Three or four years may pass before you get a plant of size sufficient to produce blooms. Simply pot these up in the summer when they part easily from the plant and then plant them out in the spring 18 months later. These tiny bulbs are identical to the mother plant, so they are an example of asexual propagation. Bulbils are harvested by breaking them free of the mother plant and planting them like seeds. They are allowed to grow on until they reach a diameter suitable for flowering.
Bulbils develop in the early part of the season and fall off several weeks after the plant flowers.
Growers harvest the bulbils shortly before they fall naturally and plant them as they would plant underground bulblets. Some lily species do not form bulbils naturally but can be induced to do so by pinching out the flower buds and later cutting off the upper half of the stems. Inc. Digital Communities, Inc. is not responsible for the content or accuracy of any message.