[Diddy Gardener]

Hi,

I have several pots with asiatic lillies on my patio. One of the pots has young plants in it e.g. only one bud per stalk... they seem to be rotting. The leaves on some of them are going brown and soft, and the buds are also becoming affected - a couple of the stalks are completely dead.

The rest of the pots with the more mature plants in them are fine (I hope!).

Any ideas? I thought it might be the weather as it has been very wet, but nothing else seems to have been adversely affected.

[Hey Jude]

Hi Diddy, I'm no lily expert but it could well be too wet and because they're younger plants they might be drowning, I throw quite a bit of grit in with my compost for bulbs. Or could there be a problem with the compost itself, is there anything wriggling around in there that shouldn't be?  Jude.

[Trillium]

Lilies definitely do not like too much water, and if the pot sat in some sort of saucer, it just made things worse. It's highly recommended at lily planting time that you set the bulb in a mound of soil so it's raised for better drainage. Sounds like your pot didn't quite match the needs. And once rotted, no hope. Lots of grit in the potting mix doesn't do that much if water accumulates or the pot gets too saturated.

Also, potted lilies need regular feeding since they'll quickly deplete pot nutrients. BFB and some fertilizer are good.

[Diddy Gardener]

Thanks for the replies... I guess it looks like too much water then - I'll know better next time!