Sei'TEMBer 8, 1921 



K. 



The Florists' Review 



21 



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GROWING EASTER LILY BULBS 



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THE previous installment of this 

 article dealt with seedling stocks 

 up to the time they are ready to 

 be propagated vegetatively, ae the 

 Easter lily is usually produced. If 

 these same stocks are to be grown con- 

 tinuously, the handling must, of course, 

 be modified. Normally, the lily bulbs 

 will be planted in late autumn; but if 

 the first-year seedlings have been flow- 

 ered in the greenhouse the bulbs will 

 have to be planted out as soon as the 

 ground can be worked in the spring. 



The character of the field planting 

 will probably resolve itself into a bed 

 eventually, mainly on account of the 

 advantage of a mulch, which becomes an 

 excessive burden in any but the most 

 intensive form of culture. No better 

 method of planting can be recommend- 

 ed than the Dutch bed, in which the 

 planted space is three feet wide, with 

 a 12-inch to 15-inch path between the 

 beds. The bulbs are planted seven to 

 nine or more to the row across the bed. 

 The bulbs should be separated into 

 four or five sizes before planting. In 

 spring plantings of the seedling bulbs 

 out of the house, two sizes will prob- 

 ably be sufficient; for in this case the 

 bulbs will be large, with little, if any, 

 propagation. They will be simply the 

 large seedling bulbs. Assuming that 

 the rows are uniformly six to eight 

 inches apart, the larger of these sizes 

 can be planted about seven to the row 

 and the smaller nine to the row. They 

 should be uniformly spaced and set up. 

 After the seedlings have been grown 

 outside for a year, however, there will 

 be a large propagation of bublets, and 

 consequently it will be better to make 

 four or five sizes. 



Planting the Seedling Bulbs. 



In starting the planting on the bed 

 plan, it is necessary to line out the beds 

 carefully with taut lines, marked off by 

 running a spade down two or three 

 inches along the line and scraping the 

 soil toward the center of the bed from 

 either side. The soil is then thrown 

 out of the first bed to a depth of about 

 four inches and the bottom is raked to 

 a level. The bulbs are then set and 

 spaced, as already described. The soil 

 from the opening of the second bed is 

 used to cover the biill)s in the first, and 

 80 on to the end of the plat. 



After the first year there will be more 

 than two sizes, as there will be plenty 

 of stem bulblets at the next digging. It 

 will then be necessary to plant a larger 

 number to the row. One may have four- 

 teen and tvventy-ono to the row set up, 

 and another size strewn along the row 

 about one to the inch. The latter should 

 not be covered so deeply as the large 

 bulbs. 



A modification of the foregoing meth- 

 od of planting which obviates the mov- 

 ing of so much soil has proved satisfac- 

 tory. The ground is prepared as before 

 and preferably floated or rolled. Rows 

 are then opened up lengthwise of the 

 bed with a wheel hoe having a plow 

 attachment. A row is opened and plant- 

 ed, and then the second row is opened 

 and the first covered by the same opera- 

 tion. Five or six of these rows six to 



The second and final inHlallnicnl of nn iirticle 

 entitled "The Production of tlie Kiistcr Lily in 

 Nortliern Climates," written by David Gritfitbs, 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture. 



eight inches apart are planted; 'then a 

 row is skipped for a path and the next 

 bed is started. Either of these forms 

 of setting gives a thick planting, which 

 it is believed is the most economical 

 of space, labor and materials. 



Date of Planting. 



