Lily of the valley is particularly at home in shady areas of the garden. If you want to multiply your lilies of the valley, you hardly have to pay attention to anything.
Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) shoots out of the ground at the beginning of May and then blooms directly from May to June. They smell wonderful and are very suitable as ground cover. But the most important note first:
Lily of the valley are poisonous
Caution: All parts of lily of the valley are highly poisonous! So it is best to wear gloves when coming into contact with the plants.
Lilies of the valley reproduce themselves
If lilies of the valley are to remain in one location, it is actually not necessary to propagate the plants. They do that all by themselves. Usually from the 2nd year of planting, at the latest from the 3rd year, the root network spreads further and further underground and regularly produces new plants. Until the lilies of the valley have grown into a sea of plants covering the ground.
If the plants are to be planted at another location, you can proceed as follows when propagating.
Propagating lily of the valley after flowering
If you want to propagate lilies of the valley, it is best to do so in June or July. Immediately after flowering. To do this, the roots of the lily of the valley, which grow very shallow in the ground, are loosened from the ground by hand at the edges of the above-ground parts of the plant. Then lifted with a shovel and dug up. If the roots break, that's not so bad, lilies of the valley are very robust in this case.
Place roots flat in the ground
After digging up the lilies of the valley, you can pot the plants or plant them elsewhere. Always shake off as much soil from the roots as possible. Alternatively, you can also cut off pieces of root. You then have to lay them flat in the ground, this is done at a depth of about ten centimeters. The planting holes or planting gutters (for the root pieces) should then be filled with compost so that the lilies of the valley can grow back perfectly.
Lilies of the valley are not exactly demanding perennials when it comes to care. the plumpThey don't like the sun because, being forest dwellers, they love the shade.