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turpintine

deadheading clarificaiton?

turpintine
18 years ago

I am very new to lilies. I have 2 asiatic black birds and one oriental mona lisa. My question concerns deadheading. I have read alot of the posts regarding this and cannot find the one that I saw awhile back and now I can't remember exactly where I'm supposed to cut back the stem where the flower grew. Also, I'm thinking do I deadhead an oriental differently than as asiatic lily? My flowers on the oriental all bloomed beautifully except one which has not opened yet and I suspect may not. All the leaves have fallen off and just the short little stems remain. It seems as if there are two stems off the main stalk, and actually some already look like they have seed pods growing on them. Now what? Ok, I just ran out to look at them in the middle of a thundersorm and the asiatic ones do bloom differently. How should I cut them back? Sorry this is so questiony. I just want to be sure I do it right. PLEASE be detailed. Thank you in advance for all your help! :)

Comments (4)

  • kathyinky
    18 years ago

    I'm glad you posted this question, Turp. I was just about to ask the same question.

    I have Japanese Stargazer lilies and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to deadhead them or not and if so, where/how on the plant.

    Awaiting replies along with you.

    kc

  • kathyinky
    18 years ago

    Bump, cuz I would really like to know the answer to this. Also, I went ahead and deadheaded my day lilies. Just took the scissors and cut below (at an angle) the beginning seed pods/area that the flowers fell from. Will that help it to bloom some more? Or are they doomed?

    Wish I was smart enough about this stuff to describe it in appropriate lingo. Nonetheless... there it is. :)

    kc

  • turpintine
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Please oh please someone respond to this post. I'm sorry if it's something that has been repeated a thousand times. There's at least 2 of us that can't seem to figure it out from the old posts..............HELP?! :)

  • pardalinum
    18 years ago

    The purpose of deadheading is to prevent seed production. If I'm not growing any of the pods to get seeds, I just wack it off just below the lowest pedicel (flower "sub" stem off the main stalk). This leaves all of the stem foliage to feed the bulb for next year. Some people like to just cut off each bloom head, leaving all of the bloom stems but not the pods. There is no difference on how to deadhead orientals vs. Asiatics. Cutting just below the lowest bloom pedicel leaves a neater look. Most lilies don't set pods that easily anyway because they are self-sterile (they can't pollinate themselves). If you have different cultivars they may cross pollinate. And Asiatic won't pollinate Oriental and vise versa except with special techniques that the hybridizers use.

    If all of the leaves on a stem have turned brown and died, it most likely had a botrytis fungal infection. This is hard on the bulb as it doesn't have the green leaves after bloom to feed the bulb for next year. Nothing you can do; remove the diseased debris and hope it comes back next year.

    Now if you are cutting the stem for a vase, you want to leave as much foliage as possible but still take enough stem to prop up in a vase. General rule of thumb is to LEAVE 2/3rds of the foliage (cutting off 1/3 of the stem for the vase).

    Kathy, please clarify your question: do you have these Stargazers in a pot and you want to know how to plant them? Deadheading daylilies won't produce more bloom. Daylily rebloom is more a genetic thing.

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