Planting an Asiatic or Oriental Lily from a Pot

Gardening tip: Planting an Asiatic or Oriental Lily from a pot into the garden with minimal disturbance after your purchase to avoid stressing the plant and losing the blooms. I know this may go against everything you read, see, and hear about planting and transplanting potted plants. However, from my years of experience (and love of Asiatic and Oriental lilies) I have found that the less you disturb the bulbs and roots when planting, the better off the blooms are.

After all, you buy the plant for its blooms from the garden center, right? You read the tag and it gives you the generic instructions for planting any plant but then you think “what will happen to the blooms?” I am here to to tell you that those tags should be ignored when it comes to planting Asiatic or Oriental lilies when you buy them blooming from the store. The plant is already stressed from being shipped in a truck across country, unloaded at the big box store where many times they are not properly watered or even taken off the rack to breathe, crowded and knocked around by employees and customers trying to find the perfect plant and then purchased to be brought home and sit on the deck in the hot sun or patio waiting for their new home…

Planting an Asiatic Or Oriental lily from a pot is easy and below are the steps:

• Find your spot in the garden where they will get at least 6 hours of sun
  • Water the lily really well before planting if the soil is dried out (this helps keep the root ball together)
  • Asiatic and Oriental lilies will grow next to other perennials in the garden
• Remember that after the blooms fall off, the leaves and stems of the lilies will slowly die off in the garden
  • hint: plant close to other perennials such as daylilies and hostas so the Asiatic and Oriental lilies are a part of the garden not the feature
  • Asiatic and Oriental lilies are favorite food of deer who like the flowers and the voles who like to eat their bulbs and roots
  • let the stems die naturally- do not cut them down
• Dig the hole no deeper than the rootball of the plant and about an inch or two around
• Carefully hold your palm over the top of the soil on the pot and tilt and gently slide the Asiatic lily out of the pot
• Carefully place in the hole to make sure the soil level of the Asiatic lily root ball is level with the ground
  • here is a quick video of me planting an Asiatic lily in a client’s garden
• Once the plant is in place, carefully crumble the soil and fill in the sides of the hole around the lily gently compacting the soil. There is no need to amend the soil or add anything. When you mulch around the plant (I have 3-4″ of mulch in my beds), you will leave a space of about 2-3″ away from the stems of the lilies
• Water the next morning and do not forget to keep watered for 30 days not letting the plant dry out but not drowning it either
• ENJOY the beauty but note that the lily will most likely not bloom the same time next year because they are forced to bloom for the garden centers (because homeowners will not buy non blooming plants)

Thank you for stopping by and if you ever have a question feel free to contact me.

Creating. Inspiring. Gardening without the rules!

2016 copyrighted material C Renee Fuller @The Garden Frog Boutique