Lily in a pot: care and planting
What does home lily care include? Compliance with the rules for keeping lilies at home will allow you to enjoy the sight of healthy and flowering plants for a long time. But how do you make your flowers comfortable when growing in pots?
How to plant a lily in a pot
Before planting, lily bulbs are kept in the refrigerator for 16-19 days, at temperatures of 3-6 ° C. Then placed in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for about 2 hours. After that, it is useful to dip the bulbs in a solution of any growth stimulant.
The soil should be nutritious and loose. You can buy it in the store or make it yourself by mixing soil from the garden with compost, humus and fertilizers.
One lily bulb is planted in a tall pot with a diameter of 16-18 cm. Several bulbs will require a larger container. You should not use a planter that is too spacious: the plant will direct all its forces to the formation of daughter bulbs, and not flowers.
A drainage of small stones is placed at the bottom of the pot, a layer of earth about 10 cm is poured, an onion is placed, covered with a layer of earth up to 20 cm. The pot is placed in a cool shady place, and after the sprouts appear, they are rearranged to a lighted one.
Growing lilies require:
• constant supply of fresh cool air;
• nutrition with fertilizers;
• watering;
• loosening;
• spraying with water;
• hardening.
Carelessness in any of these steps can damage the plant.
Fertilizing is done every 7-9 days. The top layer must be loosened regularly, doing it carefully: a depth of up to 6 cm will be enough, otherwise there is a risk of damaging the roots.
If you care for the lily correctly, it will take root well and you can plant fresh bulbs every year, getting a new plant.
When the stem reaches 10 cm, they begin to take the flower pot out onto the balcony every day for 20-30 minutes, gradually increasing the time. When hardening the plant, you need to be careful. Do not leave home lilies in a pot on the balcony at night if the thermometer drops below 12 ° C.
It is useful to spray the lower parts of the lily from a spray bottle, while placing the plant in the shade (otherwise there will be a burn on the leaves). Inflorescences and buds cannot be sprayed: this leads to rapid flowering and wilting.
Water the flower every 3-4 days with boiled or settled water at room temperature. Watering the faded plant is necessary twice less often, and after the stem dries up, watering is stopped altogether. The dug out bulbs are planted again the next year according to the same scheme.
If you follow all the rules for caring for a lily, you can plant the bulbs in a suitable pot from year to year. This will give you a beautiful, abundantly flowering plant at home.