Question re seed pods on hardy lilies

[maryvonne]

I was dividing some hardy lilies this afternoon when I came accross a very fat seed pod on Mayla. When I squeezed it I noticed some nice fat red seeds. I'm wondering if these are viable and whether I just killed them by squeezing the pod? I put the pod in a jar of water in the sunroom and I'll post a photo after dinner. We are on our way out to pick up chinese.
I also found some large pods on Alba and Colorado and put them into jars as well. All these pods were on very rotten looking flowers with rotting stems. I didn't disturb these pods though and put them into water. Any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks

Maryvonne

[Sean]

Hi Maryvonne,

The red seeds are probably immature. Usually the seeds are brown or black when ripe. They can be green with some species as well. I would suggest squeezing the rest of the seed out and looking for more mature seed.

Remember with Hardy waterlily seed that it can not dry out like tropical seed. Keep them on a wet paper towel while working with them.

You can peel away the outer parts of the pods now, they will not mature more once removed from the parent plant.

Cheers,
Sean

[maryvonne]

Thanks for the quick response Sean. We just got back so I will check the rest of the pods for mature seeds. It's strange how all summer every time I dead headed I would check the seed pods and only ever saw the tiny white specks sometimes already burst with jelly but never anything that came even close to being viable seeds. Today as I was dividing I removed all the spent flowers and just out of curiosity checked them all again and found some with larger seeds.
I will open the pods and let you know what I find and next time I will leave the fat pods on the plants.
I learn something new every year.

Maryvonne

[maryvonne]

I only found red seeds so I quess I'll have to check the pods before I deadhead next time and somehow keep track of them until they mature more. I was the first time in the 4 years I've grown lilies that I found any seeds at all.

Maryvonne