From: billmc@microsoft.com (Bill McJohn)
Subject: Re: questions: lilies, containers, etc.
Date: 19 Oct 92 18:39:23 GMT

...
Lilies are excellent container plants.  Their principal requirement
is good drainage, which is easy to provide in pots.

I potted up a mob of lilies and tulips last fall.  I planted tulips 
in 7" clay pots [about 7 bulbs per pot]; asiatic lilies in #1 polycans 
(6" deep and 7" diameter, one bulb per pot); and oriental lilies in 
#2 polycans (again, 1 bulb per pot).  I used a commercial compost/peat/
perlite mixture, and mixed a tablespoon of bone meal into the bottom
inch or two of each pot.  Then I watered the whole lot well put them 
in the garage over the winter.  (I live in Seattle, which has fairly
mild winters)  In the spring, I took them out, let them get acclimated 
in a shady spot, and then moved them into sun.

The results were great.  In fact, the lilies in pots were more
satisfying than most of the ones in the garden, because they were 
up where I could admire them.  Another advantage (which I realized
too late for any but the last to bloom) was that I could grow them
in full sun, to get nice compact plants, and then move them into
shade when they flowered, to prolong the bloom.  Finally, once they
had bloomed, I could set them aside to ripen.

Now that planting time has rolled around, I knocked them out of the
pots to see how the bulbs had fared.  The tulips hadn't formed good 
bulbs, so I tossed them on the compost heap, but the lily bulbs were
a good size and looked nice and plump, despite not having been watered
since they flowered, so I repotted them to see how they do next year.

This was all done with minimal care--I watered the growing plants when
I remembered to, didn't fertilized them (except for that initial
shot of bone meal), and generally didn't take particularly good care
of them, yet they bloomed just fine and made bulbs for next year,
too.  With better maintenance, I'm sure you could have a really 
good display with lily bulbs increasing in size (and flower production)
year by year.