Content
- Hobby gardeners take care: Lilies breed themselves
- The seeds bring diversity
- When are the seeds ripe and what do they look like?
- Actively intervene during the flowering season
- Tips & Tricks
You can even grow new lilies by pollinating one lily with another's pollen
Hobby gardeners take care: Lilies breed themselves
In the world of lilies it can be hard to keep track. The number of varieties is incredibly large. Discovering them all costs time and money. So how about cultivating lilies yourself?
The seeds bring diversity
If you propagate lilies over their seeds, you will end up with plants that usually have different characteristics than the mother plant. Whether in terms of willingness to flower, disease resistance, flower size, flower color, etc. - this method of propagation is exciting, but not for the impatient. Impatient gardeners prefer to grow lilies on their onion scales.
When are the seeds ripe and what do they look like?
The seeds of lilies usually mature in the fall. When they are ripe, the elongated capsule fruits, in which they are strung together like rolls of money, burst open. The seeds are:
Actively intervene during the flowering season
You can use the seeds of lilies to grow new varieties. But real breeders already intervene during the heyday of lilies. When pollinating, lily lovers can 'play god'.
It is ideal if two varieties are in flower at the same time. Most lilies bloom between June and July. Use a pair of tweezers to remove pollen from the flowers of a lily. If the other variety flowers at the same time, give these pollen to the flowers of the other variety. Otherwise, keep the pollen until the other variety is in bloom.
It continues as follows:
Tips & Tricks
Varieties that you have already pollinated should be marked with a shield. In addition, it is recommended to write down which variety you have crossed with which.