The Orchid Garden

OT: Lilies…can you cultivate these?

Question:

Elinor is right, it is fix or repair daily.

Thats a relief. The only anagram I could come up with utilised a defferent f word than fix……. Kye.

Response:

I would be wary of lilies in an orchid greenhouse…many lilies I have bought turn out to be virused…in fact, I have heard that this is a major problem with Dutch grown lilies. In fact, virus may be the reason your lilies don’t make it more than one season. Healthy lilies thrive outdoors, getting larger each year. Virused lilies get smaller each year and rarely bloom. Take care, Eric Muehlbauer

Response:

I had written you a book and hit the send button when my F.O.R.D. computer crashed.  Needless to say, I wasn’t able to save.  No worries, it wasn’t a best seller. In a nutshell, Lilies(Lilium) are miserable pot plants.  They don’t do a thing for you when you smoke them.  If you were to ask most commercial growers which plants they dislike growing, lilies would be at or near the top.  Bulbous plants as well as those that come from corms or tubers have developed this feature for a reason.  It enables them to get through periods of cold, dry, heat, etc., etc.  When conditions are favorable once more, they resume growth .  They are also food storage organs.  Lilies grow, bloom, renew the bulb and die back.  After being vernalized(winter cold period) they start the cycle over.  If you can duplicate their requirements, you may have some success.  They can be beset by many problems.  Read a book or search the web for lily pot culture.  My suggestion is to buy vernalized bulbs, force them into bloom, enjoy them, and then throw them out or plant to the garden.  The reblooming is where you will run into the headaches.  A good location and Mother Nature will do a far better job than you or I. I have never heard of anyone rooting lily cuttings.  I have heard of people rotting them though.  Lilies do produce bulbils in the axils of the leaves which can be grown on into flowering sized bulbs after a few years.  They also produce offsets below ground which can be dug up and transplanted.  The scales of the bulb can be broken off to produce a new plant.   If you were to score the basal plate, each section would produce a bulb.  Good luck in whatever you decide. Stephen

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I’m thinking about growing these in a greenhouse, under lamps.  I’ve noticed that you buy bulbs, they grow for the season, and that’s it. Can you take cuttings from them, and root them, and keep them alive under HPS lighting? Thx "Put it down Heavy, Pick it up Lean;   Ya gotta lay it down dirty and play it back clean" GD

Response:

Hi Eric, You are spot on there… virus infection in lilies is a nightmare, especially the Dutch grown export stock.  It is not the case for some growers. Always thought it curious and interesting if you go round the Dutch commercial trade shows – you do not see any symptoms….I am sure you can guess why! You are right to warn John you never want to bring them anywhere near or inside an orchid house. The major reason for a problem with Dutch stock is their cutting techniques before they export bulbs for sale. It is quicker to cut the blooms (to sell or debud) with one knife than stop, exchange, sterilize, or flame the blade….many growers adopt this technique. One grower told me it was all down to speed and economics. Later they can rougue out symptom expressing plants or not! Alstromeria … they are groaning under the infections. The same is also true for many Cymbidium growers!! Grow the plant for cut flowers for a few years, cutting madly, then when the yield goes down, cut them up, repot and sell them next year cheap as a housplant to unsuspecting public – as you do not want them in your own growing houses. Buying in new tc produced material for the next crop. I wonder about the debudding and cutting spikes on Phal crops too, as a means to get the plants upto size!! Can be worrying stuff. Regards Alan L Winthrop http://www.tissuequickplantlabs.com

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I would be wary of lilies in an orchid greenhouse…many lilies I have bought turn out to be virused…in fact, I have heard that this is a major problem with Dutch grown lilies. In fact, virus may be the reason your lilies don’t make it more than one season. Healthy lilies thrive outdoors, getting larger each year. Virused lilies get smaller each year and rarely bloom. Take care, Eric Muehlbauer

Response:

Reka- that is likely to be Fix Or Repair Daily- A good name for computers these days. …..Elinor

Response:

Elinor is right, it is fix or repair daily.  Years ago when cars were fairly easy to work on, people wrote derogatory anagrams(?) to the major manufacturers automobiles.  Somewhere I have a list but the only one I remember is Ford.  Cause it is not my computer that is at fault, it is the software on it.  The more software, the more problems.  I am one of those fools who is always downloading little programs that amuse me or that I think might be handy.  Invariably, something goes wrong and I tell myself I will never do that again until the next one comes along that might temporarily abate my endless quest for amusement.  Trying to solve the problems does give one’s mind a small workout.  Small is all my mind can handle. Stephen

Okay, Stephen, I’ll bite…what’s F.O.R.D.??  Nothing to do with Gerald, I hope–though he crashed down a couple of times…<grin. Reka Stephen schrieb: I had written you a book and hit the send button when my F.O.R.D. computer crashed.

Response:

I’m thinking about growing these in a greenhouse, under lamps.  I’ve noticed that you buy bulbs, they grow for the season, and that’s it. Can you take cuttings from them, and root them, and keep them alive under HPS lighting? Thx "Put it down Heavy, Pick it up Lean;   Ya gotta lay it down dirty and play it back clean" GD

Response:

Filed under: Cymbidium Orchids

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