Some nearly forty years ago a dear friend, now dead, gave me a lily bulb (or
whatever). It regularly produced a few large purple flowers. I've no idea
what it is apart from that, it's just known as 'Nana Rowe's Lily' and we're
very fond of it.

Last year was a poor year for many things in the garden and we noticed that
the lily developed a very broad, flat (ribbon-like) stem. It was almost as
though there were several adjacent but thin stalks fused together. Many
little bulbs grew at the top of the stem but didn't come to anything.

The same has happened this year but in seemingly ideal conditions for many
of our plants (thank goodness for the freezer!) the lily has flowered - lots
and lots of small purple lily flowers.

Is this a known condition, is it fatal, can the plant be restored to normal
and does anyone know what might have caused it? We don't want to lose it
although we realise that everything has a limited life ...

I've taken pictures which I can post on alt.binaries.pictures.gardens or
send here as tinypics, if anyone's interested.

TIA

Mary