Taking scale leaves is a useful way of propagating lilies. The following step by step guide shows how easy it is. This technique can also be used for other bulbous plants.

Lily

Lily bulbs can get very large and often have a loose, open feel when lifted, with their scales arranged rather like those of a globe artichoke. Technically, these fleshy growths are leaves, and each bulb has many of them crowded together around a short stem to form the individual bulb. By renewing these scales you can add to your stock of bulbs.


Step-by-step

1. Lily bulbWash off the soil from the bulb by placing it under running water.
2. Cleaned lily bulbLet the bulb dry off naturally for a couple of hours by placing it in on pieces of newspaper on a window sill.
3. Individual bulb scalesEach bulb is composed of individual scales. Gently hold the end of one of these and loosen it by pulling it slowly backwards.
4. Removing bulb scalesThe scale should snap cleanly from the basal plate. Once this has been removed do the same for the scale directly opposite to it.
5. Bulb and bulb scalesFor each lily bulb it should be possible to remove up to ten scales. The mother bulb can then be replanted to continue growing.
6. Scales planted in compostDip the flat base of each scale in fungicide and plant 2.5cm (1in) deep in a tray of compost. Plants will flower in about three years.


Other ways of propagating lilies from bulbs

In autumn several varieties of lily develop small bulbils along their stems, one at the base of each leaf. Sometimes this may be a reaction to stress, for example, if the plant is in a pot that is too small to enable growth. The bulbils on just one stem can be used to propagate many new lily plants.

Check your lily at the leaf axils to find the bulbils - they look like miniature black bulbs. Ease each bulbil out of its leaf axil with your fingertips. Some bulbs may already have a tiny root. Sow the bulbs onto the surface of a potful of multi-purpose compost, spaced 2.5cm apart, as if they were large seeds. Sprinkle a layer of grit on top of the compost to hold the bulbs in place and to ensure good drainage. Smooth the grit level and then put the pot into a cold frame over winter. The following summer the small plants can be planted out individually in a nursery bed. It will take three or more years before they mature to flowering size.

The Madonna lily, Lilium candidum, can be encouraged to form bulbils by cutting off the flower buds just before they open.

Su lamps spaced on the surface to fill the amount of multi-purpose compost, and regardless of 2.5cm, as if they were a large seed. Sprinkle a layer of gravel on top of the compost to hold lamps in place to ensure good drainage. The level of smooth stones and then put in the pot in a cold frame during winter.