Lily is one of the most common and popular flowers on garden plots. A huge variety of varieties, a wide range of colors and ease of cultivation allow you to create spectacular flower arrangements on your site.
Like all lilies, they need fertile soil and periodic fertilization. Feeding the lily, regular watering, loosening - these are the basic rules of care.
When to apply the first fertilizers for lilies?
The first feeding of lilies is done in early spring, immediately after the snow cover melts. Any nitrogen fertilizer must be added to the soil. An excellent option is ammonium nitrate at the rate of 1 tbsp. l. per 1 sq. meter.
Those who prefer organic fertilizers can use fermented mullein for irrigation (fresh mullein is not suitable for these purposes due to aggressive pathogenic microflora) in a ratio of 1:10.
Ash water (a glass of ash per bucket of water) is also suitable as a fertilizer. It is worth noting that the addition of ash has a beneficial effect on the development of lilies. You can apply it directly to the ground or periodically water it with water and ash throughout the spring and summer. Feeding lilies in the spring is necessary if the bulbs are planted in a new place in April-May.
In this case, well-rotted compost soil (it is better to use ready-made disinfected compost) or leaf humus is added to the soil. You cannot apply fresh manure, even mixed with soil, as there is a high risk of the bulbs rotting along with it.
Feeding lilies during flowering
Moisture-loving lilies need watering, especially at the end of summer, when lush flowering and bulb ripening begin. Water the plants strictly at the roots (without touching the leaves), in the morning or afternoon.
During budding, lilies are fed in the same way as in spring. In addition, you need to carefully mulch the soil with a layer of sawdust or mowed grass. Intense evaporation of moisture leads to drying out of the soil, which is extremely undesirable for lilies during the growing season. Water that gets on the leaves can cause disease. In addition, you need to water not often, but abundantly. Only then does the water reach the roots of the lily, and does not linger in the soil. Overheating of the soil is also very harmful; it affects the life processes in the bulb.
The composition of the soil also plays an important role. If the lilies grow weak or begin to change colors over time, this means that they need to be transplanted to a new place. You need soil that is not too acidic, without any admixture of clay, well fertilized with leaf compost or rotted humus. Loose, fertile soil, cleared of weeds, good drainage and timely moisture contribute to the active growth and lush flowering of lilies during the summer season.
Purchasing planting material is very important - the success of growing lilies depends on timeliness. Before buying bulbs, or ordering through an online store, you need to find out which group of hybrids the selected flower belongs to, perhaps it’s even a species lily, they require special care.
If you are offered lily bulbs of unknown origin, it is better to refuse the purchase - you simply may make a mistake with the choice of location, planting depth and further agricultural technology, but even worse if the lily turns out to be unsuitable for your region in terms of frost resistance.
For example, varieties of LA hybrids or Oriental lilies (Orientals) require shelter if the winters are harsh, while American hybrids are generally very thermophilic and can only be grown in the southern regions or in containers (overwinter in the basement).
For residents middle zone In Russia, the Urals and Siberia, when buying lilies, it is important to know the flowering time, so for Eastern hybrids the flowering period is very extended, some varieties bloom earlier, others later, but late-flowering lilies may not have time to ripen by winter (store up nutrients), and by spring they will be depleted and will die.
If you have the opportunity to examine and touch the bulbs, choose those that are dense, hard, without spots of rotten scales, especially mold, always with living roots at least 5 cm long, and the bulbs of snow-white lily hybrids are viable only if they have good long roots . You should be wary if the bulbs are very dry - a good gardener will not allow this, soaking in water or wrapping with a damp cloth may not help, do not take risks.
Problems with purchasing lilies arise for gardeners if you buy imported bulbs from Holland out of season. The fact is that in the fall, imported bulbs go on sale only from last year's unsold stocks. In October-November, the Dutch only begin to prepare the bulbs for sale: they dig them up, wash them, dry them, put them in cold storage, and they arrive in Russia only in the middle of winter.
Our domestic gardeners, on the contrary, only dig up planting material in the fall. Therefore, in the fall you need to buy bulbs from friends in the garden, through clubs and forums of lily lovers, and at the end of winter and spring - lilies from Europe. However, it is very important to buy bulbs that are in the dormant stage. Sometimes the desire to purchase a beautiful variety is so great that gardeners, without hesitation, purchase bulbs with sprouts, while others are ready to sell lilies immediately after flowering! It is a very common occurrence when at the market you are offered a dug up lily, with a flower that has not yet faded - to prove the authenticity of the variety. You are asked to cut off the peduncle and plant the bulb immediately.
