Topic: Lily of the valley

[LauraB]

I would love to grow some of this, and I've bought bulbs in the past (admittedly, just throwing them in a shady spot in the garden  :-[) but they've never grown.

Where might I be going wrong?

[manicscousers]

mine either, a/get eaten by slugs or b/ rot off
I love these flowers so I'd like some advise as well, would they be better in pots as our soil's really heavy clay and we have everyone's supply of slugs  :)

[Palustris]

Well, we do not have that many slugs (hens eat the eggs!) and our soil is a well drained silt and we have a patch of about 6 which never flower and do not spread, so I guess it is not the slugs or the clay which is the problem.

[Tee Gee]

My Lily of the Valley grows like weeds and thrive on neglect.

They are in the shade between two garages most of the day.

They only get the sun for about an hour a day as you can see in the attached picture they are do quite well there..

[Georgie]

I grow mine in pots and slugs don't seem to be a problem (for once).  I bought them as bulbs and they took three years before they flowered but it was worth the wait.  All I do is top dress the soil with leaf mould in Autumn and spray them with a seaweed solution when they are in bud.

G x

[lorna]

Believe it or not (being the novice that I am) a neighbour gave me about 3 lily of the valley in plant form about 3 years ago, I just popped them in a spare patch in the garden They have just spread and spread. In fact I will have to get rid of some. Can anyone tell me how I can pass spares on to someone else? When and how please?

[saddad]

We have heavy clay and they are rampant inour shady dell. I split them and pass them on in the green... ie once the leaves have opend I just rive at the root mass... put in a poly bag and hand over...
 ;D

[lorna]

Thanks Saddad. Will now be able to pass some on.

[triffid]

Saddad's method works excellently for me too, but you can also divide and share a little earlier in the season if you want to.

As soon as you see the sheathed leaf buds just break the soil, you can have a little scuffle in the soil around; they have fleshy roots and as long as you get a decent bit for each leaf bud they've always been fine when I've done this for give-aways. As the leaf buds are quite snappable at that stage, spread them out in a pot/ food tray/ seed tray rather than a poly bag.

My lily-of-the-valley do me proud. In return, the poor things get a diet of shade, clay soil, neglect and (till this coming season) not much water either, as they've been growing at the feet of a sprawling juniper which I hacked down at the start of winter. They'll probably all faint and die at the shock!