LILIES 



tILIES are perhaps the most capricious of all garden 

 J plants. Some are familiar to our gardens and 

 easy enough to grow; but even the most famUiar 

 of all, the Madonna LUy, fails unaccountably some- 

 times. Others will thrive in one place, but not in 

 another quite near it which seems to offer exactly 

 the same conditions. Others, again, will do well 

 enough for a year or two, but then are pretty sure to 

 dwindle away or die off suddenly; while a few have 

 hitherto baffled all the skill of experts. Writers upon 

 lilies are apt to make them out to be less difficult than 

 they are, and to suggest that we have a more certain 

 knowledge of their requirements than we really have. 

 The consequence is that enthusiasts are often tempted 

 into experiments that can only end in disappointment. 

 The object of this article is to state what hlies can be 

 grown in certain conditions with a fair certainty of 

 permanent success, what hlies will do well for a year 

 or two in English gardens, and what lilies still baffle 

 all efforts to establish them. It is not possible, in the 

 present state of our knowledge, to write with any 

 certainty about the cultivation of the more difficult 

 lilies, and, therefore, we shall not pretend to any cer- 

 tainty about them. There are some difficult plants 



that are difficult for obvious reasons. There are Irises 



125 