If you experienced florist, then, most likely, you understand how risky it is to buy lilies with sprouts, and even more so, dug up during flowering. The recommendation to break out the sprouts and simply plant them in the ground is especially frightening. It is a huge stress for a plant to survive after its growth is broken, to rebuild its biological rhythms from vegetation to suspended animation. When dug up, lilies that are fragile after flowering take a very long time to recover and take root, and very often die! The survivors bloom weakly and grow bulbs slowly.
Planting lilies
We have already written about this stage of cultivation - read: .
Let's repeat it more briefly:
If you bought the bulbs in late winter or very early spring, before planting in open ground they need to be stored in the refrigerator, in the vegetable compartment or where the temperature ranges from 0 to +4 ° C, no higher, the longer storage is expected, the closer the temperature should approach zero - optimally 0 + 1 ° C. The bulbs should be placed in damp sphagnum moss and plastic bag with holes.
Important: ethylene gas is emitted by almost all fruits and vegetables, and it has a detrimental effect on lily bulbs, so it is necessary to isolate them from fruits and vegetables. Moreover, it is the fruit that needs to be sealed tightly in the bag, not the lilies.
You can keep lily bulbs in the refrigerator until the sprout reaches 5-6 cm. If the sprout has formed ahead of time and it is too early to plant in open ground, do not wait until the bulbs are depleted in the absence of ultraviolet light on chlorotic sprouts - plant them in containers and place them on a glazed balcony, in a film greenhouse, until the frosts have passed. Then simply transfer (reserving the entire contents of the pot) into the prepared holes in the flower beds.
If you missed the moment when sprouts began to appear on the bulbs in storage, and they grew too large, then when planting, place the bulb in the hole at an angle.
If you bought lily bulbs in the fall, plant them immediately or at most they can wait 3-4 days, wrapped in damp moss. If you plant your own lilies, then take into account two important factors:
- Lilies can be divided and replanted only 1.5 months after the end of flowering; this time is necessary for the bulbs to gain mass, store nutrients, they will grow, and look strong and elastic in appearance.
- It is better to divide and plant lilies when the mother bush reaches four and five years of age. By this time, it will have grown enough for the daughter bulbs to easily separate on their own.
Tubular and other large lilies can be planted less frequently - once every 6-7 years. An earlier transplant of lilies may be associated with damage to the flower garden by gray rot, an attack by mice that gnaw the entire flowerbed, or when serious damage was caused by thrips (gnawed on the bulbs) or infected with a virus.
Before planting, the bulbs need to be soaked in the fungicide-protectant Maxim. If the Lily (lily) red beetle has been noticed on your site, it is better to additionally treat the bulbs in the preparation Prestige or Prestigator - it is intended for treating potatoes against the Colorado potato beetle, but it also works well against the lily beetle. Treatment is especially helpful when planting lilies in the spring, since the maximum effect of the drug is observed in the first month (in the fall the bulbs will sleep), but the fully active substance of these insecticides decomposes for more than a year.
We plant lily bulbs in prepared soil to a depth three times greater than the size of the bulbs (excluding Candidum hybrids and immature children - lightly sprinkle them with soil).
After planting, make a small border around the hole, like a tree trunk circle, so that water after watering does not spread into the rows. Now they need to be watered, especially if the soil is dry.
How to care for lilies
To grow and bloom, lilies, like all plants, need light, warmth, regular moisture, protection from diseases and pests, fertilizing, mulching, and tying to supports for tall varieties.
We take into account the need for sunlight when choosing a location.
Many species of lilies available commercially: Lilium leichtlinii, Lilium speciosum, Tiger lily (Lilium tigrinum), as well as Orientals and Tiger hybrids prefer very light partial shade or bright places where there is sun. at least 4-6 hours in the morning or evening.
Asiatic lilies and LA hybrids prefer sunny areas, but also grow normally in light partial shade.
LO hybrids, Trumpet lilies, OT hybrids prefer full sun. But even they sometimes require shading on particularly hot days in the summer. You can organize it by pulling mosquito net or by installing a beach umbrella next to the plantings.
