I have received many emails asking why their Peruvian lilies won’t bloom. Here is a an email about an unusual way one reader bloomed their Peruvian lily.
I bought one expensive bulb four years ago so I made notes of every bit of information. For two years I planted and dug that bulb, packed it away in sawdust as fine as flour and replanted in May when all danger of frost was over. Last summer the bulb had increased to nine. Never having had a single bud, much less bloom, I was pretty well disgusted, so gave all away but three. I planted these about 5 inches deep, turned the water on them and made the bed muddy. Then in stepping across the bed I fell right on the lily, so it must have gone down another 3 or 4 inches.
Within a week it was up; in another week all three bulbs were about a foot high, and the third week each bulb had three big blooms! The most fragrant and long-lasting blooms of pure white that looked like an umbrella blown wrongside – out.
So, perhaps one has to plant and dig for three years and maybe fall on the bulbs to make them bloom. M Forman, West Virginia
