Stop watering temporarily, then only water about once a week unless it's very hot and dry, or unless it rains, in which case you would NOT water.

Your lilies can stay in the ground, provided they are 5-6 inches below the surface. If you want them to come back bigger each year, you have to feed them. I do this by leaving the dried stalks in place, then I dig around them in a circle about 12 inches out from the center. I dig a trench about 3-4 inches deep. I fill the trench with a mixture of blood meal, bone meal and a bit of epsom salts. Then I cover it up and water it. If you leave it dry, animals will smell the blood and bone meal and dig it up.

You have to do this for each lily. Lots of gardeners don't use the bone meal, because they believe flowers call mainly for potassium, but bone meal contains a lot of phosphorous which helps build big bulbs and healthy roots. My Orientals and Orientpets are all over 7 feet tall and each one has had over a hundred blossoms this summer. So I say, something must be working right.

Every gardener has her own system and there's no single right way. Someone else may have good advice too.

Lainey

Lainey, thank you so much!

We had an ENTIRE DAY of rain yesterday, so the stalks are looking rather sad and the leaves are pretty yellow now.... sigh.... I hope the bulbs are still OK!

Anyway, I am going to do the blood meal thing! Thanks for the tip. I would love to have very tall lilies with lots of blooms like yours!

Thanks again!