I can't answer most of your questions but, those leaves look fine to me. They look exactly like my stargazers.

I give mine a heaping mound of compost with about 15 alfalfa pellets per plant in March and Alaska Fish fert. 5-1-1 once a month in March and April.

Then they get a once a month shot of Alaska Mor Bloom 0-10-10 from April until the bloom and then every 2 weeks after the bloom until the leaves die back.

Seems to work fine for me. Nobody has ever told me otherwise so, if this is wrong, please let me know.

I can't follow your regimen to the letter, but sure appreciate your advice, thanks so much. The compost and alfalfa pellets (don't have the latter) are doable. In place of your Alaska fish fert, I'll have to use my new $20 bottle of some kind of kelp, diluted as per instructions.

If Miracle Gro bloom booster will help, I can throw some of that on there every so often, or Osmocote (didn't seem to help my Regals) but I'm not buying any more stuff other than to replace depleted supplies, it just gets too expensive and time-consuming for all the different things I've got going here.

Most of my young Oriental bulblets do the "ladder thing" with their leaves while small. It is especially obvious in Speciosum Rubrum up until the plant is relatively large but once they are mature the leaves are generally are spaced around the stem, (for the most part).

Stargazer is a hybrid of Rubrum, so it makes sense that you're seeing it with them.

-Helen

Thank you, Helen. How very odd, but I like to know the answers to things and am glad it's not some fluke. Small triangular shoots or leafy growth started emerging among the beds in the spring, unlike what the others had done, almost wondered if it was some weed but decided to let them grow a bit.

aliska,

A box of alfalfa meal at wal mart is about $3. That and compost will cover the compost and alfalfa at the start of the season. As for the fish fert, you could probably skip that with no problem. It's just a bit of nitrogen to get them off to a bit of a jump start.

I saw that you have bone meal. That and kelp will substitute just fine for the Alaska Mor Bloom just fine. Just give them a shot of each one once a month until bloom. After bloom, I'd probably just use kelp every 2 weeks. Bone meal shouldn't be a problem if you just dig a trench about 3" deep and sprinkle the meal in and bury.

Miracle Grow is like cheesecake for plants. They really love it and they COULD survive on it but, cheesecake all of the time isn't good for them. Just use it as a snack. It's a good little shot of stuff when you're not on the schedule to do anything else but, you just feel like you HAVE to do something.

doublej, thank you, that makes it sound more manageable except I would rather have pellets and driving clear out to Wal Mart is a pain, so I never go there unless there's no other way (they have some things you can't get anywhere else).

I read my kelp bottle and agree that with the nitrogen that should work in place of the Alaska fish stuff.

But there's no way I can dig a 1" trench in there, let alone 3" without possibly disturbing something, most are way too thick now (except that one spot that shows in the photo), so I'll have to make do with some kind of smaller holes for the bone meal or skip it. Some new lilies in back I forgot to use it in the bottom of the hole like I usually do so somebody suggested to just sprinkle and scratch it in. That I can do there because there is enough room around them.

Maybe that regimen will help my regal lilies which aren't doing very well on the east side of the house. They lean so I tried to stake the taller ones and have spoiled many of the tops so they aren't going to bloom this year. Glad these other kind are stronger. I may have to just get rid of them and plant something else there. They are diminishing rather than multiplying, but the blooms are sure beautiful. I planted those 9" deep and don't know if I start digging if I can even get to them, no good place to move them anyway. If they don't get absolute full sun, they lean. Even the sgazers & aubade are leaning a little, planted on the south side but am fighting partial shade from trees during parts of the day. Always something.

I agree about the Miracle Gro. I only use it occasionally and have better products for most of my plants. It just doesn't to seem to do all that much for me anyway for most things, plus IIRC you have to keep reapplying it every 2 weeks or so.