[A Reyt Tayty]

I need to split some of my big pots of lillies up. I've got one pot out and I need to know which is the best part to replant. Deep down, there are big white bulbs, similar to onions. Higher up near/on the surface, there are smaller bulbs with purplish tops. Which are tyhe best ones to replant please?

[Kristen]

Maybe depends on the type of Lilly but does it look like the smaller bulbs, higher up, have come from stolons/runners? If so those bulbs are fine, but will take a while (a year or two) to grow to flowering size, by which time they will also have developed scales and look more like the main bulb.

The original Lily bulb, with lots of scales, will give you a flowering plant next year.

If you want to propagate some more you might want to remove, say, 4 outer scales (try to get some basal plate with each one) and put them in a plastic bag with some only-just-moist vermiculite, keep at room temperature, and in a couple of months they will have produced bulbils, and maybe leaves too, which you can pot up. They will be 2 - 3 years before flowering though.

[A Reyt Tayty]

Thanks for that.
I've potted up some of each, so I should get results one way or another. The smaller bulbs higher up are directly attached to the main stem. Between the two are some bulbs somewhere inbetween, small versions of the larger mother bulb.............those should be good ones.

[Yorkie]

RHS advice on propagating through the scales here:
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?PID=101

[Kristen]

My attempts at Lily Scaling.  Scales were taken off sometime in February or March, put under my desk loose, and forgotten about 

When I found them on 18-Apr they had already made bulbils and looked like this:



I bagged them up with some vermiculite and on 27-May:




and then on 11-Jun:



Sorry, no newer pictures, but they are looking bonny about 4 to a 9cm pot.

[GYO Girl]

Kristen, that's brilliant!  I'm going to have a go at this, it looks so easy, lily bulbs are so expensive in the shops.