40 . NOTES ON LILIES 



when measured by a rod, showed exactly 4 feet from the top of the bulb 

 to the end of the roots. This, I think, shows well that a great depth of 

 soil is required to give Lily bulbs really fair play. If we could examine 

 some of my friend, Mr. Macintosh's giants, I suspect we should find some 

 roots 6 feet long. Lilies are sometimes reproached, especially Auratum, 

 with dying, and not coming up ; and it is said that, notwithstanding the 

 vast numbers yearly imported from Japan, the number of bulbs in this 

 country does not increase, if they do often die, they at least afford ample 

 means for the race being perpetuated. In 1871 I sowed in two not very 

 large boxes, Auratum seed which we had saved, and placed them in the 

 garden, where they had no attention beyond an occasional watering in 

 dry weather, and a mat screen in very hot weather. I lately broke up 

 these boxes in which some of the bulbs had this year flowered, and took 

 out 200 fair-sized bulbs to plant, besides a lot of small ones. Again, in 

 1874, 1 sowed seed of L. Calif ornicum, a great favourite of mine, the most 

 richly painted of all the North American Lilies, in two large seed-pans, 

 and have just potted, or rather boxed, about 200 bulbs from them, some 

 of them very good ones. When potting Lilies, it is curious to notice how, 

 without any apparent cause, some bulbs of the same species, planted at 

 the same time in the same soil, and subjected to the same treatment, are 

 found much more thriving than others. Last year, owing to so much of 

 my time having been taken up with other and much less pleasant 

 horticultural work, I had to leave many of my Lilies unpotted. I now 

 find the above differences much exaggerated, owing to the longer time 

 any mischief has had the power to act. In some pots all the bulbs are in 

 perfect health, in others about half, mothers most of them are dead. It is, 

 course, most unreasonable to expect, as some seem to do, that great Lily 

 bulbs will go on flowering in perpetuity. After a certain time, under the 

 most perfect conditions of health, they come to their natural end, in many 

 cases leaving only offsets ; such require some years' growth before they 

 can take their parents' full place." George 1<\ Wilson, in Gard. Chron., 

 p. 660, 1877. 



" Though my experience in Lily growing, dates back to a time when 

 cultivators in general had not been awakened to the charms of this most 

 beautiful family, I must begin by confessing that we have still many things 

 to learn, and perhaps some to unlearn. In some seasons, notably when 

 cold and wet follow after drought, even practised cultivators, except 

 in most favoured situations, find that 'blight and spot' greatly injure 

 the growth and flowering of some species, even though the bulbs may 

 be unhurt. The best situation for planting Lilies at least in the 

 southern counties is a cool sheltered one, a very safe place is near 

 the edge of a Rhododendron bed, soils that will grow Rhododendrons 

 will also answer for most soils of Lilies. I can give two examples 

 where Lilies succeeded when left almost to themselves : one was in 

 an old fashioned garden, with a small lawn inside the main lawn, and 

 sheltered, and partly shaded by shrubs and trees. In the centre bed, 

 among some dwarf Rhododendrons, I planted many sorts of Lilies, all of 

 which succeeded perfectly. Blooms of Auratum, gathered after a week 



