Hi,

I'm hoping you all can educate me on how to take care of this Anastasia lily I bought. I started off knowing nothing. If you know of a good website that will help explain the basics, especially about Anastasias in specific, that'd be great too.

Heres the background if you want to know it, if not, just skip to the questions afterwards:

I just purchased a potted lily plant from a grocery store, not even knowing what it was (as far as I know, it wasn�t labeled at all). I got it as a mother's day gift but won't be giving it to my mom for another two weeks or so until I see her. Since I had no idea what it was, I put it outside in the shade and watered it some. I also (I think) helped it self pollinate because I thought maybe I could easily get more flowering plants that way. Then within in two days, the flowers started dying and falling off. I thought maybe this anonymous plant just had short lived flowers, so I messed around with self pollinating it some more with the newly opened flowers. Shortly after (a couple days), those flowers withered and fell off too � even one flower that hadn�t even spread apart its petals from its tube-ish shape yet. The leaves at the bottom of the stalk were also beginning to yellow. I was concerned that maybe I was not doing something right, so I felt the soil and noticed it seemed very dry (at least at the top), so I gave it plenty of water. Now a few days later, I check it out and (the flowers already fallen off) many more leaves are yellow! Finally I decide that I should figure out what plant this is and how to care for it because something seems to be going very wrong and I want it to AT LEAST live until I can give it to my mom! (of course, I'd want it to continue to keep living after that too).

So I got really lucky and quickly found out that it looks pretty much identical to pictures of "Orienpet Anastasia Lilies" (it looks just like this picture: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Orienpet-Lily-ANASTASIA-BULB-4-6-TALL-ZONES-4-8-WHITE-W-PINK-BRUSHSTROKES-/130600367717#vi-content )

Now I'm trying to find out how exactly I should be taking are of this little guy, but haven�t found that much conclusively and am hoping you guys can help me fill in the gaps and correct me if I'm wrong. As I've found out and as you can probably tell, I was very ignorant to everything about lilies! So far, I've read that I should put it in direct sunlight, water it a "medium" amount (so� basically not what Ive done so far..oops).

But I have some questions; I'll number them so theyre easy to refer to for anyone who replies, because I have a lot: (Also! If you know a website that would give me the answers pretty straight forwardly that'd be great too. No obligation to write length replies (or any for that matter lol) if you don't feel like it :) )

1) What is a "medium" amount of watering?

2) I live in southern florida. It's getting pretty hot mid-day (the highs are around 90 degrees Fahrenheit, lows in low 70's�. but this will increase as summer goes on). Is this a bad climate for Anastasia Lilies? Are there special things I should do because of temperatures here? (I read that I should maybe put the bulbs in the refrigerator during winter?)

3) Did I trigger the flowers to fall off by pollinating them? Is there any way to make more grow back before I give it to my mom? :(

4) It seems like from what I've read, that the plants, like, grow once a year, flower during that one time period, and then, is it true, that the whole stock and everything above the soil dies off, leaving only the bulb underground?

5) There are two separate stocks growing less than 3 inches from each other in a relatively small pot (about 6 inches in diameter and 5 inches in height). Does this mean there are two separate lily bulbs in the soil? From what I've read, it sounds like they need to be repotted further apart?

6) How different is taking care of this kind of lily from taking care of other kinds?

7) What am I missing? Like I said, I was totally (and still mostly am) ignorant to everything about lilies, so if you don�t mind, please give me some directions as to how to take care of them. I think its better this situation if I keep it in a pot, because my mom doesn�t go outside often, so if we planted them, she wouldn�t really see them very often.

Thank you very much to anyone that answers some of these questions or forwards me to a website that would explain any of these things! Like I said, dont feel obligated to write long responses if you dont feel like it :)

Thanks!