THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



J39 



down, as Easter is a changeable date. 

 It is sure that if Easter is in the last 

 days of March you will have to force 

 much more than if it were the 24th 

 of April. Be in time and before you 

 move lilies into a cool house let them 

 be opening the flowers. I have no- 

 ticed that when moved, say from a 

 night temperature of 60 degrees to one 

 of 45 degrees, when the buds were not 

 fully developed, they would stand 

 about still. It is too great a check 

 at a time when they need heat, but 

 when just expanding, they can be put 

 in a very cool house and if shaded will 

 keep for two weeks after being open. 



When the lilies are a foot above the 

 pots they want a stake or thejn swing 

 about and often get loose and fre- 

 quently break at the neck of the 

 bulb. 



The soil we use for lilies is a good 

 loam, to which has been added a fifth 

 of old hot-bed manure, and we pot 

 rather firmly. For the 5 to 7 bulbs 

 which are cut during winter and are 

 flowered in 6-inch pots we do not 

 trouble to put any drainage in the 

 pots, but with the 6-inch and larger 

 we always use a crock and a thin 

 piece of green moss. Lilies have to 

 stand on all kinds of material and 

 when this little precaution is taken 

 they are less likely to get stuffed up. 



We frequently notice the tips of the 

 leaves of the Harrisii, and sometimes 

 of the longiflorum, turn brown for 

 half an inch or so. Many times every 

 leaf is so affected. The cause of it we 

 don't know unless it be the effect of 



A Field of Lilium Harrisii in Bermuda. 



fumigating, which the lilies need so 

 much. Therefore we think it safest 

 to evaporate some of the tobacco ex- 

 tracts rather than burn it. The vapor 

 cannot possibly harm anything, and 

 it penetrates into the thick rosette of 

 leaves which is. formed just before the 

 buds are seen. 



Lilies are much troubled with aphis, 

 in fact against them it is a continual 

 fight, still if the house is vaporized 

 once a week regularly, it will save you 

 much annoyance.- The fly is always 

 deep down among the small and ten- 

 der flower buds, and if undisturbed 

 will puncture the small bud, which 

 causes that deformed and twisted 

 flower. So in addition to tobacco 

 fumes or vapor you should go over 

 the crowns of the plants .occasionally 

 and in the center of them with a rub- 

 ber plant sprinkler squirt in some 

 "Nikoteen" diluted 200 times. This 

 may seem tedious, but it need not cost 

 a quarter of a cent a plant and will 

 surely pay at that price. 



The Bermuda grown Harrisii wants 

 a little more heat to bring it in early 

 than the Harrisii. We never try to 

 get the longiflorum in flower till 

 Easter. 



The Japan grown longiflorum are 

 now imported in large quantities. 

 They arrive much later than the Ber- 

 muda grown bulbs and it would be 

 hard to get them in flower any time 

 in April. They make good flowers for 

 later use and if kept well protected in 

 a. cold frame are fine for Decoration 

 Day. Last year we had two thousand 



in 3-inch pots in a very cool house till 

 end of February, when they were 

 shifted into 5-inch and still brought 

 along very slowly, and by keeping 

 plenty of ventilation on in the cool 

 nights of April and May they were 

 exactly right for the 30th of May. 

 Out of the lot there was not a diseased 

 plant So the Bermuda disease is not 

 bad in the land of the Mikado. 



The longiflorum in good, well drain- 

 ed loam is hardy in this latitude, but 

 would be benefited by a covering of lit- 

 ter every fall after tha stems are dry. 

 We Jhave frequently planted out the 

 plants of Harrisii that had been 

 grown and cut at Easter. If a good 

 piece of stem is left, so much the bet- 

 ter. Many of them will send up a 

 flower stalk from which you will get 

 a few flowers in July and August. This 

 is all the use you can make of them. 

 To force any of them again is out of 

 the question. 



I know no cure for, or any means of 

 detecting, a diseased bulb. It is to be 

 hoped with a change of soil and care 

 in discarding diseased plants and bulbs 

 that our Bermuda friends will in fut- 

 ure supply us with a higher grade of 

 bulbs. One of the advantages I in- 

 tended to mention in starting the large 

 bulbs in small pots was that by shift- 

 ing time you will be able to discover 

 most of the diseased plants, and will 

 not have wasted space, labor and soil 

 on them nearly so much as you would 

 in 6 or 7-inch. 



Lilium lancifolium (which correctly 

 is L. speciosum) is next to the longi- 

 florum most valuable to the florist; al- 