Lilies with a height of more than 50 cm must be tied to a support so that they are not broken by the wind.
Mulching
After planting lilies, the soil must be mulched - straw, peat, pine or leaf litter, pine sawdust. Of all types of mulch, the best is forest litter. If your soil is quite acidic, use leaf litter (from birches, aspens, lindens); if it is close to neutral, you can use coniferous litter from pine trees. But the needles strongly acidify the soil and are not suitable for mulching Tubular hybrids, Lilies regale and others who need slightly alkaline soil.
By the way, OT hybrids that form supra-bulb roots especially need mulching. As soon as they begin to appear above the surface, add soil.
Mulching is necessary so that the soil does not dry out quickly, the surface roots do not overheat in the heat and do not freeze in winter. In addition, the mulch gradually decomposes and creates a new humus layer. Also, mulching allows you not to loosen the rows - with mulch the soil is not compacted and remains porous.
If you have the opportunity to get horse bedding - sawdust mixed with horse manure, then you can use such mulch only after six months - so that the composition has time to rot well and decompose.
If you grow lilies framed by ground cover or low growing plants, mulching is not necessary. Variegated bulbous ryegrass looks very good next to lilies - its variegated leaves are an excellent frame for lilies and protect the soil. By the way, tall lilies look and grow great surrounded by shorter daylilies.
How to water lilies
Lilies prefer the soil to be constantly moderately moist. This is how they grow in nature - in the undergrowth, where a large layer of fallen leaves protects the soil from drying out, but does not create excessive dampness - the soil is very porous. Lilies do not tolerate excess dampness - for them, stagnation of water in the roots is destructive.
Therefore, we carry out watering as needed - in the absence of rain, about once a week, and water should be poured at the root in the inter-row spaces. Best time for watering: morning or before 14-15 hours of the day - the soil should have time to dry from above by night.
Experienced gardeners It is advised to be especially careful with watering in the spring, when recurrent frosts or sudden cold snaps at night are possible. In such cases, many use watering in conjunction with growth regulators and anti-stress drugs - Epin, Zircon, Previscur Energy. This is especially necessary during the budding period.
The greatest need for soil moisture occurs in June, when temperatures are equal day and night, it is very hot during the day, and also after flowering, when the formation of lily bulbs begins and the accumulation of nutrients before the dormant period.
However, waterlogging of the soil is detrimental for lilies, especially when the plantings are dense; if lilies are planted in a flower garden next to plants that need to be watered and fed frequently (for example, roses), diseases develop from constant moisture. Most often it is gray mold and botrytis - fungal disease, typical for bulbous plants (the lower leaves become covered with small spots, turn brown, dry out, flowering is weak, the disease occurs from the bottom up).
The frequency of watering also depends on the type of soil - on light sandy loam soils it is necessary to water more often, on loams (even taking into account their improvement, adding sand and peat) - less often.
After flowering, you must completely stop watering the lilies. The exception is abnormally hot weather in the fall, when the earth dries up into dust, you can water the lily 1-2 times after flowering, until the foliage has completely turned yellow.
Feeding lilies
The first thing to remember is that lilies cannot tolerate any organic matter! You can add humus to poor soil to improve its composition before planting (planting a flower bed), but it must be well-rotted compost - that is, if you bought a car of fresh manure, you can use it for flowers no earlier than four years later.
By the way, lilies are not favored and green manure– freshly cut leaves and weeds, which with love and gratitude accept vegetables – tomatoes, cucumbers – as top dressing.
All organic lilies tolerate well-rotted leaf litter.
In total, it is enough to feed these flowers three times a season:
- in spring, you can use calcium nitrate, twice with an interval of 2 weeks (6 g per 1 liter of water)
- during the period of budding and flowering - complete mineral fertilizer, for example, Fertika Lux, Fertika Universal, or feed with potassium magnesia (1.5 tablespoons per 10 l), feeding every 2 weeks
- after flowering - phosphorus and potassium fertilizers once
In autumn, you cannot replant and fertilize plants at the same time.
Combine all root feedings with watering, do not apply fertilizers on dry soil, only with big amount water.
In addition to root feeding, lilies sometimes need leaf feeding; if chlorosis appears on young leaves, perhaps there is not enough iron, then you need to spray with iron chelate (just not on a sunny day). Iron deficiency manifests itself in soils with an alkaline and neutral reaction, so lilies that are grown on such soils, OT-hybrids, Tubular lilies, Candidum hybrids, are primarily affected. Iron is well absorbed at an acidity pH of 6 and below.
