472 



HORTICULTURE 



October 2, 1909 



THE CULTURE OF LILIES. 



I am particularly interested in the 

 remarks of A., on p. 163, on the deplor- 

 able custom of the Japanese of denud- 

 ing the bulbs of lilies of their roots 

 prior to packing them for shipment to 

 England. I have repeatedly called at- 

 tention to the matter during the past 

 25 years. This practice appears almost 

 universal among the lily exporters of 

 Japan. During the past 40 years or 

 so many consignments of L. auratum 

 have been worthless, the bulbs being 

 rotten or affected with fungus. Of the 

 bound bulbs which are received, a large 

 number quickly perish when placed in 

 contact with the soil; whilst the few 

 that flower fail to succeed in the fol- 

 lowing year. The reason of the failure 

 is not far to seek. The lily makes but 

 two sets of roots each year — the basal 

 and the fibrous. The basal roots are 

 formed when the flowers are fading, 

 and are generally cut away with any 

 old roots that remain. Hence, for anj^ 

 subsequent growth or flowering the 

 plant is dependent upon the stem roots 

 so abundantly produced above the bulb, 

 and the latter usually collapses when 

 the flower-stem is approaching its full 

 height. This is the brief history of 

 many thousands of lily bulbs that reach 

 England each year, the great bulk ol 

 them failing to produce a basal root 

 at all. Were it otherwise, there would 

 be no difficulty whatever in establish- 

 ing many kinds in large numbers. This 

 state of things is extremely disappoint- 

 ing, and it is time that purchasers de- 

 manded that the bulbs be shipped with 

 the full complement of their roots as 

 dug from the soil. Such a proceeding 

 would naturally do away with the ex- 

 isting system that obtains in Japan of 

 moulding the bulbs in tempered clay, 

 and, in place of the now plump-looking 

 and rather heavy bulbs, with rootless 

 base and fungus-affected core, we 

 should see a less plump, fresh-looking 

 bulb, somewhat shrivelled it may be, 

 so far as the outer scales are concerned, 

 but with roots intact and capable of 

 immediate resuscitation when replant- 

 ed in the soil. To what extent shrivel- 

 ling would take place would largely 

 depend on the system of packing, 

 though, for Liliuras generally in the 

 dormant state, ordinary packing be- 

 tween thin layers of rather dry soil 

 would suffice. In this connection, it is 

 instructive to recall the fact that Mr. 

 E. H. Wilson, when collecting lily 

 bulbs in China, made a point of re- 

 taining all the root-fibres to the bulbs, 

 and no trouble was subsequently ex- 

 perienced in establishing the plants. 

 An alternative plan to importing buibs 

 would be the raising of seedlings on a 

 large scale, and this, in conjunction 

 with the raising of home-grown stocks 

 of lilies from scales and bulbils, is well 

 worth attempting in this country. An 

 important point to remember in this 

 work is that many species of lilies re- 

 quire to be treated not as perfectly 

 hardy subjects, but rather as cool 

 greenhouse plants during their two 

 first seasons ot growth. At first sight 

 it may appear a little illogical to ac- 

 cord greenhouse treatment to a per- 

 fectly hardy subject, but the disap- 

 pointments, failures and losses of 

 either open-air or cold-frame treat- 

 ment are known to all who have en- 

 gaged in the propagation of the lily 

 by these means. Frequently in the 

 case of L. auratum and L. speciosum 

 in all their forms, and, indeed, many 



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other species of lilies that do not pro- 

 duce bulbiferous growths on the more 

 exposed parts of their stems, there will 

 be found near the base and just below 

 the ground level a number of bulbils 

 that will furnish useful stock. Your 

 correspondent speaks of L. rubellum 

 as a comparatively free seeder from im- 

 ported bulbs, and says "seed may read- 

 ily be obtained and ripened" if the 

 blooms be pollinated. That, however, 

 is not my experience, inasmuch as a 

 large percentage of the bulbs do not 

 reach the flowering stage at all. But 

 where fiowers are produced, there is 

 no better way of increasing this de- 

 lightful plant. In the note on p. 169, 

 referring to the home-raised lilies 

 shown in the Supplementary Illustra- 

 tion, the concluding sentence is as fol- 

 lows: "Being a stem-rooting lily, the 

 bulbs should be planted 3 to 4 inches 

 deep." I believe, however, that all 

 stem-rooting lilies may be buried much 

 more deeply than this to their advan- 

 tage. It is also important, too, that 

 these stem-rooting kinds be given a 

 rich food supply, renewed or augmented 

 annually at the surface.— E. H. Jen- 

 kins., in Gardeners' Chronicle, London, 

 September 18, 1909. 





THE LILIUM LONGIFLORUM MUL- 

 TIFLORUM CROP IN JAPAN. 



The crop of large-sized multiflorums 

 is reported to be a complete failure. 

 The bulbs when taken up were hardly 

 any larger than when planted out, al- 

 though the plants looked finer in the 

 fields than in any season before. The 

 glowers attribute this failure to the 

 continuous rain during the month of 

 June. 



Lilium longiflorum giganteum, which 

 is dug later, seems to have suffered 

 also and the crop will not be as plen- 

 tiful as expected, according to cable 

 advices received by New York import- 

 ing houses. 



We are pleased to learn from James 

 Vick's Sons, Rochester, N. Y., that 

 while they have been looking for a 

 good trade in bulbs this fall, they are 

 actually surprised at the large num- 

 ber of orders they are receiving, and 

 that their total sales thus far surpass 

 all previous records. This is the legit- 

 imate and logical result of winning a 

 reputation for sending out satisfactory 

 goods. 



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