I'd never heard this either. I'm willing to try it tho. I have a jar of rooting hormone....and a garden full of asiatic lilies. :0) Thanks!

That's fascinating!

If you don't have a jar of rooting hormone, or if you're an organo-maniac like me, you can...
lick 'em.

There's an enzyme in our mouths that stimulates cuttings to form roots.

I sent the link to my DD. I think she would like to try that,

Thanks.

Sue

Lick them? Okay now that I definitely didn't know!
I planted these beautiful red and white striped ones a while back, they were on sale because they were wilted, they perked up. I would love more of those.
Has anyone ever had a problem with the red lily beetles? I was reading about them on the lily forum.

That's interesting thanks for posting it. I sent the link to my sis.

I dunno about licking lily leaves or any other leaves for that matter...could they be poison at all?

I googled the licking.....another person said it's true. ALso honey was suggested. A scientific explanation of rooting hormone was then gone over....suffice it to say that rooting hormone is better than spit. :0)

I planted 12 "Black Out" leaves and 6 assorted leaves. The test begins.

Oops.....I mean 12 "Cancun" lilies....and 6 misc.

I've never even seen a lily beetle....but voles and pocket gophers wiped out my lilies once before.

Oh cool I am anxious to hear the results. I have a bag of sand here, I need to get rooting hormone.
I had to Google the red beetles they are bright red and easy to spot.

My grandmother used to just put african violet leaves in a glass of water. I have no idea how many she started that way, but she always had leaves rooting over the sink, and the west window of the kitchen filled with the african violets. And her flower beds were always beautiful. I didn't inherit her talant for growing things.

Nicole, I've read descriptions of beds you can build to protect plants from critters that dig.

You build a box, like what you'd use for a raised bed, & staple hardware cloth or chicken wire across the bottom, & sink it into your flower bed.

Fill it with your good garden soil & plant inside the box.
Then, depending on what kind of plants you're using, you can fasten more chicken wire across the top, or just lay it on the soil, to protect against critters that can climb or jump.

I have done African violets that way as well as other plants that root but never a plant that grows a bulb I had never heard of it.
Now I am curious if other bulb plants can be done this way. I may try one of my tulips.

sylviatexas.....yeah...that would work...but I don't garden in a flat flower bed. It's sloped. .I garden around a big MT. Ash, the tree roots run through the bed. Then I shored up the hill with an occasional rock and it all blends back into the woods. I saw where you can just plant the bulbs in a chicken wire basket. :0)But the wire would rust. I've been live trapping the voles, chipmunks and gophers as my solution.

It's all good.

Here's the entrance to the garden(see the stone steps in the middle to the left?)....

And it slopes down to this stone patio:

nicole that is beautiful

Oh yeah I am jealous that is so nice, beautiful. Love the plants, what is the purple?

On the arch over the gate it's a Jackmani clematis and I have another one starting up the other side that's about 7' tall this year, in the pot on the stone deck it "was" verbena.....I brought the pot in and it didn't like living in the house over winter. :0)