But in addition to iron, neutral and alkaline soils may lack boron and zinc, so these minerals can also be used for foliar feeding, boron is especially useful, as for vegetables, it is diluted at the rate of 5 g per 5 liters of water, for spraying during budding. To compensate for the lack of zinc, add zinc sulfate 2.5 g per 5 liters of water to the solution.
If your soil is slightly acidic, then chlorosis can be caused not by iron deficiency, but by molybdenum deficiency, use complex fertilizer, which contains this element.
Lilies for cutting
Sometimes, when gardeners cannot be in the garden often, they tend to cut blooming lilies in order to take this beauty home with them in a bouquet. But you need to cut lilies correctly:
- Do not cut the peduncle too low, leave as much as possible most in the flowerbed, otherwise the bulbs will not be able to ripen normally.
- Powder the cut area of the stem remaining in the flowerbed with wood ash, then add a drop of medical glue to prevent the wound from rotting.
Lilies after flowering
When lilies fade, remove fading flowers to prevent the formation of seed pods; there is no need to cut the stem itself!
In the fall, when all the leaves turn yellow, you need to cut the stems at a height of 10-15 cm from the ground and leave them like that until spring. In the spring you just need to pull them out of the ground (they practically fall out on their own).
Shelter for the winter
After transplanting lilies in the fall or after final pruning, the flower beds need to be insulated if winters in your region are harsh.
Usually the shelter is multi-layered: rake up leaf litter, for example, from under apple and pear trees, cover with spruce branches or peat. You can lay plastic film on top and press it down with stones.
Oriental hybrids (Orientals) especially need shelter for the winter; in the northwestern regions of Russia they should be covered not with foliage, but with a layer of peat of at least 10 cm, then spruce branches.
In the spring, you need to remove the film and spruce branches, and leave the peat or mulch, but it’s a good idea to water it with special preparations to increase fertility, for example, Baikal-EM1.
It is important to remove the covers in a timely manner, before the lilies begin to grow, so as not to damage the sprouts or to prevent the young shoots from rotting away.
Lilies impress everyone with their beautiful view, delicate aroma and incredible variety of varieties. No gardener can pass by the bulbs of this beauty. Therefore, almost any vegetable garden or garden is decorated with these charming flowers.
Growing lilies yourself is not difficult. You just need to take proper care of it. One of the most important stages of such care is feeding. Fertilizers must be applied according to certain rules:
- It is necessary to carefully observe the time and season of feeding;
- The composition of the fertilizer is very important. This option is suitable for a certain season.
Spring feeding
The first time you need to apply fertilizer for lilies is in early spring, when the soil begins to warm up with the rays of the sun. They do this very carefully. To begin with, loosen the soil from above.
The main thing is not to damage the bulbs. Now you can apply fertilizer, which will stimulate active growth of the plant. The following can be used as feed:
- Organic fertilizers. An exception is fresh cow manure, as it can cause bulb disease and the flowers will die. It is better to use already fermented mullein. It is thoroughly diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10.
- Nitrogen fertilizers. The most popular is ammonium nitrate. It is scattered onto plantings at the rate of 1 large spoon per square meter soil. You can use nitroammophoska. It is enough to scatter its granules over the plantings or prepare a solution (50 grams of product per 10 liters of water).
- Bordeaux mixture. Helps rid flowers of numerous pests that can damage them. In the store you can also buy Lazurin, which is diluted in water (9 liters). It is also advisable to add a little copper sulfate, ammonia and table soda.
- Ash. Another very effective and useful fertilizer for flowers. It can improve microflora directly in the soil. In addition, this is an excellent pest prevention. Lilies begin to grow better and delight gardeners faster with their luxurious and large flowers. Water should be prepared from wood ash. For a glass of product - a bucket of water.
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Summer fertilizers
Experienced gardeners use ash water as fertilizing throughout the summer. It is used about 5 times throughout the entire season. It is thanks to this care that the flowers turn out larger and brighter. The flowers will grow very strong and resistant to any diseases.
In the summer, when buds form, you need to fertilize the plants again with ammonium nitrate. The same solution should be used to treat all parts of the flower. This way they will grow up healthy.
