The Two Best Tall Lilies for November Planting—By A. Herrington 
TEN THOUSAND LILIES FROM A DOZEN BULBS OF LILIUM HENRYI|THAT COST FIVE DOLLARS 
EACH TEN YEARS AGO--NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME IT IS 
I WAS glad to pay sixty dollars for a 
dozen bulbs of Lilium Henryi in 1896 
because it had proven to be the best tall 
yellow lily in cultivation. The natural in- 
crease of those twelve bulbs gave us more 
than ten thousand flowers this year. The 
present season is perhaps the first moment 
Ten thousand flowers in this bed from a dozen bulbs 
planted ten years ago! 
when Dr. Henry’s lily could be said to be 
within the reach of all. 
We have other good yellow lilies (varieties of 
Lilium elegans, Canadense and testaceum), but 
they are smaller, not so well suited to general 
culture, and represent the cup and bell types, 
while Lilium Henryi is the best represen- 
tative of the Turk’s cap type and probably 
ranks among the four best lilies for the 
people. It certainly belongs with the best 
six in ease of culture, permanence, and the 
rapidity with which it will multiply in the 
home garden. 
It is a native of China, and was discovered 
there by the celebrated botanical explorer, 
Dr. Augustine Henry, who sent it to Kew, 
England where it first flowered in August 
1889, but weakly, as might be expected from 
newly collected bulbs. 
A PROPHECY FULFILLED 
At Kew I saw its rapid development 
and marked improvement each _ season. 
Among my lily notes I find the following 
written August 12, 1895: “Lilium Henryi now 
in flower at Kew, though comparatively new, 
gives every indication that it will be one of 
the garden lilies of the future. It is the 
orange-yellow equivalent of our best autumn- 
blooming lily (L. speciosum), but has even 
greater stature and vigor. Some of the 
strongest plants are nearly eight feet high and 
have from twenty to thirty flowers and buds 
upon them. It is a grand and stately lily and 
distinct from all others.” 
Ten years’ experience at Florham Farms, 
Madison, N. J., has shown that this was a 
conservative estimate of its worth. I did not 
take up our dozen bulbs until 1902, six years 
after they were planted. I then reset them 
in an oblong bed six feet wide and forty-five 
feet long, and though the bulbs were set two 
feet apart the increase has been such that 
when in flower this bed was one solid mass of 
beauty with more than 10,000 flowers. The 
plants varied from four feet to nearly eight 
feet in height according to strength and age 
of bulb and bore from twenty to seventy-five 
buds and flowers each. At the end of the 
bed shown was one spike that bore seventy- 
five flowers. 
This lily is unquestionably the best hardy 
flower in the garden during the last of July 
and the early part of August, because it is 
so tall, stately and brilliant in color effect, 
yet graceful withal, the flowers being borne 
in twos and threes upon long pendent stalks 
branching from the main stem, which is 
thickly clothed with leafage its entire length. 
It flowers abundantly in wet or dry seasons 
and shows no sign of disease. 
At first Liliwm H enryi was called an orange- 
yellow speciosum, but except in the reflexed 
form of its flowers there is no other resem- 
blance. It may better he compared with 
the tiger lily especially in size of flower and 
in the peculiar dark brown protuberant 
growths upon the petals that give a slight 
4 
The rarely grown Liltum puberulum, a Pacific coast 
representative of L. superbum (L. Humboldtii) 
187 
WITHIN THE REACH OF ALL 
spotty effect, but the tiger lily is a coarse 
flower in comparison. Henry’s lily shows 
some slight color variations in different plants 
but the dominant color tone is a deep orange 
—or apricot—yellow. 
The best tall red lily of the turk’s cap type 
is our native Lilium superbum. In good 
Count the flowers on this one plant of Lilium Henryi | 
This species bears twenty to seventy-five flowers on 
the average. Orange-yellow 
soil it grows six to eight feet high and bears 
twenty to thirty orange-red flowers spotted 
with scarlet. The texture is so good that the 
flowers last considerably longer than most 
lilies. ‘The leaves are arranged in whorls 
of ten to twenty, making it one of the state- 
liest of the formal lilies. 
Both these lilies will do well in a sunny 
border but the best plan is to put them in beds 
where they will not be disturbed by annual 
digging at the surface, and give them a partial 
shade, simply to keep the soil cool. Mulch 
them both summer and winter. Be sure 
they have a loose, mellow soil with plenty of 
leaf mold and perfect drainage. Never let 
them suffer for water. Plant the bulbs six 
inches deep. 
PLANT LILIES IN UNFROZEN GROUND 
Order your bulbs as early as possible and 
while you are waiting for them heap the pro- 
posed lily bed with manure. Then you can 
plant lilies in unfrozen ground even during 
the first half of December if necessary. 
