Hardy and Half-hardy Plants 



and "Lawn Cypress". They grow from 3-5 ft. high, and form dense 

 columnar bushy plants with narrow leaves, which, at first pale green, turn 

 to beautiful crimson or purple shades in autumn. K. trichophylla is an- 

 other species or variety with the same characteristics. The plants may be 

 raised in heat in spring from seeds, and will be ready for planting out at 

 the end of May. 



Leucoj um (SNOWFLAKE). Beautiful 

 hardy bulbous plants with strap-shaped 

 leaves and flowers like large Snowdrops 

 tipped with green. They grow in any 

 good garden soil, the best varieties 

 being the Spring Snowflake (L. vernum, 

 fig. 216), which has white flowers in 

 March and April on stalks 6-12 in. 

 high, and its variety, carpaticum\ and 

 the Summer Snowflake (L. wstivum), 

 with several flowers. L. pulchellum is 

 closely related but flowers later. The 

 trade is done chiefly in the bulbs in 

 autumn. 



Liatris. A group of showy per- 

 ennials, easily grown in ordinary soil, 

 and increased by seeds and division. 

 The best kinds include elegans, 2-4 ft.; 

 graminifolia, a tuberous-rooted species, 

 2 ft.; odoratissima, 2-4 ft.; pycnos- 

 tachya, 4 ft.; punctata, 1J ft.; scariosa, 

 2 ft.; spicata, 2 ft.; and squarrosa, 2-3 



ft. all with long erect racemes of bright rose-purple flowers from July 

 to September, and all natives of North America. 



Lilium. Apart from the kinds grown under glass by market growers 

 (see p. 179) the trade done in other species of Lilium is practically con- 

 fined to the nurseryman. Here and there one finds a patch of the Turk's 

 Cap Lily (L. Martagori), L. chalcedonicum, or some other hardy species in 

 a market garden, but it is looked upon as a crop of no great importance. 

 Some of the fine, easily grown, and free-flowering kinds, however, would 

 probably pay for more extended cultivation amongst market growers. 

 After the first cost, very little expense would be incurred, and the flowers 

 would more than pay the rent, labour, &c., year after year. In fact, 

 wherever Daffodils are grown, there also could Liliums be grown with 

 them on the same piece of land. The Daffodils are all over by June, just 

 at a time when the Liliums are coming well into flower. The following 

 Liliums may be recommended for cut flowers grown in the open air: 

 L. auratum (fig. 217) and its varieties, white banded with yellow and 

 blotched purple: L. Burbanki, a free-flowering hybrid between L. parda- 

 linum and /,. Washingtonianum, orange yellow, spotted purple; L. elegans 



Fig. 216. Snowflake (Leucojum vernum) 



