PRODUCING LATE-SEASON CUT LILY FLOWERS

Abstract

There is growing interest in the production of field-grown cut flowers in the United States; this increased interest has raised new challenges for the floriculture industry. One of these challenges is to produce fresh cut lily flowers during the late summer and early fall months when demand remains high but availability has dropped. Procedures were developed to produce cut lily flowers from Oriental, Asiatic, and LA hybrid lilies during the late summer and early fall months. A mix of fresh Oriental, Asiatic, and LA hybrid lily bulbs were obtained from The Netherlands and frozen at -1°C upon arrival. Bloom time of the bulbs was staggered by thawing and planting the cold-stored bulbs at two-week intervals beginning at week 26 in June and continuing until week 30 in July. In addition to using frozen bulbs, fresh bulbs from the southern hemisphere were evaluated. In July, fresh lily bulbs of ‘Stargazer’ and ‘Helvetia’ were obtained from Chile. These bulbs had received eight weeks of refrigeration in Chile following harvest in May. The Chilean bulbs were planted every two weeks beginning the last week in July and continuing until late September to determine how late in the season a cut lily flower could be produced. The number of days to flower, the length of the flowering stem, and bud counts were recorded on all flowering stems. Genotypic and environmental differences were noted with all cultivars and several produced excellent cut flowers for late season harvest.