Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Mutant Lilies

In the fall of 2006 I planted 20 "Red Storm" lilies that I got from MI Bulb. They were all planted in the butterfly garden between the house and the garage. Half were planted on the house side and half on the garage side so they do get different amounts of sunlight but being only 15' apart the other conditions are about the same.

This first picture is of some of the ones in the bed on the house side. They've multiplied and look quite normal.

These are the ones planted on the garage side. They, too, have multiplied but the leaves all droop downward and they are only a third as tall as the ones in the other bed. I have planted a short variety of Shasta daisy in with them. Would that affect their growth?

These are the same plants one year ago looking quite normal.

I have tried giving them extra water but it doesn't seem to change the way they look. They are planted around the butterfly puddle which is the dome of an old charcoal grill sunk into the bed but that didn't seem to bother them last year. Has anyone seen lilies do this before? I'm hoping they will bloom but in the mean time they are interesting to watch.

1 comment:

  1. I've never seen lilies do that before. How wierd! I can't imagine that the Shasta Daisies would effect them.
    Have you Googled to try and find out what the cause might be?

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