Three Leaves & Three Shoots

This week was particularly rough on the lilies.  Since I posted last weekend, only Monday was reasonably sunny and the plants didn't shoot up too much.  I do have a few prizewinners and a few runts.

This is the bathroom lily which was close to touching the ceiling last weekend.  It was pushing against the ceiling when I got home Friday afternoon, so now it is sitting on the floor.

These are the lilies I separated from the big container where they were all crammed together.  the one on the left is the first to open three leaves, which it did Friday evening.

The bottom container has one of the more interesting bulbs, even though there is under 6" of growth.  You can see that the bulb is sprouting three shoots.  They are closely packed together, so I would be surprised if I don't cut one off later in order to let it grow and start a new bulb.

This is a close-up of the cluster of shoots.

This is the other one that is sending up three sprouts.  These are a little better spaced, and I hope they can call grow tall in one cluster.

My new group of bathroom lilies.

You can see I have a handful of good plants as well as some that are barely sprouting.  I have moved three big ones to the bottom shelf.  The one on the left was pressing against the ceiling when I went to check on them this morning.  The other two big ones came off the second shelf.  I figured they are tall enough to catch sunlight from the lower shelf, so I put the struggling plants on the middle and top shelves where they will get better exposure.

I did not bother to snap a picture of the other shelf unti beside this one.  All the lilies there are 6" sprouts or less.  Certainly some healthy looking plants among them, and a few that haven't shot up at all.  I think if the forecast holds up and we get a few sunny days this week, we'll see good growth.

Lastly, I have put a couple rose cuttings into the containers on top just to see what would happen.  I haven't taken any effort to care for them, other than to give the lilies in the containers water.  One of them looks moderately healthy, but that doesn't mean much.

My routine for care is basically to spritz the leaves with water once every couple days, especially if I expect sunlight, and to give them about 1" of water every week, and a little top-up during the week for some of the bigger ones.  As of now, I am alternating between fertilizer and plain water.  I fertilized when I planted and again this weekend; last weekend I just gave them clear water.  The roots are looking good.  I have pulled out a few of the containers to look for roots pressing against the clear plastic.  In a lot of cases, I'm seeing that the roots are dominating the space and that bodes well for continued growth.  Again, if we can get some good rays this week, I expect to see a surge in many of the plants.