ON LILIES 261 



dealt with, according to their merit, in the companion 

 volume, The Garden Week by Week, it is not necessary 

 to devote space to them herein. 



The flower-lover will find the Lilies a most interesting 

 as well as beautiful class of plants. He should grow at 

 least one variety auratum, and he should endeavour to 

 provide it with such beautiful associates as candidum, 

 chalcedonicum, speciosum, and umbellatum, with such 

 of their varieties as come within his means and space. 

 They will give stately growth, graceful foliage and habit, 

 and beautiful flowers. Their beauty is of a type that no 

 other hardy plant provides, and so we may say that they 

 are indispensable in the garden. 



Home and Imported Bulbs. Lest the references to 

 imported bulbs in the foregoing notes should lead to 

 the inference that I regard them as the "stock article," 

 I may say that I do not do so. Foreign bulbs and late 

 planting do not make for the most successful results 

 with Lilies. The bulbs of all Liliums are much more 

 liable to lose their freshness than such things as 

 Hyacinths and Tulips, and even these are best potted 

 or planted early in autumn, before they start to grow. 

 Lilies ought really to be planted in late summer or 

 early autumn, when the bulbs are quite fresh. But the 

 imported bulb undoubtedly meets a want. It suits the 

 amateur who cannot very well afford the price of home- 

 grown bulbs, or do his planting before the spring. The 

 Japanese bulbs are large and cheap, and as they are 

 encased in moist earth they do not become dry speedily. 

 If, when they reach the hands of the grower, they have 

 shrivelled, and have loose scales, they had better be 

 laid in cocoanut-fibre refuse for a fortnight before 

 planting, as this will freshen them. A soft, yielding 

 bulb, with loose scales, is hardly worth using. 



