OUTDOOR LILIES. 31 



CHAPTER VII. 



OUTDOOR LILIES. 



LILIUMS are such an important genus of plants, and form 

 such a strong feature in garden decoration, that they 

 deserve a fuller appreciation of their worth and a more 

 extended description of their cultural needs than is 

 possible in the chapters dealing with bulbs generally. 

 We shall therefore devote a special chapter to their 

 cultivation. 



So numerous are the species and varieties that, to do 

 them justice, they almost need a special monograph to 

 themselves. One might, indeed, devote a garden entirely 

 to their culture if one wished to grow them in large 

 colonies. A garden of lilies carpeted with violas, pansies, 

 or violettas would be a striking and most interesting 

 feature, but, as such a scheme would require ample space, 

 most lovers of these stately flowers could not avail them- 

 selves of such a luxury, and hence must be content with 

 growing a few of the many species and varieties described 

 on p. 61, in small groups in the mixed borders. And, 

 after all, this is by no means an ineffective way of growing 

 lilies. They certainly have an imposing and stately 

 appearance when grown in groups of three or more in 

 company with other tall subjects in the hardy plant border. 

 What is more stately than a well-grown single specimen 

 of L. giganteum, with its noble spike towering to a height 

 of ten or twelve feet, and what more chaste and beautiful 

 than a group of the Madonna lily ! Anyway, there are no 

 more beautiful garden flowers than the liliums, or that 

 will better reward the grower for careful culture. 



Some of the kinds will succeed in ordinary soil; others 

 in a prepared soil of loam, leaf-mould, and peat ; and 



