you also remove the puffy green seed pods which develop unless you wish to harvest the seeds.
• Leave the main flower stem untouched to conduct photosynthesis until it ripens (turn yellow and wither) on it's own in late summer or fall. Except for deadheading, do not cut or remove the green flower stem.
• In fall, the bulblets can be harvested from the stem roots of the withered flower stem and replanted; Bulbils should be harvested soon after flowering from the leaf axis.
• The next few years, let the immature young lily stems grow and conduct photosynthesis just as you would the mature lily.

If you end up with too many bulblets, you can always send a few my way..

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Sources Used:
"Production of Asiatic and Oriental Lilies as Cut Flowers", by Russell Balge, et al.

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