I was moving asiatics around and while I was at it decided to move one of my Orienpets, "Honeymoon". I love this lily and all 5 I have are planted in the same area; I wanted to move at least one to a more prime location. Unlike the asiatics these are still mostly green. If I wait until they are brown IÂm afraid it will be too cold (for me, not the lilies, LOL!). I did not trim the stem off since it was green. The ground was nice and soft and it came up very easily. But then things got strangeÂ

There seemed to be a mass of fibrous roots right below ground level, round like a root ball, which I thought was the bulb. Then I saw some bare stem below that, leading to another ball of dirt. Like a vertical dumbbell. While I was staring at this, trying to figure it out, holding the plant by the stem, this bottom one suddenly dropped off and rolled away. Dirt fell off and I saw that THAT was the bulb. Now it is separated from the green stem. Have I just killed this lily? Should I plant both the bulb and the stem with its roots?

I also noted that there were a lot of loose scales in the hole, though the bulb itself seems quite healthy. When I moved the asiatics there were no loose scales, every bulb had scales that were tight and compact. Even though those made lots of other bulbs nothing was loose, just like a bunch of connected golf balls.