586 



HORTICULTURE, 



April IG, 11)10 



THE GROWING OF LILIES FOR 

 EASTER. 



faper h\ lleiirv I. Kaiist, budue tlie 

 I'liiladelpliia Florists' t'lub, at its 

 April meeting. 



1 do not suppose there is anything 

 grown for Easter more uncertain 

 and requiring a greater amount of 

 sliill and attention than the lily. To 

 make this paper Interesting it has heen 

 suggested that I take up the entire 

 subject of forcing lilies from years ago 

 to years to come, to illustrate my sub- 

 ject by samples of well-grown and dis- 

 eased plants, in fact, to enter upon a 

 long and learned discourse and kick 

 up such a lot of dust and bemuddle my 

 subject to such an extent that you 

 would have to catch on to my coat tail 

 In order to follow me. But in this I 

 saw no use. The diseased plants you 

 all have seen enough of; you have 

 had a heart's scald of them — the good 

 ones are all sold. 



As (ar as my experience goes there 

 are only two varieties of lilies worth 

 attempting fur Easter, the Giganteum 

 and the Formosa. To grow in quan- 

 tity and to produce good, even results 

 there is at present only one lily, the 

 Giganteum. This is a variety almost 

 perfect — it comes true to its name; 

 for health it is all that could be de- 

 sired. This year out of lii.iluO bulbs 

 I did nut have to throw out ten plants 

 from disease; but as far as health goes 

 I can give the Formosa an equally 

 good character. 



The first essential is to get good 

 Tjulhs. I do not think it makes any 

 •difference from whom you procure 

 them; any house of repute can supply 

 you. My bulbs this year came in three 

 iseparate lots. I saw no difference, they 

 •were all in perfect condition. Just as 

 soon as you receive your bulbs get 

 them potted. I have a way of potting 

 that may interest you as I never knew 

 anyone else to i)0t in the same way. 

 It Is a very quick and cheap way of 

 doing what would often in the ordinary 

 way of potting be a slow and worri- 

 some job, especially when you grow 

 in quantity. A few days before we re- 

 ceive our bulbs we have a large space 

 cleared on the ground near the soil 

 pile; we th"n cover this space with 

 L'OOO to 2.500 empty 0-inch pots, say 20 

 to 25 pots wide to 100 long, then have 

 a man fill the pots about two-thirds 

 full of soil. When the bulbs arrive 

 •another 2000 to 2500 pots are placed on 

 the floor, the bulb cases are opened 

 and sorted, selecting all the best bulbs 

 in the case, the cullings beingi kept 

 separate. The good bulbs are for 

 growing on in a G-inch pot; the cull- 

 ings we place two bulbs in a pot. We 

 take a Ifi-foot board to place upon top 

 ■of the pots to stand, or rather kneel 

 upon, then we start to plant, two men 

 planting and two following up filling 

 the pots, and so on until the end. 



In filling the pots we throw plenty 

 of .soil on top, levelling it with the 

 back of a rake. In this way last fall 

 we did 10.400 pots in three days. I 

 think you will acknowledge this to be 

 much more expeditious than the usual 

 way of potting at a bench: all the 

 work, especialh' selecting the bulbi^ 

 and planting, being done at a minimum 

 ■cost by two laboring men (not inter- 

 fering at all with our regi^ilar work). 

 The bulbs are now ready to wheel in- 

 side to be placed under a bench, or, 

 which is just as well, left out and 

 covered up carefully to be brought in 

 :at your convenience. We mostly leave 



ours out until we are rid of the chrys- 

 anthemums, although it does not hurt 

 to bring them in at once. We always 

 like to have our lilies inside on the 

 bench by the l.jth of December, and 

 that reminds me of the great differ- 

 ence in forcing a lily for Easter. 



Years ago when we first commenced 

 growin.g lilies, we grew Harrisii, get- 

 ting our l)ulbs in August or early Sep- 

 tember. We would i)ot at once anil 

 have them two or three inches high 

 when brought inside, but we always 

 had trouble getting them into bloom 

 for Easter. In later years, since the 

 ,Japanese bulbs have been grown, al- 

 though we do not get them until No- 

 vember, and often late November, we 

 have no trouble, although as in this 

 year needlessly anxious. 



We always start the lilies off at a 

 cool temi)erature and hold them in 

 this temperature according to the date 

 ot Easter. The longer they stay at a 

 cool temperature in the early stage 

 the better. After we see they are well- 

 rooted and starting to grow the tem- 

 perature can be increased up to any 

 reasonable extent until they show evi- 

 dence of making buds, then you had 

 better go slow. From the time that 

 they first start to make buds to the 

 time the bud is well developed is what 

 might be called the critical period: 

 stunted plants or blasted buds may 

 very easily be your lot. All that can 

 be said of this period is "Beware." 



