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whats best?

whats best plant lily bulbs in pots? or in the ground?

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  • In my garden one does as well as the other but the benifit of planting in pots is that I can move them around when they're in bloom so I can easily smell them. I always have a pot in bloom by the front door for weeks on end.

  • BookertooBookertoo Posts: 1,306

    I have grown lilies in pots for many years, and some in the ground too.  With pots the lilies can be moved to somewhat sheltered places in the winter if your area is prone to hard frosts, and you can put a pot of lilies in an area where something hasn't quite worked.  After flowering they can be tucked away to be fed and nurtured until the following season.  However, unless you are severely plagued with lily beetle, as so many of us are, they are longer lived in the ground in my experience.  I have some that are coming up to 18 years in the same spot, after several years in pots.  One other advantage of pots, if you do have lily beetle, and prefer not to use chemicals on the whole, you can use something horrible for the potted lilies and nothing else in the garden.  We've had to resort to that a couple of times or have dead sticks intend of flowers.

    Some of the smaller ones are good in pots as you can position them where you want to see them.  Either way, provided you can keep them lily beetle free and out of  the most severe wind they are pretty easy to care for. 

  • OneofsevenOneofseven Posts: 338

    I grow all my lilies in pots, those large black plastic pots from Morrisons, and then just pop the whole thing into a larger fancy pot when they are close to flowering.  When they have finished looking beautiful I just change it for another close to flowering black pot(!!), and so it goes.   So far, and fingers crossed, I have not been troubled by the lily beetle. 

  • Thanks everyone, pots it is then xxx

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,888

    I remember a lily specialist at Chelsea saying never use MPC, only use ericaceous compost for them as they hate lime.

    Devon.
  • I've heard that too but have always grown mine in MPC.

  • BookertooBookertoo Posts: 1,306

    So have I, with a bit of vermiculite for drainage - never found they dislike lime.

  • Tropical SamTropical Sam Posts: 1,488

    Pots, as you can manage watering, pests, feed and drainage. I personally find too many pots fussy, so all my lilies are in the ground.

  • CharlieBotCharlieBot Posts: 208
    I did both last year and the container one flowered slightly earlier. One in the ground was poisoned by cat poop. Have moved them this year and added some tree lillies from wilkos, worth a go for a couple of pounds I thought. I had a few lily beetles last year but no major damage thankfully.
  • Zoomer44Zoomer44 Posts: 3,267

    I grow lillies in flower buckets which are kept in a sheltered spot until florishing and then the plastic pots are put into terracotta one's and placed around the garden. After flowering the plastic pots go back to the sheltered spot. 

    For the past few years lily beetle has been a problem so I've been repotting the bulbs into fresh compost, now is the time to do that and then some plastic pots will go into the GH and some outside, by May all the pots are outside.

    I've found this produces a longer flowering period, with the GH one's flowering first.     

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