The stem with the ribbon-like growth has what is called fasciation. Some folks say caused by a very small organism, other say not.

Will be truly dramatic if all or most of the buds open. Unfortunately, many buds on fasciated stems often abort.

I had one of those last year. Oddly, I had just learned about fasciation before I found mine. The stems on these are VERY brittle. Mine broke off near the ground long before it made any buds, so I never had a chance to find out about those.

wow, amazing! cgi like!thanks for showing us.
mindy

I have had coneflowers do this and the blooms were usually distorted. It will be interesting to see what happens with your lily.

Nancy VB

Hmmmm, weird stem, but it looks like it has tons of buds. At least you can grow lilies. I dug up ALL the lilies last fall and this Spring because of the Lily leaf beetle. They are horrible in the Northeast and being an organic gardener and having low tolerance for high-maintenance perennials, I refuse to use chemical life support to keep them looking nice.

I have seen it on potted Easter lilies when I was a florist but not often. Can't remember if they opened normally or not.

Sure looks cool at this point.

Very interesting thread. I just removed a daylily scape that looked like that. I do learn so much on gw!

-donnabaskets, what you have on the daylily is called proliferation. If you were to put the fan that was growing on the scape in water it would root and produce another plant for you! I did that last year with one of mine (learned about it thanks to the folks on the Daylily Forum) and it worked beautifully.

Awesome looking lily by the way! The flat stem is certainly intersting too...be sure to post pics if it blooms!! Would love to see that.
CMK

Thank you for the info on fasciation. I looked it up and it sounds like it will go back to normal next year and split into two stems. I will post pictures in bloom! Thanks again!

CMK, you mean each one of those little stems coming off the ribbon with a flower and leaf could potentially root into more plants? If I understood that, she could have bunches and bunches of new lillies. That thing is loaded with buds! Very interesting. I have never seen that before.
Tammy

I have one very similar. It came in a bag which just said "7 lily bulbs" which we bought at a local store. Six of them are 3' and produce 5-8 blooms.

The seventh is 6' tall, highly fragrant and has 30 buds on it. The blooms are a cream/raspberry blend with a yellow throat (based on flawed memory). No one who saw it last year had ever seen anything like it.

I guess I should figure out how to entice the bulb to multiply. Maybe some Bulb Tone this weekend.

-tammy, I was actually replying to what donnabaskets said about her daylily, not about the lily hydrangeasnohio was posting about.
Proliferation is a genetic mutation in plants that causes cells to multiply rapidly (think this point may be open to debate- just stating what I have read about it, lol!) and often produce offspring from it.

Proliferation basically causes a plant to grow on top of another plant. Very often seen on roses and daylilies and (I think) Monarda. It is harmless though somewhat unattractive to most (personally, I think it is kind of cool!). Some cultivars are prone to proliferation more than others. In some situations it will clear up on its own and not be long lasting. I had it happen on my 'Cecile Brunner' rose- small flower buds formed in the center of other fully open flowers. Imagine the way Phlomis grows and you will have a good idea of what this looks like. On daylilies a mini fan will form along the stem of the parent plant. Here is a website that shows how to take advantage of this oddity and make new plants!!

-hydrangeasnohio, sorry I went OT! Hope you don't mind...;-)
CMK

Here is a link that might be useful: Propigating Daylily Proliferation

No probelm at all harryshoe. I visited a botanical garden yesterday with many Oriental Lilies and noticed they had two Lilies doing the same thing just a little shorter than mine. I snaped a pic of it. Couldn't believe I was seeing another Lily doing the same thing!

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So unusual! Please post again with photos if it blooms.

Just had to bring this thread back as my giant lily has bloomed. Unlike the OP, the single stem is quite consistently tubular. It is over 6' and my memory was wrong about the color (no surprise). The blooms are 7-8". This lily is the most powerfully scented bloom I have ever sniffed. Quite a conversation piece.

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Would that I were sitting in theat chair in front of those lilies-spectacular. We need to invent a way to send scents over the internet along with the picture! Thanks for the update!

Cynthia

Well a bad wind storm broke the stalk. So I had to bring it inside. It also broke off a few of the buds. Here is the pic. Although my house smells heavenly now!

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Very cool.

I have a Lilium 'Orania' with a very similar fasciated stem. It is approximately 1 Ã 8cm in dimensions and covered in buds. I will post pics if they are anything to look at.

Wow!

Harryshoe, your lily is gorgeous. Funny that you should mention Orania, coolplantsguy, because that's what harryshoe's photo reminded me of, some Orania lilies I have. Not that mine are THAT big or have THAT many blooms!

Hydrangeasnohio, that lily is awesome! I'm so glad most of the buds made it through to bloom, and I'm so glad you posted a follow-up, because I was hoping to see it in bloom. It's just amazing...

:)
Dee

That is a beautiful mass of blooms!

Here's a very short article about fasciation

Here is a link that might be useful: fasciation

I'd like to get a whiff of your house!

Holy cow!! I can't get over that mass of blooms. It is absolutely beautiful. I wish I could smell it, I guess I'll just pretend. Just gorgeous!

Carol

I Googled "flat stemmed lily", and I found this thread. I'm glad I did because I have one of my own. I KNEW I didn't plant this last year! Looks like it will bloom!

Pic 2

Pic 3

Now that is what I call a bouquet!

those are awesome :-) very pretty! :-)

I hope you'll post pictures when it blooms...would love to see them.

In a way it makes me shutter (abnormal growth), but on the flowering side, it's fantastic!