Growing Stargazer in tropical settings

Hi i just wanna share my experience in growing stargazer lilies in the Philippines. since college days I've been attracted to those big flowers often seen in flower arrangements. from time to time you will encounter vendors in side streets selling cuttings with roots claimed to be stargazers , even showcasing an all grown stargazer in a pot with different flower colors saying that it is hybrids WARNING! THEY ARE FAKES ive learned that the hard way haha!

skipping the part where i was victimize 3 times  ....uuuuurgh i'm just so trance by the flower that i skip doing the research first part , believing that those little stalk will grow to be a beautiful flowering plant blah blah blah.

After wondering why the leaves seemed different from what ive seen on stargazers in flower shops i finally decided to take my sweet time and do the research T_T

 FACTs
         > stargazers are not grown from stem but from bulbs
         > a stargazer plant does not have multiple color for a flower in one plant

so after blackmailing my Partner with my puppy eyes and cuteness i got her to buy me a potted stargazer for valentines yey! might i add that it is bought from a reputable nursery in QC circle, i heard they are the same people operating the seedling bank before, behold! a true stargazer! (see picture below)

                                                                         Day 1

i took pictures of my stargazer everyday to document how each flower open (^_^)

                                                                            day 2

                                                                        Day 3

                                                                Day 4  12 mid night

Day 4  6am

                                                                                 Day 5
                                                                         
well the guy at the nursery says that my flower pot should stay indoor for the bloom to last longer but because i found articles saying they need full sun i let it sit for hour outside and tada! ( picture below) petals started to came off.......next time ill just keep it indoor xp

Day 6

so following the guidelines from google  after the bloom are gone i let the plant die back naturally (do not cut) giving it time to store food and nutrients for the next blooming season.

finding reference is quite difficult, most of the guidelines in growing stargazer is set in a four climate setting , some even discourage gardeners in tropical climate against planting stargazer. but there is no harm in trying right?

so after  my stargazer died back to the ground i dug the bulb, now this is the tricky part, since stargazer is an oriental bulb it needs freezing time searching online i found two contradicting guideline in storing bulbs in refrigerator.

option 1.   > put  the bulbs with moist mulch or peat moss in a container with holes
               pro:air holes prevent anaerobic circulation that may cause the bubs to rot.
               con: there may be are ripe fruits that releases gas that can rot the bulbs
                     : moisture can seep out through the hole ( drying out the bulb =dead) requiring you to                            regularly check if it still moist

option 2 -    put the bulb in sandwich bag sealed with moist tissue or peat moss.
            pros: moisture is maintained , required less misting
            cons: Anaerobic circulation that cause bulb to rot

after much debate i decided to do both since this is in a way an experiment, so i put the main bulb in a container with holes and some of its scales in a sandwich bag with a moist tissue....

i tried to check the bulbs at least once a week opening the sandwich bag to air it out once in a while preventing the anaerobic circulation and using an empty perfume for misting. label your sandwich bag and container properly because if like me you are not the only one using the refrigerator someone might mistake it for something else and put it in the trash its better be safe than sorry

                                                    these are the container I've used

 its end of May,so after the much anticipation the moment of truth arrives! its time to re sprout my bulbs! so i arrived with the conclusion that putting bulbs in a sandwich bag is better  than a container with holes.(i forgot to take pictures sorry)

Bulbs from the container with holes have a bit of brown discoloration most probably because air in the refrigerator is contaminated from the gas that leaks from fruits and vegetables that is also in the fridge while the bulbs from the sandwich bag is super healthy and looks so fresh  so i repot them in the same container from before putting the main bulb in the center and the scales around noting that the bulb must be 3 times deeper than its size

picture taken 2 weeks after i put it back in the pot they are looking super healthy

Scared that the sun outside is too hot for my babies i put them under  artificial lighting combining yellow light and white light and just to be extra careful that they are nor baking because its really hot these days even its suppose to be already rainy season i put blue ice around the pot to maintain cold temperature.

its the 3rd week of june and to my dismay i found 2 of my sprouts are withering  upon much inspection the cause is over watering T_T

in my attempt to rescue the remaining alive sprouts i drained the pot squeezing out the water  and repotting the remaining sprouts ....its so sad that the main bulb melted but i manage to salvage some scales i put it in a sandwich bag with paper towel and put it in the fridge hoping its not too late.

ill update this post later on.