EASTER LILIES IN CALIFORNIA 185 



of these may be cited later in connection with mention of plants to 

 which they belong. But the fact which is more closely related to 

 our task is that bulbs from everywhere in the world are becoming 

 wonderfully popular in our California gardening policy; our leading 

 California seedsmen issue special bulb-catalogues which all should 

 secure and study, and bulbous flowering plants are now displayed in 

 abundance in city, suburban and rural gardens where a decade ago 

 their appearance was exceptional. These facts are all significant in 

 their demonstration that these plants are eminently desirable and 

 their culture is within ordinary gardening skill and patience. Below 

 all this is, however, the fundamental fact that California valleys and 

 foothills have really no closed-season for bulbs; that the "spring- 

 flowering" bulbs of wintry climates may begin open-air bloom in 

 December and continue until May; that "summer-flowering" bulbs 

 may spread their gorgeous colors from May until November; that 

 while we not only lose no desirability that may inhere in pot-grown 

 bulbs for portability and decoration, but really can secure this with a 

 fraction of the care and cost which is required in wintry climates, there 

 is added to this the more important advantage of growing the same 

 bulbs in the open ground and air at the same times of the year. 



What Easter Lilies Say of California. It is thus made clear, from 

 the course of the floral trade and from common observation in amateur 

 gardens, that California has exceptional natural endowment for delight 

 in bulbs. Perhaps an authoritative declaration from the highest 

 national authority may also be appreciated by distant readers who 

 cannot see the common facts which have been cited. Take then the 

 Easter lily for a test, because to have the name it must be in bloom 

 at Easter, and that in ordinary northern latitudes is impossible to 

 realize in the open air. But in California experiments were tried 

 under the supervision of George W. Oliver, bulb specialist of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, of which the record* gives 

 the following concrete facts: "Fred Rafferty of Santa Ana bloomed 

 a large number of the hybridized seedlings of the lilies giganteum and 

 harrisii. Although the seedlings were only about three inches high in 

 June, 1906, some of them had twenty-eight flowers in June, 1907. Such 

 plants can be depended on to give bulbs of salable size the first year. 

 The crop is ready for harvesting in August and the smaller bulbs, 

 when replanted soon after harvesting grow much better than the im- 

 ported material." 



It is true that this does not verify open-air blooming at Easter, but 

 that is a fact nevertheless, in many places with high winter tem- 

 perature, although house-grown plants are the surety of being in time 



*The Production of Easter Lily Bulbs in the United States: Bulletin 120, Bureau 

 of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. Agr., 1908. 



