CHAPTER XLVIII 



LILIES 



Every garden should have at least a half dozen 

 choice Lilies. Next to the Rose, this flower stands 

 pre-eminent for beauty among the garden's favorites, 

 and no collection can afford to be without it. 



Most kinds adapted to general culture can easily 

 je grown by the amateur, provided he can give them a 

 well drained location, and a deep, mellow soil. If it 

 contains considerable sand, all the better, for a sandy 

 soil means a soil not unduly retentive of moisture in 

 spring. Nothing injures the Lily more than stagnant 

 water about its roots, except the use of fresh manure. 

 To apply this to Lilies, under the impression that it will 

 benefit them, is one of the greatest mistakes that can 

 be made by the amateur. If it comes in contact with 

 them, it almost invariably brings on a diseased con- 

 dition which speedily results in death. The only ma- 

 nure safe to use among Lilies is very old, thoroughly 

 rotten cow manure — so old and decayed that it crum- 

 bles readily under the application of the hoe. This, 

 mixed with a loamy soil from which the water from 

 melting snows and spring rains drains rapidly, makes 

 an ideal fertilizer for this class of plants. 



Lilies should be planted from eight to ten inches 

 below the soil, and they should be covered in fall with 

 litter, or leaves, or some other similar material, to the 

 depth of at least a foot. Unless this is done, frost will 

 penetrate the earth about them, and, by its expan- 

 sive action, so wrench the plants from their places 

 that their roots will be injured or broken off altogether. 

 When this is done, failure is to be looked for. But 



