CHAPTER V 



TENDER AND CAPKICIOUS LILIES 



FORTUNATE indeed are the gardens that may 

 open their gates to all the lilies. Such there 

 are, lingering somewhere between northern and 

 sub-tropical climes with winters not too cold, 

 nor yet too hot. For them are the glorious 

 company of the tender and capricious lilies 

 those that will live in northern gardens only at 

 the expense of overmuch coddling, if at all. 



In this class, reluctantly, is placed the won- 

 derful giant lily of the Himalayas (L. gigan- 

 teum). This is a hardy lily and in some parts 

 of England has been naturalized in woods ; but 

 it is not quite hardy enough to stand a very cold 

 winter without an uncommon amount of protec- 

 tion. Even then there is a vast difference be- 

 tween merely blooming and attaining to perfec- 

 tion which means throwing up a stalk ten to 

 fourteen feet tall, with very fine heart-shaped 

 foliage and crowned in July and August with 

 from a dozen to a score of trumpet-shaped blos- 



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