Lilies are often sold packed in peat or wood shavings to help retain their moisture and protect them. They should be planted as soon as available from September to January. Any lily can be moved successfully immediately after flowering if care is taken to keep the soil on the roots. Some come dry from Japan or N.W. America and these may not be on sale until soil conditions outside are far from ideal. In this case pot them immediately and plant out later when conditions are correct.
With the exception of L.candidum and other European lilies such as L. martagon which make roots from the base of the bulbs only, lilies should be planted with their soil at least twice the depth of the bulb above it, thus a 2-in. deep bulb would need a hole 6-7 in. deep. This is because many lilies make roots from the stem in the first few inches of soil, in addition to those below the bulb. Sites for such lilies must be weed free, for hoeing near them is disastrous. Many lilies grow wild in the company of low-growing shrubs, the roots of which help to drain the soil, and others are found on steep slopes where moisture is flowing under the surface for much of the year, but all are on well-drained sites, and if necessary special beds must be made with extra peat and sharp sand to retain moisture but allow free drainage.
Beds or even hummocks of such soil which will raise the roots and bulbs above the winter water table may make all the difference between success and failure. Some lilies will tolerate lime and others die if given it. Most lilies like to have their flowering stems in the sun, at least for part of the day, and grow well with a ground cover of low shrubs, or even annuals to protect their roots. Lily bulbs should be examined to make sure there is no basal rot present, as this will cause the scales to fall away.
Such bulbs should be burnt. The bulbs can be dusted with a fungicide to prevent the spread of the fungal disease which causes death of leaves and even of the whole shoot. Once the plants are growing they can be protected from this disease by spraying with a systemic fungicide. Virus diseases are in curable, but their spread can be checked by spraying plants with a systemic insecticide which kills aphids which spread virus diseases. Some lilies are comparatively tolerant of virus diseases, but grow better without them, and others are killed by them.
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