How to Care for Spider Lilies
Spider lilies add a beautiful burst of color and full foliage to garden borders and work well as potted plants. This moisture-loving plant flowers dependably when cared for properly, producing white, red, pink or yellow daffodil-like blossoms in late summer and early fall. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Prepare a bed of well-drained, sandy soil and place the bulbs 6 to 8 inches apart. Add supershosphate or bone meal to the soil to promote flowering and aid root development. Water bulbs well after planting.
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Keep them warm. Spider lilies do well indoors and in hot climates, though they do need a three-month rest (dormancy) period. Early hard frosts kill foliage and damage the bulbs.
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Expose spider lilies to full sun for best results, though partial shade is acceptable.
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Water spider lilies often. Don't allow the soil to dry out and expose them to high humidity conditions if potted indoors.
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Deadhead the plant. In other words, remove dead blooms as they begin to fade to prevent the plant from seeding. Seeding requires significant energy, and deadheading allows the plant to "rest" and flower more than once.
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Dig out and divide mature bulbs as soon as the lily's leaves begin to yellow. After 4 or 5 years, crowding and sinking can hinder flowering in these plants. Replant the bulb necks slightly above the soil surface.
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Comments
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My mother has some beautiful white spider lilies this year. Just curious about them. She wants me to dig them up and replant this year and that scares me because I'm not a flowing person. She is 92 and loves these type of flowers. We also have some red ones.
