Sei'tkmbeu 1, 1021 



The Florists' Review 



21 





EASTER LILIES FROM SEED 



IT IS assumed Ihut tlie grower of 

 Kiister lily stocks -will start with 

 scedlinjjs. He may sow seed each 

 season, Wut it is more likely that he will 

 f>ro\v see(lliiij,'s the first year and j)ro[ia- 

 gale ve^etatively thereafter. When 

 vei;eta1ive propajiation is chosen, the 

 plants must he hardy cnoii<;h to go 

 through the winters safely outdoors. It 

 has been amply demonstrated that the 

 lily is sutificiently hardy in the latitude 

 of ^Vasllington, D. C, to live through 

 the winter cith(>r with or without a 

 little mulch. The probability is that it 

 will be found to be hardy much farther 

 north. If the grower goes back to seed 

 each year, it makes no difference wheth- 

 er the species is hardy in his locality 

 or not, for the plants will not be in the 

 op<'n ground during the winter. 



Tlie stock plants may be of any stand- 

 ard commercial variety, or any two 

 standard varieties may ite crossed. Good 

 results have been oljtained 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, selling or ]>ollinating 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 sin;i!l in nearly all of 

 these selfs. Commonly, but not always, 

 the set of seed in selfed plants is small 

 as comjiared with that obt.iined when 

 two plants of the same variety or of dif- 

 ferent varieties have been crossed. 



When and How to Pollinate. 



]'ollin;iti(in should be piTformed as 

 soon as the stigma is receptive and the 

 pollen ri]>c. This stage cin be deter- 

 mined by w.'itching tlie anthers as th(> 

 flower oiKiis. When the flower starts to 

 open, the anthers will usually be found 

 with simjily a slight crack along one 

 side, exjiosiiig a n;irrow line of dusty 

 yellow jMdlen. After ri time, which will 

 vary with the litilit, temperature and 

 moisture conditions, the sidi's of this 

 rupture will roll back, exposing the mass 

 ot' dusty ]iollen over the entire surface 

 of the anther. As soon as this condi- 

 tion is evident, the pollen should be 

 transferred to the stigm.i which is to 

 be fertilized. The time which it will 

 take from the gaiiing of the flowi^r un- 

 til the stigm.'i is receptive, i, e., ready 

 to be pollinated, will v;iry with atmos- 

 plu'ric conditions. Tnder aiituinna! 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- 

 ceidive, while in the open in July flow- 

 ers st;irtiiig to o]ien about sunrise \^otp 

 re;idy to be fertilized at or 10 o'clock. 

 The grower will have to iletermine this 

 period qnite definitely. In general, it 

 can be said that the stigma is ready to 

 receive pollen as soon as its surf.ace 

 becomes glossv on account of the secre- 



I'art of a trciiliso ciitillL'il '"I'lic rroiUiitioii of 

 tlio KiiRtiT Ijlv in Norllii'rn Cliin.'itcs," writ'oii 

 liy I):ivi(I Cridltlis, of tin; UnitiMl States I>i'p:irt- 

 mciit of As,'ri<'iiUiiro. 



tion of a viscid fluid, which in this lily 

 is about the time when the edges of the 

 anthers have rfdled back ;ind 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 

 difficult 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 Berniudiis, 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, possil)ly, being the 

 hardiness of the Concord grajie on the 

 great lakes and its tenderness to frost 

 conditions in I'lorida, and is readily 

 explainable by the fact that farther 

 north the ]ilants 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 lieen advised. There is 

 little doubt th.-it 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 traile pro- 

 duces seed of the KasttT lilv .and ofTers 



it for sale, it will be necessary for the 

 ^^rower to grow his own seed. The most 

 feasible way to do this now is to pro- 

 cure iinjiorted bulbs either in th*^ e.arly 

 winter, when they are generally offered 

 for sale, or at K.aster, when most of the 

 jilants are in bloom, and grow seed for 

 jilanting the following January. 



To insure a good set of seed, it is 

 uecess.ny to hand-pollinate each flower. 

 'I'he l)lo(jiiis .-ire so large and their 

 parts so conspicuous that this is a sim- 

 ple and easy task. Seed may be pro- 

 iluced in limited (|uantity without this 

 trouble, but in the greenhouse, esjie 

 cially, the fertilization will be largely 

 accidental ;ind the set will be poor or 

 none at all. 



If it is the florist's object to cross 

 jtarticular varieties, care should be ex- 

 ercMsed 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 

 ojien and s])read 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 

 contamin.ation in the greenhouse. Usu- 

 ;illy the florist is not interested in fol- 

 lowing up a line of bree<ling, and all 

 that he needs to do is to see that plenty 

 of jiollen is put on the stigma at the 

 jiroper time. 



If pollinations are made ;it Easter, 

 the seed will be ripe early in June. 



Necessity for Hand-Pollination. 



Tn the flower of the Easter lily tin' 

 stigma is well isolated from the anthers. 

 The action of the wiiul or other .agency 

 may cause the jjolliuation 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-jiolliujition at times may 

 take place through the intervention of 

 insects ajid birds, hut of this there seems 

 to be little evidence. The necessity of 

 h.and-itollinatiou to obtain full fertiliz.'i- 

 tion conseiiuently l>ecomes .apparent. 

 Some seed will be obtained without any 

 attention other than allowing the flow- 

 ers to wither naturally in the field, iuit 

 a much better set can alw.ays be oh- 

 tained by thorough artifici.al jiollin.a 

 tion. 



There is but little inforni.at ion 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 g;ithered it 

 takes about twice as long to germinate 

 as when held and jdauted six months 

 later. Perfect germination has oc- 

 curred when the seed was 18 months 

 old. This shows tli.at 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 p.aper 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 see.l becomes available. Sow- 



