Lilies are some of the oldest ornamental plants on the planet. If you’re thinking about starting your own lily-growing journey, you’re joining a gardening tradition that goes back thousands of years!
Working with Seeds
When it comes to propagating lilies, you’ve generally got two ways to go about it: dividing the bulbs or starting from seed. While dividing bulbs gives you a genetic “twin” of the original plant, growing from seed is a bit of a wildcard—you can’t always be sure the blooms will be the exact same color as the mother plant.
A Little Patience Goes a Long Way
I’ll be honest with you: growing lilies from seed takes a lot more patience than simply dividing them. The main reason is that lily seeds can be a bit unpredictable when it comes to germination. Some might sprout in just a few days, while others can take two years (or even longer!) to wake up. If you’re looking for a quick way to fill your garden with color, bulb division is definitely your best bet.
Don’t Deadhead Just Yet
Before you can get to the planting stage, you’ll need to harvest seeds from the lilies you already have planted. Here’s the trick: don’t remove the spent flowers during the blooming season. Usually, we deadhead to encourage more flowers, but the seeds inside aren’t ripe yet. You have to wait until the seed pods form and actually crack open on their own. Once that happens, you can collect the seeds and either dry them out or keep them in the fridge until next spring.
Targeted Pollination
If you want to get serious about breeding specific varieties, you’ll want to grab a pair of tweezers during the flowering stage. You can use them to carefully move pollen from one lily onto the stigma of another variety. Once those seeds are finally ripe and ready to go, here’s your game plan:
- Start by soaking the seeds in water for about two days.
- Fill your pots with a high-quality seed-starting mix.
- Place the seeds in the pots and cover them with just a light dusting of soil.
- Keep the soil consistently moist, but be careful not to let it get soggy!
