Can I overwinter Asiatic lilies in my garden?
Q Are Asiatic lilies hardy in the ground? Joanne Bruce, Sheffield
A It’s always a little difficult to be precise about hardiness. If you have a welldrained, light soil, plants will survive surprising amounts of cold compared to those in a wet, heavy clay. If you’ve a good soil, lily bulbs should survive, especially if you mulch over the top with about 15cm (6in) of bark, leaves or similar material to form an insulating blanket.
Alternatively, lilies do really well in containers. Feed them once a fortnight with tomato fertiliser and put them somewhere sheltered at the end of the season, standing the pot on bricks or blocks of wood.
If the weather turns arctic put them in a shed or garage off the ground. Repot every two years in October as the old foliage dies back. Q What should I do with my tree lilies when they’ve stopped flowering? Christine Parker, Wroughton, Swindon
A Oriental and trumpet lilies produce tall stems with impressively large blooms, usually very highly scented. Most are also very long-lived. Unless you want to save the seed, cut off the dead flowers and seed pods. The stalks can be left until the leaves fall later in the autumn or, if they’re untidy, cut them back to ground level now.
For those in the ground, apply a general fertiliser next March, such as Growmore or chicken pellets, and mulch with garden compost or well-rotted farmyard manure.
I’d repot them every couple of years if they’re in containers, incorporating a controlled-release fertiliser in spring as a top-dressing.
Once the bulbs make 30cm (12in) of growth feed them fortnightly with tomato fertiliser and always keep them well-watered. Early growth can get caught by late frosts, so have three or four layers of fleece ready to drape over the shoots on cold nights.