Wow!

These lilies are bursting out and soaking up the sun and water! 

I wish I had taken a picture when I transplanted a number of the bulbs today from inferior pots to the newer shoebox containers I picked up this weekend.  When I originally planted the bulbs, the little offshoot roots were few and far between in most cases, and were not sending out little rootlets of their own into the soil.  This may have been partly due to the fact that smaller, weaker roots would have been damaged when the lilies were initially pulled from the soil, or because these plants were pulled from a garden with heavy clay soil where small roots might have a tougher time establishing themselves to begin with.  In any case, I was blown away with the vibrant root systems I saw when I was getting the new containers prepared.

The picture is a little fuzzy, but you can see significant growth out of the stalks, 6" for most, up to 12" for one.

These ones started out in my kitchen, sitting in the corner near an east-facing window that doesn't catch direct light, and across the room from a north-facing window that catches ambient light from outside.  They were also in pots that were very tall and shrouded them away from a lot of light as well.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how they thrived in those substandard conditions for about one week.  Now they sit next to a south-facing window in better containers.

You can spot a few little ones popping up from roots where I had completely removed the stalk. 

I added some fertilizer to the water today, so the plants that are crammed into the big containers may need to be moved soon into larger single pots at the rate they are going.  I'm already adjusting the shelving unit to allow for more height, so I look forward to what they might look like in another week.

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