Tips for When to Plant Lily Seeds

Lilies are a large flowering group of herbaceous perennials, botanically known as Lilium. These flowers are used in bouquets, in Asian cuisine and in floral arrangements and are grown for garden borders. The flowers have a range of meanings as well. Although lilies propagate from bulbs, they can be grown from seed. It may take up to five years to have a mature plant that blooms.

Fast-Growing Varieties

When planting lily seeds, it is smart to choose varieties that grow faster than others, as well as varieties that grow better from seed. The quickest-growing seeds are from the trumpet and asiatic lily family, with seed names such as candidum (white), concolor (reddish orange), amabile (red) and leucanthum (white and purple). Planting varieties such as these in the spring or early summer will make your lilies grow faster.

Planting Sites in Spring

Lilies must have great drainage with no standing water. If you don't have these type of conditions on your landscape, plant a lily on a slope or hill, or raise a bed by creating a small mound of well-draining, loamy dirt. Do this by tilling the earth and layering compost, good-quality potting soil, peat moss and loam. This type of planting condition is ideal in spring seasons, because the rainfall will help settle the ground naturally around the lily.

Planting Times

It is best to plant seeds outdoors in later winter or early spring. You can also start the seeds indoors in the winter season, around January or February, and transplant outdoors once the last hard frost has passed. You want the soil temperature to be between 60 to 70 degrees F. For fast-growing varieties, you will have a lily shoot in about two weeks.