CHAPTER m 



LILIES FOE NOBTHEBN GAKDENS 



All lilies are beautiful; one could pick at 

 random and draw a prize. But the choice, so 

 far as American gardens that know a real win- 

 ter is concerned, necessarily is limited to a 

 smaller number than the eighty or so known 

 species. And there are some lilies that are 

 rather too finicky for culture without extraordi- 

 nary regard for their particular requirements. 

 With these deductions from the list, however, 

 there remain quite enough lilies in either the 

 easy or the not very difficult class to constitute 

 nothing less than an embarrassment of riches. 

 No garden need be without at least one lily. 



There being nothing but want of trying to 

 stand in the way, let that one be the madonna 

 lily (L. candidum). This is not only the loveli- 

 est of lilies, but the hardiest white kind. It is 

 so adaptive to ordinary garden conditions that 

 frequently it will stay in one spot for a genera- 

 tion or more if undisturbed. Ben Jonson 



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