In vegetative propagation the time of 

 planting will always be late autumn, 

 though the date will vary with the lo- 

 cality. There are two important re- 

 quirements that should be met. The 

 bulbs should be well rooted before the 

 ground gets so cold that no growth can 

 take place. On the other hand, they 

 should be planted so late that top 



In the fir^ in^allment of 

 this article, printed in The 

 Review of September 1, the 

 writer related his experiences 

 in the growing of Ea^er lilies 

 from seed. Here he continues 

 his description of the cultural 

 processes until the vitally impor- 

 tant ^age is reached— the pro- 

 duc5tion of mature, marketable, 

 American-grown bulbs. In con- 

 clusion he offers some practical 

 sugge^ions on such points as 

 lengthening the outdoor bloom- 

 ing season of E^^er lilies and 

 reducing the cost of heat in 

 forcing. 



growth w.ill not take place before win- 

 ter. The grower should endeavor to 

 strike a balance between these two ex- 

 tremes, remembering that this lily does 

 not stop growing so long as the moisture 

 and temperature conditions are favor- 

 able. It is this characteristic that makes 

 the crop a precarious one on portions 

 of the gulf coast, where suitable grow- 

 ing weather for it is likely to be inter- 

 spersed with sudden drops of tempera- 

 ture which are severe enough to cut the 

 top growth. 



In the climate of Washington, D. C, 

 the best time to plant is about Novem- 

 ber 1. Even at this late date the plants 

 sometimes come through tlic soil in open 

 winters and are somewhat yellowed by 

 subsequent cold weather in early spring, 

 but no injury has been apparant thus 

 far. 



The matter of a mulch is of sufficient 

 importance to be treated separately; 

 indeed, it has sometimes seemed that a 

 mulch expressed the difference between 



success and a large measure of failure 

 in growing these plants under field con- 

 ditions. 



The mulch serves a dual purpose. It 

 is an adjunct to the fertilizer applied 

 and a protective covering as well. The 

 application should consist of an inch or 

 two of manure. The material should be 

 either fine or strawy and not cloddy, so 

 as not to interfere with the plants com- 

 ing through. 



The application should be made in 

 early winter, after the ground has cooled 

 off sufficiently so that growth is stopped, 

 and it should remain during the grow- 

 ing season. 



A summer mulch is considered as im- 

 portant in the culture of this lily as 

 a winter one. Most lilies grow where 

 there is a soil cover of some kind — 

 many of them where this cover is a 

 grassy one and others where the ground 

 is just as effectively protected by 

 brush, under and between which the 

 lilies grow, sticking their heads above 

 the canopy to flower. 



Lilium longiflorum, with the forms of 

 which we are dealing, produces a mass 

 of roots from the stem above the bulb 

 and near the surface of the ground. For 

 the best results these roots, as well as 

 those from the bulb, must have good 

 conditions for development and must 

 not be disturbed. This condition is ad- 

 mirably produced by a manure mulch, 

 which not only furnishes plenty of fer- 

 tility but prevents the soil from drying 

 out and baking and also equalizes its 

 temperature to a remarkable degree. 

 One should keep in mind that this lily, 

 like most other lilies, likes to have its 

 feet moist and cool and protected both 

 summer and winter, but its head must 

 be in full light. 



Irregular Blooming of Seedlings. 



Attention was called in a general way, 

 in the first installment of this article, 

 to the irregular blooming of a seedling 

 generation. The experimental stocks in 

 1920, sown November 1, 1919, began to 

 flower in early July, at the same time 

 as the outdoor vegetatively propagated 

 plants. The last of the progeny did not 

 open their flowers before the end of 

 May, 1921. All of these seedlings were 

 kept under precisely the same condi- 

 tions from tlie time of sowing the seed, 

 and all operations, such as pricking off, 

 potting, etc., were performed in as short 

 a time as ordinarily would be possible. 

 In spite of this identical handling, there 

 was an extreme variation of eleven 

 months in the time of flowering. In all 

 progenies which have been grown in the 

 last six years the behavior has been 

 similar. 



When, however, these same bulbs 

 have been handled normally for vegeta- 

 tive stocks, i. e., planted in November, 

 they have all floworerl within a short 

 space of time. Two or three weeks 

 cover the entire blooming period, which 

 is as close as would be the case with 

 imported varieties grown outdoors in 

 the same way. 



Shall the Flowers Be Used? 



In bulb culture there is always a 

 temptation to utilize the crop of flow- 



