Lilly's

[russweth]

Please could someone advise me on Lilly's i've grown them in the greenhouse 1 bulb per plant pot, lovely show but what next, how do i overwinter? Do i take them out of the pots and replant next year,

[russweth]

[goodlife]

Well...keep them watered until the foliage start dying down. If the foliage is still fully green, dose of tomato fertilizer would do good for building the bulbs up for next year.
Once the top growth is died down..you can either leave them as they are in their pots and cutting dead tops off and allowing the compost to dry out and re-pot accordingly or refreshing the existing compost in spring once the new growth starts.....OR.....once the tops have died down, empty the pots from old compost, clean the bulbs from old and dead growth and re-pot into fresh compost and they are ready to emerge in spring as and when they are ready.

Personally I like to deal with the lily bulbs in autumn after the tops have died. When you deal with them 'now' and get rid of the old compost you also deal with any possible pests that will be lurking in the compost and your bulbs will over winter in best possible condition and once the growth start you don't need to disturb the bulbs anymore, by the time you see new growth they've made lots of roots. I even got to the effort of 'washing' the bulbs. Once they've been taken out of old compost and most it shaken off from old roots..I dunk the bulbs one at the time into bucket of water to get rid of all the old compost and if there should be any vine weevil grubs that LOVE to hide amongst the lily bulb scales..they will be dealt with in the wash.. ;) Then I just plant the bulbs and let them over winter..indoors or out..it doesn't matter as they are hardy for outdoors. Only time I would overwinter them in 'indoors' in unheated GH or shed is when the pots are not very big..but you have any planted in groups into larger pots those will be fine outdoors. 'Indoor' pots I don't water at all during winter so the compost stay quite dry.

[russweth]

Thank you for your advise, i will follow your suggestions. Thanks again...