CHAPTER XLIII 



THIRD WEEK IN NOVEMBER 



ONE of the brightest of the autumn flowers in the 

 conservatory is the Vallota or Scarborough lily 

 (Amaryllis purpurea), which should be retarded, 

 rather than hastened, into bloom, as it is so useful to fill the 

 gap between the summer flowers and the chrysanthemums. 

 It is essentially an amateur's plant, for it prefers to be left 

 alone for some years in the same pot, and will grow and 

 flourish in a window. Repotting is only necessary when 

 the bulbs become too many for the pot, and even then 

 it is not desirable to do more than to shift the whole plant 

 into a larger pot, giving it fresh drainage and some good 

 soil, or to divide the ball of roots in two parts without more 

 disturbance of them than cannot be avoided, as the Vallota 

 lily only blossoms well when its roots are tight in the pot. 

 It produces a number of little bulbs on the surface, which 

 can be removed without difficulty, and grown on in smaller 

 pots until they attain flowering size. Like the rest of 

 the amaryllids, they do best in a compost of good rich loam, 

 leaf-mould, and sand, with a little soot intermixed, but 

 no fresh manure, and they should be repotted (when 

 necessary) in the spring. During the early autumn, when 

 they have made their growth, the plants should stand 

 in a sunny place in the open air to ripen thoroughly, 

 after which the blooms will push up, the intense scarlet 

 of their flowers being very effective. As the Vallota never 

 loses all its foliage, it should be watered all the year round ; 

 but the quantity needed will be much less in the winter than 

 during the summer growth, and a little soot-water (or 



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