THE GARDEN LILIES 



and July. They do not grow high, two feet at the 

 most, and they bear generously ten or twelve flowers 

 on each stem. As with all lilies of their strong colors, 

 they appear best when planted among shrubbery or 

 in woody places where few colors disturb the surround- 

 ing greenness. 



This is also true, I think, of tiger lilies, invariably 

 found in old-time gardens. There are double and 

 single Tigrinums and a really fine scarlet variety, 

 Tigrinum splendens, which is deeply spotted with black. 

 Tiger lilies increase rapidly and are very loth to give 

 up soil that they have once occupied. Although their 

 lovers are many, I do not count myself among them. 

 But then I care for none of the yellow garden lilies 

 as much as for the infinitely lovely white ones, and even 

 they should be most fitly set or they give to the 

 surrounding plant life a disjointed appearance. 



Once through a strip of wild woodland planting, 

 I saw many auratum lilies unfolded in early August. 

 The gardener had planted them there because the 

 soil was light and rich and the shade sufficient. 

 They bore upward of thirty and forty lilies to a stalk, 

 but, to my thinking, they were entirely out of place 

 in that quiet, naturalistic garden. For the formal 

 garden, however, whether large or small, these lilies 

 are charming. They are as necessary to it as holly- 

 hocks, helping it to blend with the landscape, against 

 which they make striking pictures. Yet it is often 

 a melancholy fact that the highly formal garden is 

 lacking in the very shade that these lilies love so well. 



For naturalistic effects, wild borders and the like, 



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