How to Get Bulbs Out of a Lily Flower

One of the simple joys of gardening is how inexpensive it can be, particularly with bulb plants. You can eventually grow several new plants from one plant. Although there are many plants that share the name "lily," the true lily is in the genus Lilium. True lilies grow from bulbs made of fleshy, overlapping scales with no protective covering and that have basal plates from which the plant's roots grow. The bulbs are fragile and easily bruised. Handle them gently.

Sharp knife
Moist peat and sand
Container

Instructions

- 1
  
  This bulb shows roots emerging from a basil plate.
  
  Dig up lilies when they have been in the ground for at least 4 or 5 years, when overcrowding is a problem. Lilies do not like being disturbed, so it is best to dig bulbs when it benefits them. The sign that bulbs have increased and become overcrowded is when the flowers have thin stems with few blooms. True bulbs develop miniature bulbs, known as bulblets, which are called offsets when full sized. Separate offsets from the mother bulb by carefully cutting with a sharp knife or by gently picking them off by hand. Perform division in the fall after growth is done. Replant offsets immediately for good root growth during winter.
- 2
  Remove a lily bulb's individual scales if no offsets are present. Remove the scales from the main bulb and clean them of dirt or rot. Plant them approximately 1 to 2 inches deep in moist peat and sand. Store them at room temperature. Within three to six weeks, three to five small bulblets should appear on the scales, according to the University of Florida IFAS Extension. When they develop roots, gently remove and plant them. The number of growing seasons they need to flower depends on the bulblet's size, but it usually takes more than a year.
- 3
  Some species of lilies, such as tiger and Asiatic hybrid lilies, produce aerial bulblets, known as bulbils, in the leaf axils, the point where leaves are attached to stems. According to B. Rosie Lerner of Purdue University, bulbils resemble small buds at first, but then become shiny and black, starting near the bottom of the stem, as they mature. Fully matured bulbils drop to the ground shortly after the plant blooms. Harvest bulbils once they've matured, but before they drop. It usually takes 3 years or more for a bulbil to produce a flowering lily.

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