CHAPTER IV. 



THE LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY PIT. 



THE Lily-of-the-valley and Christmas Rose, or Hel- 

 leborus, are more in request in the winter and early 

 spring than anything else, perhaps, among flowers. The 

 difficulty of getting the Lily-of-the-valley early, with 

 the foliage (which is in reality the beauty of a bouquet 

 or a button-hole) is not small, especially from fresh- 

 planted roots. It is next to impossible to procure the 

 foliage and flowers early from fresh roots, even if they 

 are potted as early as they can be obtained, which is 

 never before November, because the buds are not 

 matured sooner than that. If, too, the best < clumps > 

 are used, and potted as carefully as you can, and the 

 pots containing the roots are plunged into the best 

 possible bottom heat (too much of that however will 

 not do for these things), yet for all this flowers and 

 foliage at one and the same time cannot be had from 

 these fresh-potted roots. 



There is no more stubborn plant to force among 

 flowers, and the only way to succeed in getting both 

 flowers and foliage early is to have command over the 

 plantation of roots so as to get both at pleasure. To 

 this end I have given my view of the only method 



