hi

several of my regale lilies and golden splendour have flower buds that are deforming. any ideas on what has caused this?

lilymanrob. I suspect this condition was caused by a weather/stress related event that occurred sometime during the winter months. It would have been during the time the bulb was programing the number of buds it was planning to produce for the upcoming season. I would like to know where you are located and see more pictures of the foliage. There can be other causes, too, like possibly a temporary stress occurring now such as turning hot too fast or a sudden dry spell. It doesn't look like a virus from what I can see from the pictures, but a virus can cause distorted buds as well.

ill post another close up later (when ive time), im in derby, uk, we have had alot of cold nights so far this year, but its been quite sunny and dry with a nagging fresh wind.

they are sited in a lot of shade too, think i should have grown them in a sunnier position until they were coming into bloom (loads in post, but patio is north facing so quite un-sunny until june)

Quite often, spring planted bulbs in pots will exhibit this condition as well because the soil in pots warms up rather quickly and new growth begins to emerge from the bulb before a good root system is established. When the reserves in the bulb become depleted below a certain level, the bulb will sense it no longer can support the secondary buds and it will abort them to maintain it's own health. Don't be surprised if some of these turn yellow and drop off. Next year the plant and buds should develop normally, if this is the case.

trouble is... the regale lilies were ok last year. i bought a job lot from a nursery when they were in full bloom...offered them £30 for 21 flowering plants, they agreed! lol they were pot bound and obviously hadnt sold the year before as the previous seasons stalk could be seen and several were double stemmed. i re-potted them over winter, now quite a few are blind and others have this deformed bud thing.

heres a pic of a deformed bud... hope it helps, thanks


it just crumbles away, without forming a flower.

How well lilies do in the currant year largely depends on how well they did the year before, they suffered from being in a pot the year before. By next year they should be OK. I have much of this now living in a horrible climate and it is hotter than hell now and has been for at least 1 month, plus more hot and very dry wind than normal. I have lots and lots of deformed and burned buds and more to come.

I have seen this in the lilies in the ground and in the ones in the pots........just the odd one but you can see the deformed heads.....
the lily breeder told me that sometimes the temps flux can affect this.........and rain as well
we go from HOT HOT to cold cold and dry dry to wet and everything in between
a lot of the new lilies here that were planted last fall have great foliage but very few flowers......My ones in the pot are making no sense at all............ but apparently then can bloom way around of time....in the pots... this has not be a typical summer around here......

the lack of consistent warm temps are putting all the trumpets behind the times here too......

thanks for your replies so far...

on the bright side, my first lily is flowering, 3 weeks later then the first lily last year, a splendid 'yellow rocket'.

Well, the good news is you repotted them in fresh soil. It usually takes one full growing season for a good size bulb to adjust to it's new surroundings so if we can expect a normal coming winter and spring next year, your plants should be perfectly fine with no or minimal bud distortion. Had you explained your repotting/transplanting in your original statement, my first reply would have been different. I had assumed they were established plants in the garden. Like Buggy said, how well your plants do next year depends largely on how well they do this year---particularly the second half of the season when the bulb is replenishing itself for next years performance. Cut the flowerhead off and apply a little fertilizer soon after blooming.

While taking my walk around last evening, I observed several distorted buds just like yours. During the Month of June so far, we've only had 43% of normal sunshine. Normal is 67%. Also wetter and cooler than normal.

Roosterlorn said:Well, the good news is you repotted them in fresh soil. It usually takes one full growing season for a good size bulb to adjust to it's new surroundings so if we can expect a normal coming winter and spring next year, your plants should be perfectly fine with no or minimal bud distortion. Had you explained your repotting/transplanting in your original statement, my first reply would have been different. I had assumed they were established plants in the garden. Like Buggy said, how well your plants do next year depends largely on how well they do this year---particularly the second half of the season when the bulb is replenishing itself for next years performance. Cut the flowerhead off and apply a little fertilizer soon after blooming.

While taking my walk around last evening, I observed several distorted buds just like yours. During the Month of June so far, we've only had 43% of normal sunshine. Normal is 67%. Also wetter and cooler than normal.

thanks

btw... i didnt re-pot my golden splendour, one plant is effected whilst another two (seperate pots) arent.

to ATP and to the Lilies forum, Rob!