THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



dividual; but also it offers the possibility of the discovery of new 

 facts, relationships, methods and motives that may prove of untold 

 benefit to the world and to its horticultural activities and interests. 



PROPAGATING THE LILIES 



By Helen M. Fox, Peekskill, N. Y. 



IT IS very easy to grow Lilies from seed. With the increasing 

 difficulties in obtaining bulbs it is almost essential to provide 

 one's own supply of Lilies. 



Anyone desiring a collection of Lilies is advised to begin with a 

 small number each of many varieties. This will enable him to dis- 

 cover the kinds that will do well in his garden. He may find that 

 some of the Lilies as, for example, auratum and tenuifolium disap- 

 pear after a few )'ears. This may be caused by growing shade lov- 

 ing Lilies in the sun or planting Lilies requiring sand, in loam, or 

 the reverse. Or the bulbs may spend the season splitting up into 

 many small new bulbs and not send up any flower stalks for that 

 reason. From my own experience I do not find that either lime 

 or rotted cow manure spread over the surface of the soil harm the 

 Lily bulbs. 



The structure of the Lily perianth makes fertilization by hand 

 very simple. Most Lilies set seed more certainly when the pollen 

 comes from a flower on another plant of the same variety, rather 

 than from the same plant or flower. When the stigma is sticky 

 is the time to take a ripe anther from another Lily and lightly rub 

 it against the stigma. If the pollination has been successful, af- 

 ter the perianth has fallen off, the seed pod stands up vertically- 

 When the pod splits open the seed is ripe. I have collected seeds 

 from regale, tenuifolium, candidum, martagon album, canadense 

 and superbum. The auratum and speciosum ripen so late that I 

 pick the pods off before they are ripe and allow them to mature in 

 a dry medium warm room. The frost spoiled the seeds when the 

 pods were allowed to ripen out of doors. 



At the New York Botanical Gardens where an experiment on 



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