It will continue to lay down leaves until the flower buds are initiated in the greenhouse in January. Since these plants flower in a determinant manner, it is important to discuss how the new plant forms. In the field about July when the plants are flowering, a lateral bud in the axis of an inner scale becomes apically dominant. At first the meristem forms scales to increase the size of the bulb, then it begins to form leaves, and finally forms a flower bud. It is important to note that lily bulbs do not really go dormant because they are laying down leaves during the digging, shipping and storing phases of the production process.
Inner scales contain inhibitors that apparently control rapid shoot elongation and flowering.
There was another report that promoters and inhibitors were in the outer scales. Some work from Minnesota suggested that GA activity was greater in inner scales and ABA activity was greater in outer scales. What is known is that chilling for a period of time will remove the inhibitors or increase the promoters so that rapid flowering will be the result after chilling. Flower Induction Long photoperiods and cold treatments can be substituted on a week for week basis to speed up flowering. This means that for a lily to flower rapidly it needs 6 weeks of chilling or 6 weeks of long days or a combination of the two equalling 6 weeks.