Cycle Upon Cycle

On schedule, in late summer, the young bulblets are harvested, graded, cleaned and taken back out to the field for quick replanting. Thus the bulblet is considered to have graduated and becomes a yearling.

Good soils are the key to the success of each lily. It is appropriate, then, to talk a bit about how the soils are prepped, and perhaps point out yet another twist. On many lands there is a time for growing followed by a brief period of fallow. Here, where lily bulbs are grown, that fallow period lasts for two to five years. In other words, for every 25% of planted land, there is 75% in some period of dormancy. Grass and clover are the preferred cover crop to allow for rebuilding of drainage and restoration of organic matter.

So we have another season come to pass and a new cycle of harvest and replanting begins. Again the same digging and replanting process occurs. This next cycle produces the yearling bulb. When graded for replanting, these bulbs run between 4 - 6" in circumference.

Yet again a new growth tip emerges in the spring - a resurrection of sorts occurs when winter ends and vigorous growth begins. Now, in the plants third year, the foliage is nearly robust and, for the first time, multiple flower buds begin to appear. Here again we see another, and perhaps most notable, twist. The plants naturally bloom in July but when the consumer sees a flowering plant it is Easter! The irony is that these plants are grown to produce gorgeous and showy flowers at a targeted time. They are programmed to bloom when Easter occurs.