68 THE UNHEATED GREENHOUSE 



dunes in which other Dutch bulbs thrive so marvellously, and 

 are lifted at the exact moment when the leaves are almost dead 

 and root action arrested. A good many weeks must 

 necessarily elapse before they are replanted, and the point I 

 should like to make clear is, that in all the hundreds of these 

 bulbs of which, as it so happens, I have had experience, never 

 a trace of disease has appeared, and the flower spikes, unless 

 they have had too much attention in the way of heat, have 

 been as good as they can be. Whether this is due to the dry 

 nature of the sand in which they are grown or the drying-off 

 process which certainly does no harm to which they are 

 subjected on being lifted, I will not venture to assert, but 

 those who want Madonna Lilies either for pots in a cold 

 greenhouse or for church decoration in May cannot do better 

 than to procure some of these splendid bulbs from Holland. 

 They cannot be induced to flower so soon as Easter without 

 forcing, but if obtained as early as possible in the season, given 

 protection from frost in a cold frame during the severest 

 weather, and brought into an unheated greenhouse with a 

 south aspect in March, they ought to be ready for Whitsun- 

 tide, or even earlier sometimes, according to the date upon 

 which it falls. Five bulbs in a deep, broad pan 1 5 in. by 

 8 in. will make a good clump, and the noble spires prove 

 very acceptable several weeks earlier than they can be looked 

 for in the garden, whether for church or corridor, or even for 

 grouping in the shady angle of a courtyard or verandah, with 

 suitable background and undergrowth of greenery, where, as 

 sometimes happens, garden-room is denied. Of white Lilies 

 for pots one of the earliest and best is L. longiflorum. The 

 trumpet is not so long as in the variety known as L. Harrisi, 

 which is imported in large numbers from Bermuda, but it is 

 much more hardy and satisfactory to grow. It comes to us 

 from Japan and is a well-known favourite. Amongst newer and 

 less familiar species is L. Alexandras, also from Japan, and 



