EASTER LILIES 3 



United States at Easter time. These lilies are grown both in southern 

 Japan where climatic conditions are favorable, and in the northern part 

 of the island. Many florists prefer the southern-grown bulbs even though 

 there seems to be no diflference in the variety or type of plant. 



Information on the culture of lily bulbs in Japan is rather meager but 

 it appears that they are grown, for the most part, in small quantities by 

 a large number of individual farmers rather than in large plantings. The 

 assembling of the lily bulbs for market is apparently controlled by a few 

 Japanese dealers and the American bulb importers make their contracts 

 with them rather than with the growers. 



Bermuda produces bulbs of a variety of Easter lily known as Harrisi 

 which, while still being forced to a considerable extent by florists in the 

 United States, is not nearly so popular as it was many years ago. 



Holland exports a wide variety of hardy garden varieties of lilies. 

 France is the chief source of supply for bulbs of Lilium candidum, better 

 known as the Madonna Lily. 



The domestic supply of lily bulbs in the United States is relatively 

 small compared to the numbers imported annually from abroad. Garden 

 or hardy types of lilies such as L. Henryi, speciosum, tigrinuin, regale, and 

 others are rather widely cultivated on a commercial scale over the country. 



Griffiths (2), who has done much to promote interest in commercial 

 development of lily culture in the United States, intimates that no geo- 

 graphical region is likely to be found agreeable to all varieties. The 

 Pacific Northwest, the Atlantic Coastal plain, and the Gulf Coast regions 

 are quite adaptable for many garden types. Tennessee and the Carolinas 

 are also suitable cultural regions for lilies. 



More attention is now being given to the production of Easter lily bulbs 

 on a commercial scale, to supply the florists with forcing stock. One 

 lily which has received considerable attention in this respect is a variety 

 known as the Creole which is a strain of Lilium longifloruni. The Creole lily 

 has been in cultivation for many years around New Orleans and is now 

 being grown in considerable acreage in Mississippi and Louisiana as well 

 as other southern localities. Strains and hybrids of the Creole lily have 

 been tested at Waltham and were observed under forcing conditions to 

 compare quite favorably with imported bulbs from Japan. In Florida a 

 particular strain or hybrid form, of the Creole is being grown under the 

 name of floridi. 



A selection of L. erabu originating in Oregon is known as the Croft Hly. 



Taxonomic relationship and classification of the many horticultural 

 varieties and strains of Easter lilies are in need of clarification, but, at 

 least for practical purposes, trade names are at present a satisfactory 

 means of identification. 



Bulb Size and Flower Count 



Lily bulbs are classified according to their circumference in inches. A 

 7 to 9 inch bulb is preferred by a number of florists, but the growing 

 tendency is to use 8-10 and 9-10 inch sizes. The larger bulbs will gen- 

 erally produce a greater number of buds but this is not consistently the 

 case since the number of buds obtained from a lily plant does not depend 

 entirely upon the size of the bulb. It would seem that in general the 

 number of buds may be determined to a considerable extent by some in- 



