May 13, 1911 



HORTICULTURE 



roT 



BERMUDA AND THE LILIES. 



A paper read before the New York Florists' 

 Club liy A. T. Boddington. 



Bermuda has been described as 

 Heaven, but it is necessary to go 

 througti Hades to get there. This is on 

 account of the rather rough sea trip, es- 

 pecially in the winter time. The Gulf 

 Stream which is about a hundred 

 miles wide is crossed diagonally, and 

 while the current runs only at the 

 rate of about a mile an hour, if the 

 wind is opposing the direction of the 

 current this frequently kicks up a 

 nasty sea. The steamships that run 

 down there, while they are good boats 

 and are operated under most careful 

 management, are only about half the 

 size of the average European steamer; 

 consequently the motion is felt severe- 

 ly by passengers with delicate stom- 

 achs. However, the trip is not always 

 rough, frequently it is very smooth 

 and pleasant, especially in the month 

 of May, which is one of the most in- 

 teresting months in the year from the 

 point of view of the florist. 



I left New York on April 5th arriv- 

 ing there on Friday morning, April 

 7th. The lilies were just coming into 

 bloom, hardly any being expanded but 

 the buds were white. The growers 

 have been very busy in the onion and 

 potato business this year and they 

 were a little behind with the disbud- 

 ding of the lilies. A great deal of care 

 is necessary to produce good bulb?. 

 No weeds can be allowed to grow up 

 more than an inch or two high. If 

 the weeds are allowed to get large, 

 when they are pulled out they disturb 

 the surface roots of the lily, which 

 will always result in serious injury 

 and failure when the bulb is grown 

 next year. It is a practice among the 

 Bermuda growers to disbud the lilies 

 just as the buds are whitening. This 

 is done that the plants may be 

 strengthened and that all the nutri- 

 ment may go to form as large a bulb 

 as possible. Fortunately for me the 

 weather which had been rather cool 

 became suddenly warm and by Sun- 

 day, the 9th of April (Palm Sunday) 

 the fields were a sight to behold. On 

 the next Monday the photographs 

 which I have here tonight were taken. 

 These were some of the best fields 

 at Columbia Farm, Longbird, Smith's 

 Island and at Westmeath. The lilies 

 shown in these photographs were grow- 

 ing strongly and for the most part show- 

 ed perfect health. When examining them 

 closely, however, there seemed to be 

 about 10 per cent of stunted and de- 

 formed plants, all of which are being 

 dug out by the more careful growers. 

 Upon my pointing these plants out to 

 Mr. R. H. James, he told me they 

 were not removed before, for the rea- 

 son that in digging out these rogues 

 an equal number of good plants would 

 be destroyed and that the plants that 

 were deformed and stunted were really 

 not diseased plants but bulbs which 

 had been injured in digging the pre- 

 vious year or in the process of plant- 

 ing. Mr. .Tames informed me that 

 they handled lily bulbs as if they 

 were eggs and that rough handling in 

 digging, or by the seedsmen, or by 

 the florists when the bulbs are being 

 potted is one of the most frequent 

 causes of the stunted and deformed 

 plants. To convince me that his the- 

 ory was correct, Mr. .Tames had a 



ROSE MRS. AARON WARD. 



Most of our readers are now famil- 

 iar with this sweet little forcing rose 

 which got its first American introduc- 

 tion in Boston. Its rich pale and deep 

 Indian yellow tinted petals form a 

 beautiful bud or fully opened flower 

 and it is an excellent keeper. The 



color pales with age but not in an ob- 

 jectionable way. Being a hybrid tea 

 this rose makes a valuable garden va- 

 riety, blooming continuously all 

 through the summer. We are indebt- 

 ed to H. A. Dreer for the photograph. 

 The variety is listed in their rose ad- 

 vertisement in tnis Issue. 



number of these deformed plants dug 

 up in my presence. He demonstrated 

 to me that the bulbs showing these de- 

 formities were smaller than when they 

 were planted and that they could never 

 even by accident get packed in the 

 cases as saleable bulbs for the reason 

 that they would not be big enough to 

 grade as even 5-7 inch bulbs. Th? 

 bulbs of these deformed plants (or a 5 

 our friend, Mr. TjOuis Schmutz calls 

 them "Kyoudles"), were all afflictei 

 with a partial rotting of the root 

 base. Mr. James, who has had thirty 

 years' experience in growing bulbs in 

 Bermuda, tells me that to drop a bulb 

 out of the hand onto even the soft 

 ground will frequently produce an in- 

 jury sufficient to cause this disease 

 of the root base. There apparently 

 seems to be nothing contagious in 

 this disease. Of the other disease 

 that seems to be afflicting the lilies 

 in Bermuda, the symptoms are as fol- 

 lows: The plant starts to grow health- 

 ily until it gets up a few inches high 

 when it develops yellowish brown 

 streaks and spots in the foliage anJ 

 finally peters out to nothing or pro- 

 duces a deformed flower. This dis- 

 ease has been almost eradicated, 

 though here and there a plant was to 

 be seen afflicted with it. About the 

 only remedy for this disease is to 

 dig up the bulb and see that it is de- 

 stroyed, though spraying with arse- 

 nate of lead and fungicides is a pre- 

 ventive measure. The percentage of 

 this disease, however, was very small. 



Lilium Jamesii were looking very 

 fine at Mr. James' Longbird Farm. 

 This lily is almost disease-proof. It 

 has extra fine foliage, and flowers un- 

 der Bermuda conditions one week to 

 ten days later than Lilium Harrisii. 

 The bloom is slightly shorter and not 

 so large as Lilium Harrisii, but it is a 

 robust type and well worth growing. 

 Pui'thermore, this lot had been thor- 

 oughly rogued and were true to name. 

 A point in favor of the Bermuda lilies 

 as grown at Smith's Island, Longbird 

 and at Westmeath, is the fact that 

 these growers have eliminated all hy- 

 brid types. I do not think that in the 

 pure Harrisii grown on these estab- 

 lishments there could be seen more 

 than one hybrid in a hundred bulbs. 

 These hybrids were plain to be seen 

 by the fact that they were only be- 

 ginning to turn down their buds 

 whereas the true Harrisii were in full 

 bloom. The method of rogueing is as 

 follows: The men go through the 

 fields with paint brushes and daub 

 the foliage of all plants that are to 

 be discarded. It cannot be done in 

 April as it would cause too much in- 

 jury to the good stock. Lilium Har- 

 risii is particularly sensitive to any 

 disturbance of its surface roots. I 

 have been doing my very best to urge 

 the Bermuda growers to still further 

 improve their stock and to endeavor 

 to get Lilium Harrisii back to where 

 it was twenty-five years ago. This is 

 being done by careful and painstaking 

 methods. There is no doubt in my 