In July, you again need to take care of the lilies with the help of fertilizing. To do this, it is necessary to add fertilizer from two ingredients to the ground: potassium magnesium and double superphosphate. This will strengthen the stems of the flowers, and the color of the buds will be much brighter and more beautiful.
It is important to remember that the fertilizer must be liquid. A granular product will not give the desired effect, because it will not have time to dissolve in the soil in time.
Autumn fertilizers
The next feeding for lilies should be after they have bloomed. Useful for this phosphate fertilizers. They will allow the bulb to significantly strengthen and prepare for the next season. Soluble products are ideal for this. Therefore, superphosphate is not useful.
At the same time, you can treat the plant for botrytis. It is important that the preparation used for this purpose does not contain copper. You can buy Fitosporin in the store.
To prepare the bulbs for wintering, the bed must be carefully covered with leaf humus. A layer of 10-15 cm will be enough. Only in the spring can such a shelter be removed. At the same time, it is convenient to use as mulch.
Fertilizing rules
Lilies need to be fed correctly. Otherwise, you may harm the plant or achieve no results.
- When using store-bought fertilizers, you must strictly follow the instructions on the packaging for dilution and use of the product.
- If the fertilizer is granular, then it must be carefully incorporated directly into the soil and then mulched.
- The usual dose for diluting fertilizer in water is 60 grams per bucket. This is enough to distribute over 1 square meter of beds.
- Liquid fertilizers are very quickly absorbed by plants. They act quickly. But it is not recommended to feed lilies too often in this way. And if necessary, their dose should be reduced by 2 times.
- Dry fertilizer will begin to act only after it is dissolved directly in the soil. Therefore, it is necessary to provide moderate watering immediately after applying fertilizers.
- The longest-lasting in action are granular preparations. They dissolve gradually. This means they start acting very late.
There's no need to go overboard to admire your lilies in the garden. Caring for them is very simple. The main thing is to apply fertilizers on time, and then the plants will delight you with their abundant and bright flowering, from which you will not be able to take your eyes off!
How to grow and feed flowers
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Lily is simply a magnificent flower, one of my favorites. They are everywhere in my garden - in single plantings and group plantings on the lawn, in flower beds, and in compositions with other perennials. The luxurious lily sometimes outshines even roses with its lush, bright blooms, but it does not require such complex care.
However, in order for lily flowers to be large, bright, and delight their owners for a long time, the lily definitely needs feeding. Without this, flowering will lose its charm.
At the same time, lilies need to be fertilized in the spring, before budding, and in the summer, before flowering, and in the fall, after the lilies have bloomed. In this case, fertilizers must be different. And you need to know what to feed the lilies.
You need to know that lilies, regardless of their variety, love fertile soil. And if your lilies are planted in a garden plot. where the soil is rich in nutrients, then the first few years they will bloom beautifully without fertilizing.
However, in any case, after some time the soil will be depleted and will have to be improved. If the soil is initially not very fertile, then it must be fertilized before planting.
At the same time, before applying fertilizers, you need to understand what type of soil is on your site.
Soil happens:
- clayey or loamy;
- sandy;
- limestone;
- peat
If your site is clayey, before planting lilies you need to add sand, peat and organic fertilizer - for example, manure - to the soil. The area must be prepared in advance by carefully digging it up and mixing it into a homogeneous composition.
You need to add more organic fertilizers to the sandy soil and also dig up the area before planting lilies. Limestone soil is prepared for planting lilies in the same way.
But to peat soil, for every square meter you need to add at least four buckets of sand and two buckets of clay. Then the soil will become suitable for planting lilies.
When the soil is ready, lilies can be planted in it, and this can be done both in spring and autumn. However, it is best to plant and replant lily bulbs in late summer - early autumn. This is the most optimal time for landing.
Caring for lilies in spring
Spring feeding is very important for the future flowering of lilies. In spring, lilies really need nitrogen, as well. and other plants. Therefore, when thinking about what to feed lilies in the spring, definitely choose nitrogen-containing fertilizers.
In spring, lilies are fertilized twice:
- the first time before the snow finally melted. You need to scatter urea or ammonium nitrate directly over the snow cover. For the first spring feeding, two tablespoons of fertilizer will be enough;
- Fertilizers are applied the second time when the first shoots have already appeared, usually in May. Ammonium nitrate is diluted in water, and the resulting liquid is applied directly to the soil next to the plant. In this case, the fertilizing quickly penetrates the barks and has an excellent effect on the bulbs.
