You should wait till the foliage dies back. Also I'm not so sure I'd move the mother bulb, it obviuosly likes it right where it is. I would remove all the young stem bulbs from around the mother and give them their own spot to grow in, but I'd try not to disturb the mother bulb at all. I have dug up clumps of my lilies when they got crowded only to have the mother bulb underperform once disturbed. I now only remove the offsets and don't touch the mom and it works very well for me. This would not be the case if you had a bulb that was splitting, then you would have to dig up the whole clump to separate them, but what you are describing is a bulb that is producing stem bulbs. On a similar note I had an oriental lily last year that looked like a tree. It's stem was almost 2 inches thick and it had dozens and dozens of blooms. I was excited to see what it would look like this year. To my disapointment the bulb split, I now have 3 large lilies, each one with a stem almost an inch and a half thick, instead of one monster. Oh well the 3 lilies will probably have more flowers than the one monster would have. Good luck with your lilies. Pat

I know this is an old post, but I am a new gardener. I planted my lily bulbs in very tall 3 foot pots since I don't have a lot of yard. I get to move the pots when the sun moves since my house usually throws a giant shadow on the back yard around 3 pm, so I just keep moving them over and over, to the edge of my yard. I live in a planned community where the homes are hardly 50 feet apart. We have recently seen deer, randomly running down the street at night. Three times now my lily buds have been sheered right off around dusk. I'm convinced it is deer because the lily stalks were about 2.5 feet tall in a 3 foot pot. The stalks did not appear to be bent at all and the buds were chewed clean off. I understand now how frustrating this can be after I've put in all the effort at caring for these plants for 2 months now and now I won't see any flowers until next spring. I feel your pain Curious. The deer also ate an entire full Simpson lettuce plant which would seem entirely too much for a few chipmunks. There was probably 4 large salads worth on this plant, so I'm convinced it was deer. 20 sunflowers juvi plants had their top leaves chewed right off also. The suburban deer are being pushed out of their woods by bulldozers to build these communities, leaving them hungry and this is the karma. *sigh*. Now I am not only saddened by my plants being destroyed, but at the the thought of hungry deer and their newly born doe. Lose-lose situation. I've moved everything up to my deck and put up a baby gate. The chicken wire fencing would be a great option in my opinion except the naggy HOA would claim it was tacky and fine me. The only reason I am growing everything in pots after carefully germinating everything inside under lights and heat is because I am moving to an 11 acre farm in 2 weeks. I will take everything with me and plant it in the ground there....but now I'm down about 25 plants. *sigh* The deer are worse out there... Anyone know of any herbal concoctions that are plant safe that can be sprayed around the garden to thwart the deer off?

Yes - many of us have seen this stuff and we call it, as mentioned above, "dog vomit" fungus or mold. It's not really a fungus but a slime mold. Calling it the "Dog Vomit Slime Mold" isn't very appealing so its scientific name is Fuligo septica. In other words, "sticky stuff". Dog Vomit Fungus usually appears in late spring or summer following soaking rains. The slime mold is usually found growing in mulched areas near homes and office buildings, but can appear in the woods, too. The color is bright yellow or sickly orange. The colorful growth occurs when the mold is beginning its fruiting stage. It can appear overnight causing people to question what it is and how it got there. The first instinct is to blame the dog across the street.

It's a scale infestation and a pretty severe one at that. Mulberries are prone to various types of scale, which are prolific, sucking insects that deplete plant vigor by feeding on internal fluids and juices. This looks like white peach scale (Pseudaulacaspis pentagona, aka mulberry scale). Control is difficult as the scale is armored so relatively immune to contact pesticides unless very carefully timed. A systemic may be your best bet but even they are only moderately effective and you may need repeat applications. You may want to check with your county extension service for their recommendations. And this is an extension fact sheet discussing the scale: white peach scale.