Lilium Rosthornii

 

 

A few years ago I heard about this new lily, a close relative to L. henryi but blooming a few weeks later and with a little different seed pod. My experience growing it from seeds, and hybrids from it, is that they have poor germination percentage. John Lykkegaard told me that the seeds germinate better if the pot are placed cool for a few months after sowing.

This year I placed the pots in the windowsill in the room where I sow my lilies, with the window just open. I guess the temperature might be as low as 10 C / 50 F. After 3-4 weeks the first seedling germinated, and now one and a half months after sowing ( sown 1. January) they look like this:

In the blue pot there's a lot of seeds from a hybrid of rosthornii pollinated with pollen from Awesome and other trumpets. Every day new seedlings appear. The other are maybe from rosthornii or the hybrid.