In growing a lily for Easter the 

 credit is due to two people, the fire- 

 man and the man at the hose. There 

 is no plant that loves syringing more 

 than a lily, yet no plant resents more 

 quickly an oversupply of water at the 

 roots. I often on a bright day syringe 

 two or three times, and have frequent- 

 ly at night gone into the houses and 

 given them, a good syringing, wetting 

 down the jjaths, and also the steam 

 |)ipes. I think syringing is very bene- 

 ficial in growing lilies, especially it 

 you have an apparatus for heating 

 your water. We have an arrangement 

 for tempering the water that enables 

 us to have a constant flow at a tem- 

 perature of 70 degrees and upwards. 

 This vvater heater is a very simple ap- 

 paratus and anyone ,who uses steam 

 heat could at the expense of a few 

 dollar.s so equip themselves. 



.\fter a lily is in condition to stand 

 it, I believe the quicker it is grown the 

 better, only, of course, remembering 

 to gauge the growth and development 

 according to the date for Easter. I 

 riuist say that this year was one cal- 

 culated to try men's souls. We did 

 not get our bulbs until the ISth of 

 Noveml)er. and on account of the late 

 chrysanthenumis could not get them on 

 the benches tmtil the 21th of Decem- 

 ber. Out of 10,000 pots I do not be- 

 lieve 25 showed growth above the soil. 

 Then came the month of anxiety and 

 worry. 



It is usually calculated that it takes 

 six wt^eks for a lily flower to develop 

 from the time the bud first shows. It 

 can be done in less. I would prefer to 

 have six weeks to do. it in than to at- 

 tempt to do it in four, yet it can be 

 done in four. Just to satisfy myself 

 how quickly a lily could be brought 

 into bloom, I this year marked a 

 few plants. On the 22nd of February 

 I selected a few plants, marking them 

 "No buds in sight." On the 25th buds 

 could be .seen on several, and by the 

 27th all showed bud. We were then 

 running a night temperature of 70 de- 



grees, or a little over, letting the day 

 temiierature with sun shining run 

 higher. They were all in bloom in 

 time for Easter, just taking, you see, 

 from four weeks to a month from the 

 time of first showing of buds to the 

 blooming [leriod. 



I think I am speaking advisedly 

 when I say it does not pay to grow 

 lilies to sell at 10 cents. Now don't 

 misunderstand me on this point; I did 

 not mean that a lily cannot be grown 

 and sold at 10 cents per bud and still 

 yield sufficient margin for the grower 

 to pay his debts; but that is all it 

 will yield. It will give the grower no 

 such profit as will in any way reward 

 him for his risk, trouble and anxiety. 



Right at this point I cannot refrain 

 from wondering if we are conducting 

 our business in as wise a manner as 

 we should. Are we not just stumb- 

 ling along in the dark? Every year 

 as long as I can remember I have 

 heard the report that lilies were going 

 to be scarce, but without and real 

 foundation. No one knows how many 

 lilies it takes to fill the requirements 

 of the city of Philadelphia. Don't you 

 think we should know? If we only 

 had a way of finding out we would 

 commence to be on a business basis; 

 we would then be in a position to reg- 

 ulate prices. I have thought that a 

 "Florists' Board of Trade," with com- 

 mittees to look after the different 

 branches of the trade might be a bene- 

 fit. The committee on lilies to get 

 reports from all the seed houses and 

 know just how many bulbs were in the 

 growers' hands, or get the report di- 

 rect from the grower, with monthly 

 reports as to the progress, condition 

 and number expected to be put on the 

 market, in much the same way as the 

 Government gets its agriculture re- 

 ports. 1 believe if we all were to cut 

 down the number of lilies grown, 25 

 per cent., and try to grow better lilies 

 and a better price, it would be a move 

 in the right direction. 



There is one thing sure, none of us 

 make enough money. We have the 

 most anxious, worrisome beusiness in 

 the world, everything we buy costs 

 more, and still more, but everytime 

 we get our returns we find them 

 marked less. The only ones I see 

 making any money on flowers are the 

 street fakirs and the commission men. 

 yet I think the commission man de- 

 serves all he gets. Without these 

 hustling and enterprising business 

 men who are ever advertising to find 

 an outlet for otir goods, I fear often 

 our business would be in a bad way. 

 Two-thirds of the time the flower mar- 

 ket is glutted, prices demoralized and 

 the growers building more houses to 

 throw more stuff upon the market, to 

 compete with themselves. Would it 

 not be advisable to call a halt? Let 

 every grower who has more than 10,000 

 feet of glass pledge himself not to 

 build any more for five years until the 

 market catches up with the supply. 

 Almost every week during the seasons 

 we read in the trade iiapers of carna- 

 tions, roses, violets, or lilies being a 

 glut on the market. Let us work for 

 prosperity and better prices, not for the 

 street fakirs. 



Lilies, to afford the grower a proper 

 profit should bring 15 cents per flower. 

 We liave been too much in the habit 

 of rubbing shoulders with poverty. Let 

 us put ourselves upon an equality with 

 other professions and get more of the 

 sweets of life and less of the bitter. 