Around this time, the sprouts should be treated with Bordeaux mixture; this is a very useful manipulation for the growth of lilies, which is a prevention of many diseases.
Caring for lilies in summer
Feeding lilies in summer is an essential component of flower care. Fertilizer is necessary both for the development of buds and for good and long flowering of lilies.
Before flowering, after the formation of buds, you need to again apply ammonium nitrate diluted in water under the root of the flower.
Immediately before flowering, in July, when the buds have already begun to bloom, double superphosphate (10 g per 10 l) should be added to the bud. Also, potassium magnesium, which is dissolved in water (15 g per 10 l), is well suited for fertilizer at this time.
In addition, lilies respond very well to the addition of wood ash to the soil (approximately 100 grams per 1 sq.m.). Fertilizing with wood ash helps to strengthen the plant, as well as brighter and richer flowering.
Ash can be added throughout the entire period of plant growth, from May to September, and it will not cause any harm. It is advisable to water the ash scattered near the lilies with water, making it easier for it to access the roots of the plant.
The latest feeding in summer is applied to the soil after the lilies have bloomed. This is done so that the bulb recovers and gets stronger after flowering. You can use superphosphate and potassium sulfate for this feeding.
This feeding is usually carried out at the end of August or beginning of September. This is the main feeding, after which you no longer need to fertilize the lilies.
It should be remembered that after flowering, the lily stems should not be cut off under any circumstances - it is thanks to the juices in the green stem that remains after flowering that the bulb in the ground feeds, gaining strength for a long winter. In the summer, all the nutrients necessary for the bulb are stored in the above-ground part.
The stems of lilies should be cut only after they have turned yellow and withered, that is, they stand almost until frost. And even if bare stems irritate your aesthetic sense and look ugly, you cannot cut them.
Try to camouflage them with greenery by planting some plants next to the lilies that will hide the stems with their leaves.
Many plants and flowers are combined with lilies, both perennial and those that can be planted every summer, changing the design of your garden and its color palette.
For example, perennial hostas with large bright leaves look great near lilies. They grow up to 50-70 cm tall, and will cover the ugly protruding stems almost completely.
Low roses look very good near the lilies, which with their lush leaves will also hide unsightly stems at the end of summer. If you choose ground cover roses of different colors, you can achieve a very interesting effect.
Some conifers, which, like lilies, love sunny places (for example, some types of junipers feel good in bright sun), will perfectly complement group plantings of lilies and add charm and sophistication to your flowerbed.
Fluffy needles of yew or creeping junipers perfectly decorate tall stems of lilies.
Lilies look great next to peonies. At the same time, their flowering time is different, and when the peonies have already faded, the lilies will just begin to appear buds.
At the same time, peonies, unlike lilies, even after they have bloomed, thanks to the beautiful carved leaves, do not lose their decorative effect and will perfectly camouflage the tall stems of lilies.
Caring for lilies in autumn
Lilies definitely need to be prepared for winter. Despite the fact that this plant tolerates cold well and overwinters without any problems, it is nevertheless better to play it safe and help the flower withstand winter frosts, which can be very severe.
In addition, not all varieties of lilies are resistant to cold weather. While Asiatic lilies tolerate frost quite well, oriental and trumpet lilies are not so resistant and can die without preparation. These types of lilies should be given special attention.
Therefore, the area of the garden where lilies grow needs to be prepared for winter. First, use a sharp pruner to cut off the withered stems.
You need to cut the stem not at ground level, but leaving a small piece above the soil, no higher than 15 cm, maybe even a little less.
It is advisable to cut the stem at an acute angle, so you will be safe from infection.
Then the soil in which the bulbs will remain for the winter must be covered (mulched) with dry leaves, sawdust or humus. The thickness of the layer of such a coating should be at least several centimeters, then the bulbs will feel great in the ground even in the most very coldy.
If you live in areas with harsh winters, where there are severe frosts and little snow falls, it is advisable to additionally put spruce branches on a layer of mulch, which will protect the lilies from freezing.
This will allow the bulbs to overwinter and again delight you with abundant flowering next year. In addition, mulch will serve as an excellent spring fertilizer for the bulbs.
