Septembbb 1, 1921 



The Florists^ Review 



21 



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EASTER LILIES FROM SEED 



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IT IS assumed that the grower of 

 Easter lily stocks will start with 

 seedlings. He may sow seed each 

 season, but it is more likely that he will 

 grow seedlings the first year and propa- 

 gate vegetatively thereafter. When 

 vegetative propagation is chosen, the 

 plants must be hardy enough to go 

 through the winters safely outdoors. It 

 has been amply demonstrated that the 

 lily is sufficiently hardy in the latitude 

 of Washington, D. C, to live through 

 the winter either with or without a 

 little mulch. The probability is that it 

 will be found to bq hardy much farther 

 north. If the grower goes back to seed 

 each year, it makes no difiference wheth- 

 er the species is hardy in his locality 

 or not, for the plants will not be in the 

 open ground during the winter. 



The stock plants may be of any stand- 

 ard commercial variety, or any two 

 standard varieties may be crossed. Good 

 results have been obtained by cross- 

 pollinating the varieties giganteum and 

 Harrisii, giganteum and formosum, or 

 even two plants of any one of the above 

 varieties. 



A grower will succeed more often by 

 pollinating one plant on to another 

 than by using only one parent plant, or, 

 in other words, selfing or pollinating a 

 plant with its own pollen. It should be 

 understood, however, that the basis of 

 the stocks now grown by the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry is selfed plants. But 

 there was a deliberate purpose in view 

 in starting in this way. The set of seed 

 was uniformly small in nearly all of 

 these selfs. Commonly, but not always, 

 the set of seed in selfed plants is small 

 as compared with that obtained when 

 two plants of the same variety or of dif- 

 ferent varieties have been crossed. 



When and How to Pollinate. 



Pollination should be performed as 

 soon as the stigma is receptive and the 

 pollen ripe. This stage can be deter- 

 mined by watching the anthers as the 

 flower opens. When the flower starts to 

 open, the anthers will usually be found 

 with simply a slight crack along one 

 side, exposing a narrow line of dusty 

 yellow pollen. After a time, which will 

 vary with the light, temperature and 

 moisture conditions, the sides of this 

 rupture will roll back, exposing the mass 

 of dusty pollen over the entire surface 

 of the anther. As soon as this condi- 

 tion is evident, the pollen should be 

 transferred to the stigma which is to 

 be fertilized. The time which it will 

 take from the gaping of the flower un- 

 til the stigma is receptive, i. e., ready 

 to be pollinated, will vary with atmos- 

 pheric conditions. Under autumnal con- 

 ditions in the greenhouse in cloudy 

 weather it has taken twenty-seven or 

 twenty-eight hours after the tube be- 

 gan to open before the stigma was re- 

 ceptive, while in the open in July flow- 

 ers starting to open about sunrise were 

 ready to be fertilized at 9 or 10 o'clock. 

 The grower will have to determine this 

 period quite definitely. In general, it 

 can be said that the stigma is ready to 

 receive pollen as soon as its surface 

 becomes glossy on account of the secre- 



Part of a treatise entitled "The Production of 

 the Easter Lily In Northern Climates, " written 

 by David Griffiths, of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Aericuiture. 



tion of a viscid fluid, which in this lily 

 is about the time when the edges of the 

 anthers have rolled back and complete- 

 ly exposed the yellow, dusty pollen con- 

 tent. The sooner the pollination is done 

 after these conditions obtain the better. 



Degree of Hardiness. 



The Easter lily may be grown under 

 wide extremes of conditions, but it is 

 difScult under conditions which might 

 be termed intermediate. It seems to be 

 a safe crop when properly handled in 

 the climate of either Washington, D. C, 

 or the frostless Bermudas, but in the 

 gulf states it succumbs to the occasional 



The writer of this article is 

 widely noted for his extensive 

 and successful experiments in 

 the propagation of Easter lilies. 

