Deer In the Lilies

So this evening I had a visit from some unwanted friends. Yes I am talking about deer. They look nice and are quiet, but the damage they do and can do is not a very good trade off. There were 5 white tail deer tonight wandering around and nibbling at the very young fresh shoots starting to push out of the soil. For the most part they do not seem to like the taste of martagon lilies. What they do is bite off the growing tip (this is where most of the leaves and flower buds are hiding) and spit them out.

I am now on a hunt for effective deer repellent. I am not looking to hurt the deer, but chase them away.

In the last few fall seasons they have badly damaged and killed off many young trees. I lost a very nice 8 foot lodge pole pine that had finally taken hold and started to put on some good growth. They also seemed to like a Siberian Larch, mountain ash, a very small Burr Oak and one fruit tree a Evan's Cherry.

One jokes with what they have eaten here in my garden, how would they taste.

Martagon Slide Show

I was tinkering with building a photo slide show of the martagon lilies available this fall.
You can get more on the lilies on our web site http://www.estateperennials.com/ .

I hope you enjoy.

Lilies By Scales

So here is an up date on the scales I started this spring. There are a few that are growing very well and even starting to put out a few leaves. Only about half of the scales started are showing growth so far but the ones that are growing well have 2 to 4 little bulbs forming on each.

There does not seem to be and of the scales showing signs of deterioration. The scales have coloured from the crisp white to a bit of a reddish colour. They are all still nice and firm.

You can see how I started these with the first post about lily propagation by scales. And the first up date on the lily scales on this page lilies from scales week 2.

In the next week I will be removing the scales, that were started last fall, from cold storage and starting to pot them up so that they can grow on and get a head start to the season. There are also about 20 or so bags of martagon lily seeds that were started that are soon to be moved out of the cold as well.

I will add an update on these soon.

Lilies From Seed Updates

I posted on March 22 on starting a few lilies from seed. The lilies I was talking about were seeds of lilium pumilum - the coral lily. The seeds were planted on March 16 2009 and are starting to realy grow. They have been given just water and a little bit of fundicide to prevent dampening off. So far it looks like most of them are going to take with out too many problems.

So you can sort of see there are a few up and growing. This photo was taken about 3 days ago and since there are a lot more up and starting to unfurl. I will be back to this subject in about 2 weeks to show you how much more they have grown. I have also started up a bigger bunch of these seeds for next year.

The goal with the second will to be to get them as big as I can in one year for the Alberta Regional Lily Society. Next year the lily group turns 25 and I am hoping to have about 100 reasonably sized bulbs to give away at the lily show in celebration of 25 years. This will be a nice little donation to the group.

You can check out the first post on Lilies From Seeds to see how I started the seed.

New Garden Tool

Over the winter I started tinkering with a hand tool that I have been using for many years. This little Hand Hoe is great for clipping off little weeds just under the soil surface. I had a really crude version of this made with a steel strap and an old stake. I got a small bench lathe not too long ago and wanted to give it a try and this idea came to mind. The handle is about 11 inches long with a steel loop that you can easily shape for getting into the tight spots around the base of your plants. The handle is also western red cedar with one coat of clear sealant.

I have looked on line for something like this and in some of the different garden shops around my area and have not found one like it. The closest thing I could find was a circle hand hoe at Lee Valley Tools and that sells for about $18.50 each. I now have these on our main web site right on the front page. They are listed for $9.00 each and can be shipped at any time.

To get your own just pop on over to Estate Perennials .