All the Dirt on Gardening

 Lily scales in a plastic bag with dampened vermiculite and seed starting mix. Pinch the opening, blow into the bag and seal with a twist tie. Keep away from sunlight.  After 3 weeks, dump out the bag contents and sort it out, removing the scales and spoiled bits from the starting mixture.  After removing all the outer scales, I put the central basal plate into the bag to see what would happen and they rooted.  Here's a typical lily scale with a bulbil growing off the basal plate end. I tucked a few slices of daffodil bulb into the bag to see what they would do and they all turned to mush. About 25% of the lily scales were mushy on their growing tips. About 25% of the lily scales did not grow a bulbil.