Comments on: Forcing Lily of the Valley Pips

By: Julieanne

Julieanne — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 03:44:34 +0000

I’ve seen them at HoneDepot but don’t know how successful they’d grow as forced bulbs

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:28:00 +0000

Spring hills sells pips, I just bought 6, and they were pretty cheap. springhillnursery.com/

I only just planted them today, but I hope they grow ok :)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:34:00 +0000

The Modern Family Garden Book published 1948 by Roy E. Biles has quite a bit of information on winter forcing Lillies of the Valley. The book also has lots of other good stuff on old time houseplants, etc. and can be purchased on Ebay pretty cheaply. We have these growing around the SE corner of our house and they are awesome! They do spread like crazy though in Zone 5 but are attractive except for the end of summer they get a little scraggly. Have never tried to force them but hope to someday. They smell great though.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:30:00 +0000

Hi, A great wholesale source for Lily of the valley pips as well as a great many more bulbs, corms, tubers, and perennial plants; is Netherland Bulb. netherlandbulb.com
You do have to order 100 pips though! You can always sell off the rest!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 14:29:00 +0000

Just wanted to pass along that it works to force your home-grown pips. The autumn before last, I had to dig up a lot of convallaria that had spread too far. Couldn't bear to compost the pips (having fond memories of those same ads you mention).

So I kept the biggest, fattest pips, trimmed the roots back to manageable size, and kept them in a plastic bag (fairly dry and washed of soil) for a couple months in the fridge. After potting, they were grown on a sunny windowsill, the one where I keep the window cracked in winter. This is more work than buying them, but it's free and the results were good. Every pip bloomed sweetly. Take care.