We all love to see our gardens brimming with blossoming, beautiful flowers, but while we all love flowers, not all of us can plant or at least take care of these flowers with the changing weather conditions throughout the year. Some flowers are easier to grow and develop than others, and one we’d like to focus on in this blog post is the lily. Below are just a few useful tips on how to grow and take care of lily bulbs:
Preparations
You will need to plant the lilies in March during the autumn season; this will give the flowers enough time to form strong roots before the winter hits. It is advisable to prepare them in large containers that will be used for the planting. Planting the bulbs in containers allows you to move them into a warmer area just in case winter hits early or during cold days.
In preparing the planting site, dig a deep enough preferably three times the size of the lily bulb in the ground or use a big container, with some decomposed manure if you can find any. Then simply add it to the soil or use some bulb food that will enrich the flower with the much-needed nutrients during its few weeks of growth. The planting location should be at an area that receives at least six hours of direct sunlight. After observing all the above, you can go ahead and plant your lily bulbs, but for better results plant the lilies in groups of threes.
Mulching
The lily bulbs do not really require a lot of attention after planting, although you will probably be tempted to check on them every now and then. That’s fine, yet you need to provide some mulch for the flowers to protect them from the harsh winters and you will also have to water them on a regular basis. The lilies require thick mulch before winter hits and this will give the roots more time for growth. These are just a few tips on the planting of lilies however; you can conduct further research on more planting and caring tips on the same online.
There are a few more things you will need to know about lily bulbs, such as the fact that the Red Lily Beetle is one of the main pests affecting lilies, but they can also suffer from grey mould and slug and snail damage. To counter this problem, you simply need to check on them every day and make sue pests are dealt with quickly and efficiently, whilst you may also need tog guard against waterlogging too. To do this, we recommend you stand containers in the rain shadow of a wall or keep in an unheated greenhouse or in a shed.
Last but not least, you will need to make sure the compost is moist at all times, but not wet. So we’d say your best bet is to feed them with a high potassium liquid fertiliser such as tomato feed every fortnight during summer.