Time consuming, these may take as long as 18 months to germinate and will germinate erratically, meaning not all seedlings will appear at the same time. Surface sow then top pot with some grit, expose the seed pot to a range of temperatures by sowing outdoors in a cold frame. You can also alternate 12 weeks of moist cold in your refrigerator with 12 weeks at room temp, recycling until germination begins. Rock Garden Society adds this note - "dry storage of seed for 6 months is fatal, grow seedlings at cool temperature, leave in pot for 2 years". If you were looking for flowers sooner than 4 years from now, Brent and Becky's has the bulbs reasonably priced for Fall shipment (- as comparison, 3 blooming bulbs in a pot early this Spring were selling for $3.99 here when I bought two pots). I ordered a red flowering corydalis from them last Fall and was very pleased with my order - prompt, with healthy corms. Here is a link that might be useful: fritillaria meleagris bulbs

Exactly! We're talking about the same lily. I've let the seeds both fall and plant themselves naturally and planted in pots for redistribution elsewhere in the gardens. I see you've got enough bulbils to pick off (now is fine, they're ready) to experiment both ways. Although they're very hardy, when I plant some in pots I bury the pot in the ground in an out of the way place - mainly just to keep track of them until they're ready to transplant. When the bulbils fall naturally around the mother plant, they will eventually form a cluster which makes for a spectacular blooming show. The only thing problematic with transplanting them in the first growing season is they're fragile and you'll probably end up breaking the bulb away from the new leaf sprout - the little bit of foliage is needed for the bulb to replenish itself for the next season. So, I've just left them potted until the second or third year when they're good and strong enough to handle. Being crowded in even a relatively small pot doesn't hurt them. If you're really new to lilies - you know that late in the fall when the stalk of the lily pictured above has become yellow/brown and woody you can cut it down at ground level or just slightly above - the yellowing/browning means it has done its job of feeding the bulb for next season's growth.

Thank you for posting this question. I too found bulbils on some new lilies this year and started them earlier in the summer when they started to drop. I searched on this forum and found a good post on how to start them but the NALS site has the same information. I also tried hybridizing this year and was about to post a question about how to germinate seeds. My seeds are still ripening in the pods but it won't be long now before they are ready to harvest. Kayman, thank you for that link it also has the seed germination process. I also found that it has the online register database which is something I had been looking to find. Is there someplace that keeps a large database with pictures? All but 2 of mine are NOID's from box store mixes that I'd like to find names for if possible. Not that I don't appreciate them w/o names but it would just be easier to have a name than to assign a strange garden name like "the lily by the fence".

Carol, I do recall last year when you posted about your LOV and that you thought you had gotten rid of all of them. If I get around to the one section they are curently still in I will post on Freecycle but I have to get that area cleaned out first for some reason it became a weed magnet over the winter and I have things I have never seen before growing in there along with the woodland ferns that are competing all of a sudden with the LOV. I think a lot of the stuff came from my neighbors yard b/c if something sprouts he lets it grow....are you getting the picture? Three years ago he left some volunteer maple seedlings develop and now they are over the top of my fence. I have a feeling I will be doing some major pruning as soon as they start coming over into my yard. The only advantage is that they border the north side of my yard so they will help to create a bit of a micro climate by blocking the north wind. I even have some sort of stiff needled grassy clump in there along with all of my jewelweed. I will probably spend the summer cleaning out that bed after I get my regular beds plnated out. Right now I am just pulling out stuff that could go to seed any time soon....a little here and a little there. Once I have the dead tree in that area removed I will dig up the whole bed and replant it. Penny