How to open lilies after wintering
It must be remembered that it is dangerous to open lilies in the spring either too early, while there is still a chance of frost, which can be quite severe at night, or to keep them under a layer of leaves and sawdust.
In the first case, lilies will begin to germinate in the spring sun, but night frosts, which can be quite severe, can destroy fragile young shoots.
If you leave the sprouts under a layer of mulch until the weather warms up, then due to the lack of sun, the shoots that begin to emerge from the warmed-up soil will be pale and thin, or even die due to dust and excessive moisture.
Therefore, it is necessary to remove the cover in a timely manner and gradually. You can leave a thin layer of mulch, through which tender sprouts will already emerge, on the surface of the soil. This will protect the lilies from freezing during spring night frosts, and in addition, will serve as very good food for the bulbs that are beginning their growing season.
If you follow our advice, do not neglect feeding your flowers, and make sure that your lilies feel good at any time of the year, they will definitely thank you with abundant, long-lasting flowering.
During the spring and summer, the bulbs of these beautiful flowers need to increase their green mass, “bring” the aboveground part of the lily to flowering, complete this process and prepare for the new one. Without proper nutrition, a lily is unlikely to cope with such enormous loads. Spring feeding will enhance not only the growth of the plant, but also its flowering. That is why the first fertilizing should be done after, as soon as the roots of the plant can absorb nutrients.
To do this, it is necessary that the soil warms up to at least +6 °C. Most often, this temperature occurs in mid-May (in the northern regions, warm weather may set in a little later). To accurately determine the time of fertilization, pay attention to the lily seedlings, which should reach at least 10 cm, and the leaves of the plant should begin to move away from the stem. But it is not recommended to apply fertilizers earlier - the roots will not be ready.
Fertilizer for garden lilies
Fertilizing can also harm the plant. A high concentration of mineral additives in the soil can negatively affect the flower: the plant will begin to develop more slowly, roots and aboveground part will be lethargic and prone to illness.
When it comes to organic fertilizers, such as compost, it is worth remembering that weed seeds are often found in such additives. They grow much faster than lilies; as a result of such feeding, it may happen that the grown weeds begin to choke out the flower seedlings and take light and nutrients from them. As a result, careful and frequent weeding and weed removal are indispensable.
If the soil on your site is not tired of perennial plantings, it contains a lot of humus, then the first few years after planting lily bulbs, there is no need to feed the plants. But if the earth is not happy useful microelements, has a poor composition, you can’t do without fertilizing, or the plants will be weak.
In order for flowers to develop well and grow throughout the summer season, in the spring they need abundant nitrogen in the soil. One of the fertilizer options during this period is the use of ammonium nitrate, which is applied at the rate of one spoon per square meter of soil. Ammonium nitrate can be replaced with nitroammophoska.
Nitroammofoska for lilies
Use fermented mullein solution, diluting it with water in a ratio of 1:10. It is undesirable to use fresh mullein because of its “aggressive” microflora, as a result of which lily bulbs can become sick and die. In spring, you can feed lilies with an ash solution: dissolve 200 g of sifted wood ash in 10 liters of water. You can either add it along with watering or add it little by little to the soil throughout the spring once a week.
You can also add manure humus or rotted compost to the soil where lily bulbs are planted. It is best to use crumbly vermicompost, which is formed as a result of the vital activity of earthworms. But under no circumstances use fresh manure - the flower bulbs will immediately rot.
In summer it is also very important to apply fertilizers rationally. Experienced gardeners recommend using for these purposes wood ash, which is applied about 5 times during the summer season. This fertilizer will have a positive effect on the growth of the plant, thanks to which you can get larger flowers: if you carry out the work according to all the rules, the flowers will be lush, bright and large. In addition, summer feeding will help lilies be more resistant to various diseases.
During the formation of buds, it is advisable to once again add ammonium nitrate to the soil, and also treat all vegetative parts of the flower with suitable pest control compounds, which will make the lilies even healthier. The next stage of summer feeding begins in mid-July. You need to add double superphosphate substrate to the soil and Calimagnesia. This fertilizing will help strengthen the above-ground part of the plant and make the flowers more vibrant. This will be especially noticeable when you planted lilies with pink or bright red flowers.
When carrying out work during the flowering of lilies, it is advisable to use fertilizers in liquid form. Granular formulations will be ineffective - there is too little time for complete dissolution in the soil and absorption by the plant. It is also more effective to fertilize after abundant watering.