 Here he describes the results of 

 his work in a specially clear and 

 comprehensive manner, treating 

 the subject under two subheads: 

 First, "Production on a Seedling 

 Basis," or the growing of the 

 plants and flowers from seed; 

 second, "Production on a Vege- 

 tative Basis," or propagation by 

 means of home-grown bulbs. 

 The first section of the article is 

 printed herewith; the second 

 installment will appear in an 

 early issue of The Review. 



low winter temperatures. This is not 

 by any means without a parallel, the 

 most striking one, possibly, being the 

 hardiness of the Concord grape on the 

 great lakes and its tenderness to frost 

 conditions in Florida, and is readily 

 explainable by the fact that farther 

 north the plants are dormant during 

 cold weather, while in the intermediate 

 region they may be subjected to severe 

 freezing weather when in full vegeta- 

 tive vigor. 



There is evidence at hand that with 

 care this lily may be grown much far- 

 ther north in selected localities than 

 has thus far been advised. There is 

 little doubt that in those northern re- 

 gions where the snowfall is heavy and 

 early, even though the temperatures are 

 low, it can be safely grown in the open 

 ground. 



Growing the Seed. 



Until such a time as the trade pro- 

 duces seed of the Easter lily and offers 



it for sale, it will be necessary for the 

 grower to grow his own seed. The most 

 feasible way to do this now is to pro- 

 cure imported bulbs either in the early 

 winter, when they are generally offered 

 for sale, or at Easter, when most of the 

 plants are in bloom, and grow seed for 

 planting the following January. 



To insure a good set of seed, it is 

 necessary to hand-pollinate each flower. 

 The blooms are so large and their 

 parts so conspicuous that this is a sim- 

 ple and easy task. Seed may be pro- 

 duced in limited quantity without this 

 trouble, but in the greenhouse, espe- 

 cially, the fertilization will be largely 

 accidental and the set will be poor or 

 none at all. 



If it is the florist's object to cross 

 particular varieties, care should be ex- 

 ercised that no pollen except that which 

 is wanted gets on the stigma. It will 

 be necessary to remove the anthers from 

 the flower to be fertilized before they 

 open and spread their pollen. If the 

 plant which has been pollinated is set 

 two feet or so away from others which 

 bear pollen, it is ordinarily safe from 

 contamination in the greenhouse. Usu- 

 ally the florist is not interested in fol- 

 lowing up a line of breeding, and all 

 that he needs to do is to see that plenty 

 of pollen is put on the stigma at the 

 proper time. 



If pollinations are made at Easter, 

 the seed will be ripe early in June. 



Necessity for Hand-Pollination. 



In the flower of the Easter lily the 

 stigma is well isolated from the anthers. 

 The action of the wind or other agency 

 may cause the pollination of a flower 

 with its own pollen, which, of course, 

 is the closest kind of selfing. Also, it 

 is possible, when plants are grown in the 

 open, that cross-pollination at times may 

 take place through the intervention of 

 insects and birds, but of this there seems 

 to be little evidence. The necessity of 

 hand-pollination to obtain full fertiliza- 

 tion consequently becomes apparent. 

 Some seed will be obtained without any 

 attention other than allowing the flow- 

 ers to wither naturally in the field, but 

 a much better set can always be ob- 

 tained by thorough artificial pollina- 

 tion. 



There is but little information as to 

 the length of time that the seed of the 

 Easter lily will remain viable after it 

 is harvested. Experience has shown that 

 if planted as soon as it is gathered it 

 takes about twice as long to germinate 

 as when held and planted six months 

 later. Perfect germination has oc- 

 curred when the seed was 18 months 

 old. This shows that perfect results 

 may be expected from seed held over to 

 the second year. Whether seed can be 

 safely held longer is not known. All 

 the seed worked with in these investiga- 

 tions was stored in paper sacks in the 

 packing shed of an ordinary green- 

 house. 



Planting the Seed. 



The time of planting seed will de- 

 pend upon how the florist is going to 

 handle his stocks, and possibly upon 

 when his seed becomes available. Sow- 



